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5 Secrets to Writing Engaging Social Media Posts for Your Business

Tips for Writing Social Media Posts

Are you a business owner who is struggling to write compelling social media posts for your business? Don’t worry, you’re not alone! Many business owners find themselves spending hours crafting posts that end up with no engagement or comments. It can be frustrating and disheartening, especially when you’re already juggling the demands of running a business.

But here’s the good news: writing compelling social media posts is a skill that can be learned and refined. In this blog post, we’ll share practical tips, strategies, and techniques to help you captivate your audience, increase engagement, and achieve tangible results.

 

 

Use your casual voice

Social media offers a fun and relaxed environment. It’s all about connecting with your audience on a personal level. People visit different social media sites in their free time to communicate with family and friends or simply for entertainment purposes. Using a friendly and conversational tone can make a world of difference in capturing their attention and keeping them engaged.

Gone are the days of stiff and boring corporate jargon. Today’s social media users crave authenticity and relatability. They want to feel like they’re interacting with a real person, not a faceless entity. By infusing your posts with a casual tone, you can create a sense of familiarity and build stronger connections with your audience.

Think about it: when you’re scrolling through your social media feed, what catches your eye? It’s likely posts that sound like they’re coming from a friend or someone you can relate to. Using a conversational tone allows you to break down barriers and establish a sense of trust and rapport with your followers.

Craft share-worthy posts

Getting as many likes, comments, or shares on your posts is a goal for a lot of business owners. After all, the more engagement the post gets, the wider the reach is. However, you can’t expect people to do that if your posts are boring and uninteresting.

Relatability is a key ingredient in crafting share-worthy posts. People love to connect with content that resonates with their own experiences, emotions, and aspirations. By understanding your target audience and tapping into their needs, desires, or pain points, you can create content that strikes a chord with them.

Make sure that the information you offer is worth passing along. Offer some valuable information. Also, think about your audience when creating social media posts. Know what their questions and concerns are and provide the answers. Remember, the goal is not just to create great content but to make it shareable. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and ask yourself, “Would I share this with my friends or followers?” If the answer is a resounding yes, then you’re on the right track.

Crafting share-worthy posts takes time, research, and a deep understanding of your audience, but the rewards in terms of increased reach, brand visibility, and engagement are well worth the effort.

Use images, animated images, infographics, and videos

Visual appeal is also crucial in capturing attention and encouraging sharing. Humans are highly visual beings, and eye-catching images or videos can be the driving force behind the decision to share a post. Invest in high-quality visuals that align with your brand and are visually appealing to your target audience.

A striking image or a well-crafted video thumbnail can make a significant difference in attracting attention and enticing others to share your content. In fact, one study revealed that Facebook posts with images have an increase of 104% in comments and a 53% increase in shares than the average posts. Make sure that the images are of high quality and relevant to your post.

Content-Length

The ideal length for social media posts can vary depending on the platform and the content you’re sharing. For instance, shorter posts (around 40-80 characters) tend to receive higher engagement. Concise and attention-grabbing posts can capture users’ interest quickly. However, longer posts (up to 80-120 characters) can also perform well, especially if they provide valuable or intriguing information that encourages users to read more.

For Instagram, users tend to prefer shorter, visually-driven content. Captions that are around 125 to 150 characters tend to work well since they’re easily digestible without overshadowing the visual content. However, there may be instances where longer captions are necessary for storytelling or conveying detailed information.

So try to test out longer and shorter content on each platform. Monitor engagement metrics and gather feedback from your audience to refine your approach. Strive to provide valuable, engaging content that aligns with the platform’s dynamics and your audience’s expectations.

Stay relevant

While it’s a good idea to write about things your followers are interested in, you also need to make sure that the posts are relevant to your business. Remember, people, followed you because they are interested in the products, services, and information you provide.

By crafting content that speaks directly to your audience’s pain points, challenges, or desires, you demonstrate that you genuinely understand and care about their needs. When your posts address their specific concerns or offer solutions to their problems, you position yourself as a trusted resource and valuable partner.

Asking questions on social media is a powerful way to increase engagement with your audience. Questions spark conversations, encourage interaction, and make your audience feel valued and involved. So don’t hesitate to ask questions in your social media posts and watch as engagement levels soar.

Final thoughts

Writing social media posts that captivate your audience and drive engagement doesn’t have to be a daunting task. By following the tips and strategies shared in this blog post, you can simplify the process and achieve tangible results. Remember to use a casual and conversational tone, craft share-worthy content that resonates with your audience, and leverage high-quality visuals to enhance the appeal of your posts

If you still find the task of writing social media posts frustrating or overwhelming, don’t worry. We’re here to help! Our team specializes in creating compelling content tailored to your audience and business goals. Let us handle the task of crafting engaging social media posts for you, so you can focus on more important aspects of your business.

Reach out to us today to discuss how we can take your social media presence to the next level.

Tips for Writing Social Media Posts

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Tips to Boost Your Online Sales

Tips to Boost Your Online Sales

(Updated Post from 2016)

Increasing sales is undeniably the primary goal of many businesses, small and large. But the biggest challenge business owners face is how to increase traffic to their e-commerce store. Once you’ve accomplished that, your goal is to turn those visitors into paying customers.

Here are 4 simple things you can do to boost your online sales.

Post fresh content

Just because you have a website, doesn’t mean that you can relax and just wait for potential clients to visit your site. You also need to post fresh content to encourage visitors to return to your site. Having well-written content and product descriptions are important. The more they return, the more likely are they to buy your products and services.

Be honest in your sales copy

Honesty is crucial, not only in building trust in your brand; but also in improving your business’ reputation. Your goal is to show people that you are the best person to provide the products that will help solve their problems. But in order to do that, you need to add credibility to your copy. Be honest in your sales copy and include customer testimonials in your sales letter. It is through this process that people will come to trust you and feel comfortable enough to buy from you. The golden rule – Know, Like, Trust.

Go social

Social media is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness, sales, and customer satisfaction. Actively engage with prospective customers via social media. Talk to them. Answer their questions as quickly and as honestly as you can. Studies show that customers are more likely to purchase products if they receive fast and honest answers from the company.

Don’t forget about your customers once you get them to purchase your products. Send them an email, offer discounts or free shipping on their next purchase. The more attention you pay to them after they have bought something, the more likely are they to turn into repeat customers. Think relationships, not sales.

Offer fewer products

Most businesses create an extensive list of products and services, thinking they’ll get more sales if they have a little something for everyone. But the problem is that prospects will have a hard time deciding whether to buy or not when you have an exhaustive product list. Instead of trying to please everyone, you might want to streamline your products and offer one set of related products. Then, describe those products as best you can.

Also, buyers need to see the benefits of purchasing your products. Try to answer all doubts and questions your visitors may have about your products and really focus on one key set of benefits.

 

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New to Pinterest?   Get The Skinny On The Best Graphic Sizes and Hashtags To Use On Pinterest

Did you know?  Pinterest is the 3rd most popular social network and it has become a huge search engine!  People turn to Pinterest on the daily to:  shop, find information, ideas, educate themselves, organize themselves and so much more.  Once you get to know Pinterest and all that it can provide for you, the love affair begins 😉

To make sure your brand’s content hits the ground running, there are some basics you need to have in place, especially when it comes to graphics.  Pinterest is a highly visual platform.  Understanding the best graphics to use on the site is key to making your account perform its best.

We want to make sure you and your brand look your best on Pinterest, so, we put together this helpful 2018 Pinterest Image Size guide.  Download it, print it out, and keep it handy so you can have these image sizes available at-a-glance!  Download the guide HERE.

Part of being successful on Pinterest requires your ability to be found!  That’s where hashtags (#) come into play.  Once you have an understanding of how to utilize hashtags, you will notice an increase in your Pinterest traffic.

Hashtag Know How!

Here are 3 strategies you can use to get your hashtag game in place for your brand

STRATEGY #1:

Know the number of hashtags you can use one 1 pin.  A recommended rule of thumb is to use no more than 20 hashtags per pin.

STRATEGY #2:

Always use hashtags on the pins you post.  When people search hashtags in the search bar, Pinterest will compile the latest pins chronologically, placing the newest pins at the top of the list. That’s where you want your pins to live.

STRATEGY #3:

Organize a list of hashtags for your brand.  Categorize you hashtags into 3 buckets:

  1. Branded Hashtags:  a list of hashtags that only relate to and describe your brand
  2. Trending Hashtags: a list of trending (popular) hashtags on the topics you post about (these hashtags will frequently change based on the topic and current trends you are posting about)
  3. Content Related:  a list of content related hashtags to use in order to describe the post you are pinning

Best Practices When Selecting Hashtags:

  • Avoid using very broad hashtags, be more specific and try to think like your audience.  What hashtags would they use to find your pin?
  • Don’t be afraid to use hashtag phrases if they help to define your audience even better.  For example, we may use a hashtag phrase like #SocialMediaTraining as a hashtag to reach our audience.
  • Do some research!  When adding a hashtag to a pin on Pinterest, Pinterest will populate a list of suggested hashtags.  Next the hashtag, you will see how many pins are using the hashtag you are considering.  If the number is HUGE, your pin may get lost in the shuffle.  Try to determine how you can make your pin more niche with a more specific hashtag or hashtag phrase.

When working with Pinterest, our best advice is for you to get started, have fun, and experiment with different ideas, strategies, and tactics.  Happy pinning!

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5 Social Media Goals To Get You Started

Is 2018 your year to tackle social media and create campaigns that your business benefits from it?  If you answered YES!, this blog post is for you!  We will review common mistakes businesses make as they craft social media campaigns, tips to use as you are defining your goals, and 5 measurable goals you can use to determine whether or not your social media campaigns are effective.

A Common Mistake Businesses Make…

Jumping into social media without identifying goals or measuring successes is a common mistake many businesses make and it leads to a very frustrating social media experience.  Many who jump into social media for business without a goal or without a plan tend to throw up their hands and give up stating that they threw away their money and social media just doesn’t work!  Don’t let this happen to you!  Read on…In this article, we will explore 5 of the most common goals people measure when using social media.  

“What gets measured, it what gets done”

Measurement is the key to anything you do!  If you can measure your social media progress and outcome, you will know the strategies and tactics to put in place

Here are some tips and things to think about before setting goals for your social media campaigns:

  • Make sure your social media campaign goals are in line with your overall business goals
  • Select different goals for different social platforms – not all platforms will yield the same results
  • Select goals that make sense for the social media platform you are using
  • Choose goals that are measurable
  • Track your progress

What Should Your Goals Be For Social Media?

5 sound goals you should set and strive and how to measure them are listed below:

  1. Brand Awareness – Brand awareness can be measured in terms of:
    1. Fan followers.  Create a stair-step approach when it comes to tracking brand awareness.  A common goal to start with is to gain your first 100 followers and build from there.
    2. Reach – how many people did your message reach (a popular Facebook statistic)
    3. Mentions – how many times is your brand tagged or talked about in other social media posts
    4. Shares – how many times were your posts shared
  2. Website Traffic – Make sure your web designer has installed Google Analytics on your website.  This will help you track how much traffic is coming from social media platforms and channels.  Monitor the progress on a consistent basis and set goals based on the traffic trends you see.
  3. Website Loyalty – How loyal are your customers?  Do they review what you are talking about on social media and then click through to your website to get more?  Google Analytics can help you measure repeat visitors.
  4. Brand Engagement – This is a popular social media result that many measure.  Based on the comments, likes, and interactions your brand receives you will be able to understand how your brand is perceived, the level of brand loyalty your company has, and the community your brand is building.
  5. Conversions – How many people saw your social media posts and then converted into paying customers.  Again, this will be measured by Google Analytics, letting you know how many sales were a result of your social media campaigns.

There are many more things you can measure through social media.  It all depends on why you are there.  It could be anything from “How many times did my phone ring?” to “How many people clicked through to my lead generation form?”  Take the time to really think about why you want to be on social media.  Once you determine why you want to be there, build your campaigns around the reason.

Need help tracking your results?  Download our tracker by clicking HERE.

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APPS – These Are Our 5 Favs!

It goes without saying that apps are a Social Media Manager’s BFF!  They help us plan, analyze, stay creative, efficient, productive, curate content and SO MUCH MORE!  One thing is for sure, we couldn’t survive without them!

When challenged to share our favorite 5, it was tough to choose!  There are so many quality apps available today and new ones are emerging every day!  Below are 5 of our favorite go-to apps that you will want to get your hands on right away!  To grab these apps, head over to your devices app store to snag them.

Get Creative with These Apps

As a Social Media Manager or anyone who manages a brand’s social content, you need to be creative.  One of the goals of the content you post is to “Stop The Scroll”.  This requires interesting and engaging posts.

  1.  Adobe Spark Post!

Why We Love It:  

This app is great for creating anything from a social media post graphic to posters, and custom sizes.  Not only does this app have loads of size options available, its library of free stock photos is HUGE!  Not only does Adobe Spark Post make amazing images, it also animates images.  Fun Alert!  Once you start with Spark, you may not be able to stop!

  1.  Animoto

Do you have a bunch of pictures that tell a story about your brand, service or product?  Let’s face it, sometimes static images just won’t do the job.  Our solution…Animoto!  Animoto is a great resource for turning images into animated video.  Not only does it create a great video but it also has amazing stock music to help you hit the right vibe.

  1. Typorama

A good Social Media Manager knows that you can’t just have one resource for creating social media graphics.  If you only use one tool, your posts become predictable, and, well…boring.  To create a wide variety of post types, you need to have a wide variety of apps.  We love Typorama because it has a large selection of font styles you can use for your graphic posts.  

Pro Tip:  Check you Typorama’s sister app, Videorama.  This is a super cool app that has a large selection of stock video for you to use.  Get creative with Videorama by adding text overlays, music, and filters to your videos.

 

Get efficient and save time with these apps.

4 & 5.  Yes, we said “these”.  

There are two time-saving apps we adore which wouldn’t allow us to choose just one.  Here’s why…Social Media Managers are a busy lot!  We are always creating content, posting and tracking the engagement of our posts.  In order to be effective at all of those things simultaneously, we need a tool to help us.  

So, numbers 4 & 5 on our list are Buffer and Hootsuite.  Both of these apps have web-based and mobile device platforms which are designed to help you schedule the posts you create.  

We love Buffer for its ease of use when it comes to scheduling posts on multiple accounts.  Hootsuite rocks when it comes to monitoring the social conversation surrounding your posts.  Both have similar functions.  We encourage you to dive into each to decide which is the best fit for you or maybe it is a combination of the two!

Honorable Mentions

Yup!  It was hard to pick just 5 favorites.  We couldn’t leave these out because they help to keep your posts and feeds uber interesting!  Make sure you check out:

  • Boomerang for repetitive, looped animation.  Try it once and you’ll be hooked!
  • Ripl – Great for animated video
  • Hyperlapse – Speed up a long video using this time-lapsed video app. Great for instructional type videos
  • Vont – Edit and trim videos right on your smartphone with this easy to use video editor

Pro Tip:  One of the best things you can do for your social media accounts is to keep them fresh and exciting.  Take the time to get to know new and different apps to help you achieve this.

Have fun and stay social!

 

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Core Values, Why They Are Important To Your Business [VIDEO]

Core Values, Why They Are Important To Your Business

What Are Core Values?

Core values are a set of standards for your business that everyone involved in your business must use in order to deliver the best possible product or service.

Core values force you to raise the bar and set the standard, the tone, and the cadence of your business.  Make sure you are doing what you can to set the right standards for your business to get the outcome you are looking for.

This video will help you establish core values for your business.

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Twitter Tactics

How can you get the most out of Twitter for your business?  We get that question A LOT!  Twitter can be confusing and some may be stumped on how to use Twitter.  When getting started with Twitter, it’s best to take baby steps and then grow from there.  Once you get your feet wet and splash around a little you can’t help but take a swim in the deep end.

Starting Out…

When first with Twitter, use it for two things:

  1. Gather information
  2. Share information

Gathering Information:

Twitter can be extremely valuable for gathering information on a number of topics.  To do this effectively you will want to follow these steps:

  • Follow credible sources who deliver valuable content about the topic you are interested in.  Topics can range anywhere from sports scores, business trends, world news, marketing tactics, etc.
  • As you identify the sources you want to follow, add them to lists in order to sort the feeds by category or topic.  Using lists will help you keep all of the topics you want to follow organized
  • To create a list, follow these steps:
    • Visit your “Lists” section of Twitter by clicking the gear icon drop-down menu or by clicking Lists on your profile page.
    • Click Create List.
    • Name the List & create a description.
    • Mark the List as Public or Private.
    • Save the List.
  • Now that you have your list created, you can easily add sources to the list by:
    • Click on a Twitter user’s profile
    • Click on the person icon drop-down menu on the profile.
    • Choose add or remove from Lists.
    • Choose the List you would like to add the person to or uncheck the List the person was already a member of.
  • Add as many people to your various lists as you would like
  • Check your lists often to get the latest news from your trusted sources

Sharing Information:

Twitter is a great way for you to position yourself as an authority on a certain topic, field or industry.  The trick is to share “tweet-able” information, share it often and on a consistent basis.  A good rule of thumb is to share 21-70 Tweets a week.  That is a minimum of 3 Tweets a day or a maximum of 10 Tweets.  It seems like a lot, but there are a couple of things to remember:  

  1. You are Tweeting sound bites of information that link back to a bigger story (your website, blog, landing page, or another social platform that has more detailed info).
  2. There is only room to Tweet up to 280 characters which is not a very large amount of content.
  3. If you do not maintain a constant flow of information, a single message will get lost in the Twitter-sphere minimizing your opportunity to be found by others.

So What’s “Tweetable?”

We are glad you asked!  Below is a list of some generic ideas to get you started:

  • Industry trends
  • Tips
  • Events
  • Statistics
  • Recommendations
  • Best tools for your industry
  • Links to your blog post
  • Pose questions (this is a great way to encourage engagement)
  • Attention-grabbing graphics
  • Video
  • Quote
  • Poll
  • Follow appreciation post
  • Short and sweet “how-to”
  • Data
  • Something funny

Now that you get the idea of what types of things you should post, it’s time to put a plan into action.  An efficient way of releasing multiple Tweets a day is to use a bulk scheduler like Hootsuite or Buffer.  Visit this blog post to get more information about bulk schedulers.

Happy Tweeting!

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3 Twitter Image Sizes You Need To Be Aware Of

You know the old adage “A picture’s worth a thousand words”, well, that holds true on social media too! The best image with the wrong dimensions can completely derail your plan for the perfect post and kill your quest to go viral.

Make note of these image sizes to ensure you are putting your BEST foot forward on Twitter:

Header/Banner Image:
This is the image that runs across the top of your Twitter profile.

For best results aim for an image that is:

  • 1500 x 500 pixels
  • A recommended file size of 10 MB
  • File format JPG, GIF, or PNG

Profile Picture:
Your profile picture is the square image that sits on the left, bottom side of your header photo.

For best results aim for an image that is:

  • 400 x 400 pixels
  • A recommended file size of 100 KB
  • File format JPG, GIF, or PNG

In-Stream/Newsfeed Image:
This is the image that accompanies your “tweet”.

For best results aim for an image that is:

  • Minimum to appear expanded 440 x 220 pixels
  • Maximum to appear 1024 x 512 pixels
  • Appears in news feed collapsed at 506 x 253 pixels
  • Maximum file size of 5 MB for pictures and 3 MB for animated GIFs

Happy tweeting!

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APPS Are the Answer!

Have you ever seen a business or someone who seems to be able to churn out social media content effortlessly?  You know the the type!  They’re the ones who seem to have a newsworthy tweet on Twitter, an amazing image with the perfect caption on Instagram, a super-cool infographic on Pinterest and an ultra-engaging post on Facebook…on the daily!  How can they possibly do it all AND do their job?

Let’s face it, writing, creating, organizing, graphic design, and scheduling social media posts can be a DAUNTING task.  The good news is, it doesn’t have to be!  As a matter of fact, we know the secret to becoming super-human when it comes to social media.

What’s the secret to effective social media marketing?  A good plan and a collection of APPS to help you get the job done!

3 Apps We Can’t Live Without!

To stay on top of our social media to-do list, we rely on certain apps that we access daily.  After you take them for a spin, we think you will understand why we believe they are the best for helping to create and manage social media efforts efficiently and effectively:

  • Create amazing graphics with Typorama
  • Bulk schedule your social media posts with Hootsuite
  • Stay on top of Facebook engagement with Facebook Pages Manager

Enjoy!

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