There’s so no doubt social media has become one of the most effective forms of marketing. Thanks to mobile devices, individuals now have access to social media everywhere they go. Promoting your brand through social media is vital to businesses, but getting your content on these channels isn’t what gets you the sales. One of the reasons social media marketing is so effective is because it’s a fun and engaging way to collect and share information. People are able to share their stories, ideas, and values anytime, anywhere, and anyway, they want. The key to becoming a successful social media user is engagement.

Social Media is a great tool for content marketing, but there are some rules to the game. These 10 suggestions for effective posting that gets engagement should help you get started.

1. Use great visuals. The visual content is what will stop people from scrolling through the endless parade of their feed and checking out your post. If you don’t have an image directly related to your business, use some stock imagery from a free site like Pixabay or Unsplash. Oftentimes, though, I find the free sites don’t quite have what I’m looking for. In that case, I’ll browse Depositphotos. Watch for their sales on credits. I can pick up 100 credits for $100 at least once a year.
2. Write great copy. While the picture gets them to stop, the words get them to click. Use good grammar, flawless spelling, and appropriate punctuation with adequate spacing. But at the same time, try to not overthink it. A mistake here and there won’t kill your business, and often it brings some great engagement as everybody has a good laugh while correcting you. Play it off and enjoy the attention.
3. Don’t be self-centered. Don’t promote your business and products directly every time. Post about topics in your industry, or repost items from other people to build your credibility and engagement with a wider audience. A friend of mine teaches about curating other people’s content. It’s been really helpful in my own content marketing. You can find her Smart Curation Skills course here.
4. Use hashtags. For many social media sites, your post might as well be invisible if you’re not using hashtags. Even Facebook supports hashtags now. They serve as an indication (for users and algorithms) that a piece of content relates to a specific topic or belongs to a category. Hashtags tell people what category your post falls into, and draws in more engagement from people checking out what’s new in that topic.
5. Be brief. Whenever possible, don’t make your posts too long, because readers will get weary and move on. Use synonyms for longer words and keep your sentences short. Remember that your audience is very distracted.
6. Post at key times. This varies by social media type, but your post will get in front of a large audience. You can do a quick Google search to see what days and times are best for the social media platforms you’re using.
7. Involve the readers. Put engaging questions into your post that will elicit discussion and response. If people are building on the thread below your words, you know your post has been a success. I’ve found some of my most engaging posts are simply me asking for advice. People love to help. Also, keep in mind, a lot of the interaction is silent. Many people won’t like or comment, but they read. And if they like your content, they will stick around, and eventually, they’ll click or comment.
8. Be persistent. In today’s socially connected world, it is not overkill to post, post, and post again. As an introvert, this has been super hard for me to do. The fact of the matter is, though, people may need to see something at least a dozen times before even clicking on it, so don’t be afraid to keep trying, and don’t give up.
9. Consider the pros and cons of auto-posting. You may think that auto-posting saves you time and energy, but an organic effort fueled by the inspiration of the moment might yield better results. I do a mix of both in my social media postings. Let me tell you a little bit about my two most used social media automation systems. With Metricool, you have everything is in one place: plan your social media content, review your data, and even manage your online ad campaigns. I love that it learns and then suggests to you the best time to post for each of your profiles. The thing I love most about Missinglettr is that you connect it to your blog, and it automatically sets up any one of several different drip campaigns for you. Then it schedules and posts them for you. New customers can use this link to get 50% off any plan for the first 3 months.
10. Remember the audience. Different social media platforms are geared towards different users, so while you might be fine throwing up pictures of your weekend on Instagram, that tactic could backfire on LinkedIn. I’ve also found that certain businesses are just hard to use on one platform vs another. The key is to go where your audience is… whether you like the platform or not. I have a friend who isn’t a big fan of Instagram in general but she has a food-related niche. Instagram is HUGE for food-related content, and she’s killing it over there.

Don’t forget to look at Google Analytics either. Take a look at which posts and platforms are giving you the biggest ROI. There’s a section under Acquisition that will tell you which platforms drive traffic to your site as well as the best quality of leads. You can reconfigure your strategy and give your audience more of what they want where they want it.