If you want to build your brand on social media, you need to do it organically. Purchasing fake followers and likes is not only an unethical practice, but real people will sniff out suspicious activity quickly—and then your entire brand’s reputation is damaged, and it will take ages to repair it. While growing your audience the old-fashioned way is undoubtedly a time-consuming endeavor, it will take less time than salvaging it once folks notice that your engagement levels are not matching your high follower count.
So how are you supposed to expand your online presence organically? Much of it has to do with posting. Not just producing enticing content—this you already know—but the act of posting itself requires a fair amount of strategy. You can publish a visually stunning and informative video, but it could fail to make a difference if you do not upload it at the right time. Here are a few pieces of advice to guide your posting habits:
Be platform-specific
What works on one channel may not work on another. For instance, an infographic about consumer habits could attract a great deal of attention on LinkedIn, but Facebook and Twitter users would find it incongruous. Instead, they would prefer something like a witty tweet or a humorous blog post. Each platform has a different built-in audience, so remember who they are when deciding what content is most appropriate to post.
You also want to avoid repeating yourself. Would someone follow you on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Pinterest if you post the same things on all of them? No, because they can see all they need to from one channel. Keep your content fresh so that cross-channel followers will not grow bored of you.
Re-share user-generated content
Re-posting user-generated content is an excellent way to acknowledge your followers. Maybe you started a Twitter hashtag and found someone’s response amusing, or perhaps someone drew fanart and sent it to you on Instagram. When you re-share material that your fans have made, you make them feel appreciated and recognized—and they will remain loyal to you.
Other people will also see that you pay attention to what other people are making. Posting only your own material, as good as it may be, suggests that you are above celebrating your followers. Sharing user-generated material, however, hints that you are a real person (or team) who is active online and is interested in what your followers have to say.
Post at advantageous times
Your content will also not perform well if you are not strategic about when you publish it. Social media analytics tools can provide you with in-depth insight into when your followers are most active, so you can post right before everybody logs on in the morning, when they are bored at work, when they are between classes, when folks go home, and when they check their phones before heading to bed.
Time zones and weekends play a role, too. Getting those Facebook and Instagram likes means that you should publish content according to where your highest concentration of followers live and what their internet habits are (also note that 80 percent of the US population lives in Central and Eastern time zones).
Consider your business type
Your business type affects the best times to post. Sprout Social reports that the best time for education brands to post on Instagram in the evenings, especially at 8 pm on Mondays. Healthcare businesses, however, do particularly well at 1 pm on Tuesdays, and tech companies are wise to post on Facebook late morning through early afternoon during weekdays. With your brand type and platform audience in mind, research the best times to reach your audience.
Remember the algorithm
Different social media platforms have algorithms that influence what users see. According to Mention.com:
“Social media is adopting its own form of SEO in a way that promotes a positive user experience. The way this algorithm works is by putting your posts in a pool as small as one percent of your followers. If those people engage with the content, then it gets introduced into a larger pool. Slowly but surely, more and more people see it, but only if it’s engaging.”
Be sure to make your content as intriguing as possible. If a small sample of people does not respond to it, you won’t have much of a chance to find out if anyone else from your overall audience will, either.
Posting on social media is not a science, but you should use data and knowledge of your followers when devising your content strategy. What tips do you have for publishing material on social media?
