If you have a presence on social media this can be one of your most effective ways to reach new audiences and keep in touch with your community. Creating social media content that works can help to drive traffic, expand your audience, and grow your business.
While there are over 100 different social media platforms available, the majority of people are only on an average of 4 to 8 platforms. People will spend time on different platforms according to their interests, and their preferred methods for consuming content.
For you, as a business owner, you’ll want to use some social media to grow interest, make sales, and stay relevant after the sale. And because social media content is often evergreen, it’s possible for your audience to consume your content both in real time and at their own convenience.
So how do you do more with social media content that works?
The first question to ask yourself is if you have a social media presence that works as it is now?
The first thing to consider is that success on social media is relative.
Most people equate success with numbers. The logical thought is that the more followers or subscribers you have, the more successful you are. But this is not necessarily true.
Consider this: If you have 10,000 followers and no one takes action or engages with you, how successful are you? Is your social media really working for you? But, if you have 1,000 followers who do comment, engage, and take action you are probably more successful because you have social media that works for you.
I don’t know about you, but I’d take 1000 engaged followers over 10,000 that don’t respond any day.
Success on social media is also fickle. Sometimes it only takes one post going viral to give you success. Things like word of mouth, adding new content consistently, and paying attention to a platform’s algorithms all contribute to creating social media that works.
Here are 4 tips to help you do more with your social media content that works.
Tip 1 – Pay attention to your numbers
Just as you pay attention to the traffic sources on your blog to help determine what works there, you’ll also want to pay attention to your social media stats to determine what works on those platforms.
Take the time to notice which content gets the most reach and engagement, and analyze why. Then create more of that.
Tip 2 – Pay attention to your reach
On social media platforms, reach is the measurement for how many people see your content. This is a better indicator of your audience size per social media engagement, regardless of the number of followers you have.
There are three places your reach can come from: organic, viral, and paid. If you notice your reach is higher in one area, you can do more to create the same type of content and reach.
Tip 3 – Be open to change
There is one thing that is true about social media: it is always evolving and changing.
Be open to changes and willing to adopt them as soon as you can in order to increase your chances of your content being seen.
A good example of what I mean is that when Instagram shifted from static picture posts to reels, the initial users who adopted reels as a concept fastest saw greater reach and viral content.
In other words, being open to changes allows you to create more social media content that works.
Tip 4 – Make good use of captions
Social media is an experience that plays to the senses, especially with sights and sounds. Think of the popularity of short videos on sites like You Tube (shorts), Instagram (reels), and TikTok. Captions are essential on these types of videos because a lot of people tend to watch with the sound off.
Final Thoughts
If you already have a successful social media presence that works for you, keep doing more of what’s working. Social media has the ability to help your business grow if you take the time to figure out what platforms and content types work best for you. Pay attention to the options and always be testing to see what else works for you. And when you find social media content that works for you, keep doing more of that!
This is Part 5 of a 5-part series on Doing More of What Works. Other posts in this series include:
- 4 Ways to Use Data to Determine What’s Working Now
- Using Data to Determine What’s Working on Your Website
- Do More of What Works by Optimizing Keywords
- 3 Ways to Expand on Content That Works
- 4 Tips for Doing More with Social Media Content that Works (This article)
