With social media now a core component of my job, I made sure to attend The Perfect Post session with Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick (It was no surprise that it was standing room only). There I learned 10 helpful tips that has changed the way we speak across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, which include:
1. Pass the Reshare Test
Is the post so good that your followers would risk their reputation and repost to their followers?
2. Valuable –
Are you providing information, an analysis, assistance, or entertainment?
3. Be Bold –
Showing your personality makes you more interesting, sometimes ok to take a stance on a topic
4. Be brief –
50 character headline, 3 sentence body, active voice
5. Credit your source link and @ mentions increase engagement
6. Add Drama –
Each post needs a visual component; it makes it look better & helps get more shares
7. Embrace hashtags –
Hashtags tie all content together on different platforms; find hashtags that a lot of people use or what they would look for if searching for you
8. Schedule and spread out posts –
For the optimal number of views, send out the same post with different bit ly links 4 times a day & see how many clicks you get and what times work better
Great tools to automate posting include Buffer & Sprout Social
9. Keep calm and post often
10. Check with an incognito page –
View profiles and posts incognito to see what other people think & are saying about your product or brand
If you are new to social, keeping this list in mind can help you create a killer social strategy and gain more followers. But beyond that, by following the 80/20 rule, talking about your brand/product only 20% of the time (helpful/interesting content as the majority), people will naturally want to engage with you and be your biggest advocates.
So keep calm & post on!