What should I be posting?

Welcome to the third and final installment in our social networking for business series. You’ve learned all about which social networks you should be using, as well as how often you should be using them. Now it’s time to find out about content – what exactly should you be saying?

This is the part of the process where many businesses fail to make the most of their social networking opportunities. The bottom line is irrelevant or uninteresting content will not give the right impression of your business to your customers, which can have a dramatic negative effective on your business. No-one wants that.

Get Engaged

Photos, text, videos and links all encourage your friends and followers to interact with your business in a different way. The number one thing that you should aim to achieve in social media is engagement. Here are some ideas about the types of posts you should consider to encourage engagement:

1. Showcase products/events – show friends what is involved in creating the new product/event, behind the scenes pictures and information are good examples of this.
2. Showcase the organization – helps to show fans and clients who you are and makes you more approachable
3. Use the timeline – Use the ‘timeline feature’ to tell your story. Add important events and milestones to build up brand ‘heritage’
4. Polls – The Facebook ‘polls’ widget enables you to engage with more of your community in a way that is valuable to both you and them. Polls are also favored by ‘edgerank’, meaning that they will usually be seen by more of your audience than a normal post would.
5. Jump on a meme – Funny content spreads, and a humorous entry will help to show your organizations sense of humor. IF you’re feeling game, rather than sharing an existing image or video, create your own!
6. Caption this competition – Typically they don’t need a real prize, but caption comps are a great way to encourage interaction between your followers. Try and pick a funny image for the best result.
7. Funny and cute posts work – pretty self-explanatory, a funny or cute picture will always be commented on and shared more often than any other type of picture.
8. Simple ‘fill-in-the-gaps’ posts – These types of posts are great for encouraging engagement with your site, e.g. “my favorite thing to do on a rainy day is ________________”
9. Ask questions – posts that ask questions are shown to increase engagement by encouraging commenting, see below:

A good mix of these types of posts will encourage your friends and followers to get involved with your business, resulting in increased brand awareness whilst attracting potential new customers too!

Well there it is, the three steps to successful social networking for business! We hope that you have found this series helpful and that you are now well on your way to a rewarding social networking experience for your business.

As always, if we can help you with your social networking, website design and development or online marketing, please give us a shout. Or, friend us on Facebook, twitter or Google+ to stay in the loop, and possibly find out more helpful tips!