Kelly Groover July 27, 2021 Running your brand’s social media accounts can be a busy job, so it’s understandable if you have the urge to hit “copy and paste” across all your channels. Yet posting the same content across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media isn’t doing you any favors.
In fact, research shows 51% of consumers will unfollow companies on social media because the content they find is irrelevant. That could range from your post not aligning with your brand to the content not making sense for the platform. But why would they take the drastic step of unfollowing you in response? Just put yourself in their shoes. If you saw a massive infographic on Twitter, you might get annoyed – the same thing goes if a post doesn’t match the company’s vibe or looks out of place on a channel.
Simply put: Audiences are vastly different across different social media platforms, so you should try to cater to them. But how? Here are some ideas on what content performs best for each and some guidance on improving engagement.
When it comes to Instagram, visuals are your best friend. All different kinds of photos perform well, ranging from professional photography to text graphics and screenshots of Tweets. Remember the infographic example from earlier? You can make that work for Instagram, too, by breaking it down into individual pictures and posting them. Or you can post multiple images in a single post and have users swipe to see them all in progression. For examples of specific topics, try:
- Quotes or motivational sayings
- Open-ended questions
- Tutorials (these work well in Stories)
- Product posts and videos (try adding product tags)
- Behind-the-scenes
- User-generated content
- Influencer content
- Employee spotlights
- Announcements
- Contests or giveaways
- Seasonal messages
For Instagram, you can enhance the performance of your posts by using hi-res photos, not overdoing your caption, and using relevant hashtags. Also, be mindful of what’s going on globally, so you don’t appear insensitive and use those Stories!
Twitter began as a text-only social media platform – and that still works well for this channel! Links to blog articles and the latest news like press releases also work well here. And just because Twitter is text and link heavy doesn’t mean you should skip video, images, or gifs. Informational or heartfelt branded videos with captions are worth a try. While not all of these ideas may work for your specific businesses, consider these other topics:
- Questions
- Industry news
- Announcements or milestones
- Memes (and gifs!)
- Promo codes or discounts
- Visual and blog content
- Events
- Holidays – including social media-based holidays like National Cat Day
- Trends
You can take your Twitter posts to the next level by trying NOT to use all 280 characters, not overloading the post with hashtags, and checking out what’s trending in your area.
LinkedIn is considered the optimal channel for B2B companies and professionals. Because of this, thought-leadership content works best here. For example, you can post direct links to in-depth articles as individuals or share links to some of your business’s more premium content. With the right content, you can engage and build your audience here reasonably easily. Try these suggestions if you’re lost at what to post:
- Company announcements
- Job openings
- Answers to common client or lead questions
- Short video series
- Video case studies (or written)
- Images with stats
- Posts about company leaders
- Events with registration
- Third-party content
Linked posts that have unique, specific titles and use professional language perform better. Also, if you are going to use pictures in a post, try not to use too many!
At one point, you could post almost anything to Facebook and engage with your users. However, over the years, it’s been more challenging to see organic reach here. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. An extensive range of content will still work well with this platform, but posts that tell a story will stand out, especially if it’s video. Facebook’s posting algorithm rewards videos so they will rank higher than other content. If you can’t produce just video, these ideas may help:
- Pets
- Transparent content about your brand and values
- Questions and polls
- Holidays and current events
- Product showcases
- Quotes
- How-to-guides
- Company blog content and third-party content
- Customer support
- High-quality images
- Company news
For more engaging Facebook posts, you can use lists in your copy and headlines, emojis, minimal characters, and few hashtags. You should also try not to use an aggressive amount of images in a carousel, or users may be swiping forever!
Sometimes it feels like the creators behind Pinterest made it solely for recipes and workout inspiration – but it’s much more than that. Anything inspirational or educational will work here. However, it’s important to note that your format should be visual and vertically aligned. Horizontal imagery doesn’t mesh well with the layout of the channel. In good news, though, you can get lengthier with your visual content here. Try posting:
- Infographics
- Step by step guides
- How to’s
- Lists
- Individual products
- Style guides
- Motivational quotes or passages
As noted, try and keep your “pins” vertical to achieve higher performance. They’ll also need a good description with purposeful language and calls to action (which you should consider throughout your channels). Another thing you should be mindful of for every channel and not just Pinterest? Using the correct image sizes as this will ensure your content doesn’t appear pixelated.
Wrapping Up
Social media can help your business connect with your audiences and propel your brand forward. That is if you’re taking the time to tailor their experience on each channel – which is understandably tricky! If you find yourself eager to get started with our guidelines but lack the time or resources, we can help. Just reach out to our team, and we can work on a comprehensive social media strategy for all your channels.
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