At BannerMktg, we understand that having a strong social media presence is key to reaching potential customers and expanding your brand's digital footprint. That's why we recommend following these social media best practices to ensure that your accounts are not only established, but also actively maintained.
Presence and Maintenance
- Log in and monitor daily - Consistency is key in social media. By logging in to your social media accounts at least once a day, you can stay up-to-date with what's happening on your accounts and respond to comments, mentions, and messages in a timely manner. This demonstrates that you are present and engaged with your followers, which can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Establish a consistent posting schedule - Posting content regularly is important for maintaining a strong social media presence. Depending on the platform, the frequency of posts may vary. However, using an editorial calendar to plan and schedule content creation and publication can help you stay on top of your social media game. Avoid hoarding content and posting all at once, as this can overwhelm your followers and negatively affect engagement.
- Twitter is a fast-paced platform that requires frequent updates. Logging in at least once a day to check mentions and direct messages is recommended. Posting content 3-5 times a week is reasonable for this platform.
- Facebook is a more casual platform where users expect less frequent updates. However, it's still important to log in daily to check comments, monitor tags, check-ins, and respond to messages. Posting content 3-5 times a week is also reasonable for this platform.
- Instagram is a highly visual platform that requires active engagement with user-generated content. Logging in daily to check comments, monitor tags, respond to messages, and engage with your followers can help you establish a strong presence on this platform.
- For video services like YouTube, the frequency of updates can vary depending on the amount of content available. If you have a lot of content, you can post more frequently. However, it's important to avoid posting all of your content at once. Instead, try to space out your updates over time to keep your followers engaged.
- By following these best practices, you can establish a strong social media presence and maintain an engaged community of followers. Remember that social media is a two-way conversation, so be sure to actively engage with your audience and respond to their comments and questions in a timely manner.
Measurement and Analytics
- Use software applications like Hootsuite or SEMrush to organize and monitor your social media platforms: Social media management tools like Hootsuite and SEMrush can help you stay organized by allowing you to monitor and manage multiple social media platforms from one place. You can schedule posts, track performance, and analyze results in a streamlined way.
- Utilize free metrics tools like Facebook Insights and Google Alerts to track keywords and measure the effectiveness of your social media content: Facebook Insights provides valuable data on your audience demographics, reach, and engagement. Google Alerts is a free tool that sends you notifications when your brand or relevant keywords are mentioned on the web. These tools can help you track performance, identify opportunities, and refine your social media strategy.
- Study the data provided by analytics functions on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr to determine relevant statistics and track them over time: Each social media platform has its own set of analytics functions that can provide you with valuable data on your audience and content performance. Studying this data can help you make informed decisions on your content strategy and optimize your social media presence.
- Match analytics information against content and engagement to determine what caused certain results: By analyzing your social media analytics data and matching it against your content and engagement, you can determine what content is resonating with your audience and driving the most engagement. This can help you refine your content strategy and create more effective content in the future.
- Use this information to better understand your audience and inform content decisions: By using social media metrics to understand your audience demographics, preferences, and behavior, you can create content that speaks directly to their interests and needs. This can help you build a more engaged and loyal social media following.
Community Building
- Be personable and accessible while keeping in mind the guidelines offered: It's important to be personable and accessible on social media, but it's also important to maintain a professional and brand-appropriate tone. Follow the guidelines of each social media platform and keep in mind your brand's image and values.
- Cross-promote your social media channels in your various channels both online and offline to drive traffic and engagement: Encourage your audience to follow you on multiple social media channels by promoting your social media profiles on your website, email newsletters, and other marketing materials. This can help increase your social media following and drive engagement.
- Don't judge your success solely on numbers, quality trumps quantity in social media: The number of followers, fans, or views is not always an accurate measure of success on social media. Building a highly engaged and loyal community takes time and effort, so focus on building relationships with your audience and creating valuable content that resonates with them.
- Cultivate a highly engaged community over time by consistently being present and engaged: Building a strong social media following takes time and effort. Make sure to be present and engaged on your social media platforms consistently, responding to comments and messages, and creating valuable content that speaks to your audience's interests.
- Measure the effectiveness of your engagement over time to refine your strategy and improve long-term success: Keep track of your social media metrics and analyze them over time to identify areas where you can improve. Use this data to refine your social media strategy, create more effective content, and build a stronger community over time.
PLATFORM SPECIFIC BEST PRACTICES
Managers of Facebook Pages must be able to check on the page at least once a day and should have enough content to post at least 3 times a week.
- Make sure to use a business account and not a personal one, as it can be seen as inappropriate and misleading. This is also a violation of Facebook's Terms of Service, which could result in permanent loss of access to the account and all its content. A verified business account with access to the Meta Business Suite is the way to go.
- Avoid posting the exact same status updates on both Facebook and Twitter. The tone, frequency of posts, and strategies are different on both platforms, and it's best to craft unique posts for each. Take advantage of the style and tools of each platform
- Share relevant, high-quality content that aligns with your brand's values and interests.
- Consider paid advertising options, such as Facebook Ads or Boosted Posts, to reach a wider audience.
- Pay attention to your insights. Facebook Insights provide valuable information about your page's audience and what they're interested in. Use this information to create engaging posts that encourage interaction and attract new likes.
- Visuals are key. Users are drawn to visually pleasing layouts and posts, so make sure to highlight photos and other visual content. Avoid lengthy posts and delete pasted links in status updates.
- Engage with your fans. People may post negative comments or feedback, and it's important to address them appropriately by acknowledging their feedback and providing a solution. Positive comments should also be allowed on the main timeline to give them extra attention.
Twitter encourages frequent updates, engagement, and retweeting content. Managers should login into the account at least once per day and should post often and be able to respond in a quick and timely manner.
- Engage with your audience. In addition to monitoring mentions of your handle, we recommend setting up a search to keep an ear on what people are saying about your brand even when they don't directly tag you in their tweets. Respond or retweet as appropriate.
- Avoid posting identical status updates on both Twitter and Facebook. Although some services may allow you to post the same content to both platforms at once, Twitter and Facebook are different in terms of audience, tone, and strategy. Craft unique posts for each platform.
- Use hashtags and mention other users. Hashtags help you join relevant conversations and increase your reach beyond your followers. Tagging other users in your tweets gives them credit for the content and alerts them that they have been mentioned, which may prompt them to retweet or comment on your tweet.
- Pay attention to analytics. Twitter provides free metrics at analytics.twitter.com. Analyze these metrics to understand your audience and create tweets that engage your followers, encourage retweets and favorites, and attract new followers.
- Follow back. Following back relevant and appropriate followers is an excellent relationship-building strategy. Encouraging interaction is key to fostering goodwill with your audience.
- Use a client. Platforms like Hootsuite offer many benefits to manage your Twitter account. Schedule tweets in advance, monitor mentions of your handle, direct messages, and search terms, all from one interface.
- You can schedule tweets in advance, so even if you cannot check your account continuously, you can schedule appropriate tweets throughout the day.
- Their interfaces allow you to choose various streams to monitor, so you can monitor tweets that mention you, search terms, direct messages, etc.
Instagram is a free photo and video sharing app that allows users to apply digital filters, frames and special effects to their photos and videos. Managers of am Instagram account should check on the account at least once each day and have enough content to post a few times each week.
- Make use of filters and effects. Instagram is all about visually striking imagery. Make your photos stand out by experimenting with filters, frames, and other special effects.
- Hashtags are key. Just like with Twitter, using relevant hashtags can help your posts get discovered by a wider audience. However, be strategic in your use of hashtags - too many can come off as spammy.
- Engage with your community. Take the time to search for and interact with other Instagram users who share similar interests or values. Like and comment on their posts to build relationships and spark conversations.
- Geotag your posts. Tagging the location of your photos and videos can help contextualize your content and make it more discoverable to local audiences.
- Don't forget about Instagram Stories. These short-lived posts can be a great way to showcase behind-the-scenes glimpses of your brand or highlight special promotions or events. Use them to keep your followers engaged and informed.
- Post high-quality, visually appealing content that reflects your brand's style and aesthetic.
- Consider partnering with influencers or running Instagram contests to reach a wider audience.
YouTube
YouTube is a video hosting/sharing platform that showcase a variety of user-generated content. Videos can be shared on other social sites or taken from the platforms and embedded directly on a user's blog or website.
- Respect copyright laws. To avoid copyright infringement, it's essential to use only royalty-free music and sound effects. Sites like Shutterstock and Epidemic Sounds offer a wide variety of copyright-free music and sounds. If you want to use copyrighted material, make sure you contact the owner for permission.
- Focus on creating high-quality video content that provides value to your audience.
- Use your business name in your file names. By including your business name in your raw video file names, you can boost your search engine optimization (SEO). For instance, instead of naming your video file "PatioFurniture.mov," you could name it "JohnsFurniture-Patio.mov" to make it more SEO-friendly.
- Make your content accessible. To ensure that your content is accessible to everyone, consider using captioning technology. This technology has become more affordable and straightforward to implement, making it easier to create captions that can help people with hearing impairments or those watching without sound.
- Optimize video titles and descriptions: Use descriptive titles and descriptions that include keywords to help your videos get discovered in search results.
- Use calls-to-action: Encourage viewers to subscribe, like, or share your videos in your video or description.
- Engage with comments: Respond to comments on your videos to engage with your audience and build a community around your channel.
- Consider partnering with other YouTube creators or running YouTube Ads to reach a wider audience.
