What Kinds of Social Media Posts Perform Best?
By Andrea Pikscher - eGuide Content Marketing Manager
Social media is quite a tough nut to crack. Sometimes people get millions of views or followers off of posts and videos that seem to take no time or effort at all. Some people make it look so easy. However, if it was truly easy, everybody would be doing it. There are a few simple tools you can use to help create posts that will invite a little more engagement from your followers.
Video on Social Media
That’s it. That’s the post.
Just kidding! In all seriousness though, video does extremely well across many different platforms. And while that can seem really intimidating, the good news is that the videos that do the best are natural and unedited. The more it seems like people are talking to a real person the better.
So you can post quick videos introducing a new product, introducing people to your team, showing people around your office. Followers and viewers love to see the real people behind the products and companies they follow on social media.
Also, you can take a group of still photos and put them into a video. Almost like a good old fashioned slideshow. This still counts as a video to the algorithm. This is great for sharing a bunch of photos you might have taken at an event or to feature new products.
So while video can sound intimidating, you can do a lot with a little.
ABT - Always Be Tagging
Honestly, tagging companies and people on social media can be a little tedious. It can really take an attention to detail to make sure you’re tagging the exact right person and the exact right person on each platform. Because unfortunately, someone’s username may not be the same on each one.
However, putting that aside, tagging is a great way to encourage better performance on your post. If you tag people using your product, tag people at an event you threw, tag employees - those people are more inclined to do a couple of things:
Like the post. If you tag someone in a post they are in they’re much more likely to look at your post and like it. Heck, they might even share it.
The more people you tag the more social media feeds your post may end up in naturally. Another great way to get your post in front of people - new or old that may interact with your post.
This also may encourage people to follow you. If you tag someone they might not have even realized that they weren’t following you and they’ll begin to.
Never miss an opportunity to tag people and companies where you can.
(Side note: You should always be getting permission from people when tagging. This can be a simple “Do you mind if I tag you on social media?” before the photo is taken. You could also have all employees or event attendees sign social media waivers so you can take photos to your heart's content})
Let’s Collaborate!
Collaborating goes one step farther than tagging. On Meta platforms (Facebook/Instagram) there are a couple of different ways to collaborate with others.
On Facebook, if you’re hosting an event, you can add a co-host. This is a simple way to make sure your event shows up on your page as well as the pages of any other organizations and/or hosts that might be involved.
On Instagram, when tagging people, you can now add a collaborator on some posts. What this function does is make it appear as though your post is also a natural/organic post on your collaborators feed. This makes the post appear to both your followers and the collaborators followers - basically going out organically to twice as many people.
Trends
And finally, trends. This doesn’t mean you need to tag on to every single trend that comes up. But if you use a trending sound - even if you aren’t doing the trend associated with that sound - you’ll get more post views. You can also use trending hashtags, you can make mention of pop culture moments or even use memes and gifs.
Not every post needs to be a serious post. Overall on social media, you want people to engage with you more. So having a little fun every now and then is a good way to keep your followers engaged.
Unfortunately, there’s no magic bullet for how to go viral or make sure one specific post pops. But you can play the system a bit using the tools of each social media platform to your advantage.
Tagging people, using hashtags, and following some trends, are great ways to get yourself ahead of the pack a little bit.
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