[Updated for 2022]
Managing social media, for yourself or your clients, can be tough. It can be even tougher when you manage several profiles across multiple social media platforms. It's sometimes a challenge to determine what type of post will work with each social media platform, as each one has unique demographics, algorithms, and hashtags. In addition, different types of people use each network, which is why it is important to tailor your social media to each group.
Here are some facts about social media to consider:
- As of October 2022, the world population is 7.98 billion. Facebook currently has 2.93 billion users as of July 2022. That is more than a quarter of the people on the planet.
- 44% of B2B and B2C brands are using social media as a marketing channel in 2022.
- 72% of Americans are active on social media
From the numbers alone, it's easy to see why it's important to have a solid social media presence for your company. However, tailoring your posts to each social network is also important. There are two main benefits of adjusting your content for each social media platform. First, adjusting your content based on the platform it is going to be used for will make each post as organic as possible with its message. Second, you will impress both your clients and the brand that you are working for by altering your posts. Sending the same message to each social media platform is very entry level, and you can do much more than that with the right plan in place.
TYPES OF SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT FOR EACH PLATFORM
The most important thing to realize when it comes to social media marketing is that what works on one platform may not always work on another. The best strategy is to adjust the social media content according to the demographics, style, and nature of each of the networks.
Learn about each of the social media platforms and what they offer. When you are ready to create a post, think about each platform as a unique delivery mechanism, and try to avoid posting the exact same message on all social channels. Each channel is different and has its own pros and cons. See below to find unique differences between these channels and how to plan your social media content accordingly.
Facebook is the most popular social network. It offers the most brand competition and because of this, strategies are more difficult to get right. Facebook users are looking for value and entertainment. They are in a friends and family mindset when viewing your content. Feel free to give some back story to the posts you make on Facebook, as you have freedom with the length of the text. The type of content that performs best on Facebook are videos, especially videos that make users laugh. User-generated content (UGC) also performs well on Facebook to make your brand look more credible and stand out amongst the competition.
Most people use Twitter as a quick way to learn about what is going on right now. They want quick tips, news, and interesting articles. Twitter is a great platform for customer service to answer questions about the services and goods your company provides. This requires regularly checking to see if anyone mentions you or replies to your tweets.
Different from all other platforms, text-based posts perform better than images or videos. Tweets with links get retweeted 86% more often. Diving even deeper, on average, tweets that linked to how-to or list-based articles received three times more retweets than any other type of text-based content.
Creative people love Pinterest, which is why it's important to create posts that offer great images and instructions. Create boards that center around some of the core topics that are associated with your company. Expand on these as you find more topics that your consumers may be interested in. Pinterest offers great opportunities to partner with other aligning companies to create boards that complement each business. The expectation is that pins are original content. Content that looks like it has been repurposed does not perform as well.
Similar to Pinterest, Instagram is a visual network where storytelling is the most effective form of social media content. Your posts should contain quality images that are related to your brand and create a consistent tone and visual personality. Start posting Instagram Reels if you haven’t already. Short-form video is the fastest growing marketing trend, according to Hubspot’s State of Marketing in 2022. Reels should be funny, engaging, informative, and interactive to perform best across audiences.
TIKOK
As mentioned previously, short-form video is taking the digital marketing world by storm. 62% of brands plan to increase their investment in TikTok. This is because of how many users are watching, engaging, and converting through the right social media content on this platform. When creating short-form video content for TikTok consider your brand and what your users want to see, like tutorials, behind the scenes, your product in action, participating in viral challenges or testing out “hacks”, influencers using your product, etc.
Related: How to Run an Influencer Campaign
It's no surprise this social media network is focused on business, but the use of this platform to target professionals has become second to none. On this platform, you can create content that is unique to a certain sub-field of your industry and target just them, if you choose. Remember, people on LinkedIn are in a business or job-searching mindset, so keep it professional. Educational articles go a long way in generating engagement, and video how-tos have proven successful. Sharing articles in industry groups is a great way to get your content noticed if you're targeting a certain industry.
Managing social media accounts for your business can be a large and daunting task. If you are seeking more strategies, or even just simple help with your social media marketing plan, Ironmark is here to help you get more engagement and impact from your social media efforts.
