When you work in your business (or a client’s account) day in and day out, it’s really easy to get into a rut. You kind of learn what works and what doesn’t with your audience, then it becomes a lather, rinse, repeat sort of situation. But that may lead you into a space where you’re missing opportunities. Particularly with your advertising – and especially in social media where it’s easy to get real time results and adjust quickly – testing is extremely important.
A few things to test:
- Length of posts.
If you only stick to short posts or long posts, you won’t know if the other resonates better or worse with your audience. - Hashtags.
Do some research. See what your competitors are doing. Try hashtags that have a variety of popularity. Then deduce whether there is one or more common denominators amongst them when it comes to well-performing posts. One caveat here: Hashtags should be relevant to the content of your post. Do not include a hashtag simply because it is popular. - Types of content.
Try a mix of your content vs reshares of others’ content. Try a mix of “salesy” posts featuring your products/services, “thought leadership” posts sharing your expertise in your industry, and “newsy” posts sharing what’s going on in your company and your industry. Try throwing in some themed posts like Monday Mantra, Throwback Thursday, Sunday Funday or even BTS (behind the scenes).
Once you do a few tests (and get you AND your audience out of your rut), you’ll start to see more and more options for content that works well for you, and you can discard the ideas that didn’t pan out as well. The more content options you have, the easier it will be to have a consistent presence on social media. The more consistent you are on your chosen outlets, the better the algorithms will react to your posts organically. The better the algos work for you organically, the less you’ll be forced to spend on ads. (Please note: I said the less you’ll have to spend. I didn’t say you’d get out of spending. We’re past those good ol’ days.)
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Image by M. Maggs from Pixabay