Over recent year across most of the social media platforms, there’s been a noticeable dip in organic reach through social media. In the past, being able to reach your audience organically was relatively easy as long as you were active and posting regularly. But now, the algorithms implemented by the different platforms have directly impacted organic marketing campaigns. Their intention has been to make posts by friends and family much more prominent, which has, in turn, made it more difficult for businesses to reach their potential audience and engage with them – unless they dig deep and pay for sponsored posts of course!
So what can you do about it?
Now more than ever, you need to ensure that despite these changes, your social media marketing strategy hits the mark. Being present and active is just the start. There’s so much more you need to do to maximise your engagement potential:
Audio & visual content
We cannot stress this enough. Your audience wants video. They prefer it to simple text, and it’s even affecting the impact of images these days. The browsing habits of the social media generation have changed, and many people now ignore text posts altogether. Most of the platforms are focusing more on offering more varied video features, and that’s no accident. Going “live” is hot right now – our previous blog “Make your social media come alive by going ‘live'” explains why. Give it a try and get on board. Your brand and your business will thank you for it.
Unique posts
There are so many tools available that mean you can post the same content across multiple platforms. Don’t! Yes, you can have the same message for each, but you should always tailor it for that particular platform and mix it up a little. There are different approaches for each platform that have greater effect so putting in just a little more effort to tailoring your posts will be worth it.
Be Topical
Don’t just talk about yourself. Nobody likes a “me me me” approach, and when it comes to social media you should think of it as having a conversation. Obviously, a few posts to promote your brand are fine but you should also talk around your industry, discuss the latest trends and get involved in discussions. Sharing content from others and giving your opinion shows that you aren’t just concerned about yourself – you have your own ideas and have something of value to add to the conversation. You should also be aiming to share content from your followers and your customers too, they’ll definitely appreciate it. You could see more sharing of your own posts as a result, which again helps you reach more people. You should always respond to any post that your follower or customer has tagged you in, and mention them when you do.
Know the algorithms – and work with them
Different platforms have different algorithms – who’d have thought it?! And they’re constantly evolving, so keeping track of what you should be doing can be a never-ending battle. The latest for each platform are as follows (but like we said, they are very much subject to change!):
Twitter Since 2016, feeds have shown the “best Tweets” since you last visited. On an average 6000 tweets are tweeted on Twitter every second, so Twitter decided that ranking them to show tweets that you’d missed as well as recommended tweets from accounts that you don’t follow was best. In September 2018 they gave us all the option to change the settings so that tweets appear in chronological order – but this is something you need to actively change yourself, so not everyone will be working on this basis.
Facebook There was a big announcement and media campaign in early 2018 by Facebook saying that all posts would rank with friends and family first, information second and entertainment third. Facebook ads are a way round this but will require a budget.
Instagram Your feed shows posts according to content that Instagram thinks you’ll be most interested in, your relationship to the user posting and the timeliness of the post.
Knowing how the different platforms work is a good start. The next step is then to use a little of your marketing budget to boost your posts. This means posting social media ads and boosting your posts. But don’t just throw any old content out there and hope it sticks. Do a little research first. Work out where your audience is most likely to be and start there. For example, if your brand generally sits within an aged 18-30 demographic, then Facebook isn’t where they’re at. Focus more on Instagram first.
We’ve covered some other top tips in previous blogs which we strongly encourage you to revisit. Using hashtags will increase your reach (our blog
“Hashtags that pack a punch – and how to use them” covers this) and we also looked at the way to approach social media for maximum effect in our blog
“How to use social media for your small business”. If after that you’re still not sure, then all you need to do is get in touch. We can take the hassle away from you by taking care of your social media for you.
Give us a call!