Social Media 101: Creating Posts

Social media is a great tool for online marketing. It's not complicated to use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc., but there are a few tricks to the trade. Read on to find out how you can create the perfect post on social media platforms.

Facebook

Provide Information: Updates that are most appealing to users are those that offer something, but don’t give away all the information. You want your users to click to read more. 

Include Images: Posts with images get the highest amount of engagement on Facebook. That’s not really a surprise considering we are very visual and more likely to focus on images rather than text. Make sure to include one when you can.

Engage with Users: It’s not enough to simply post on social media. It’s just as important to engage with your users and build relationships through conversational dialogue.

Be Available: When your audience is listening to what you have to say, now is the time to post. This will ensure more engagement from users and boost conversations.

Mobile Friendly: The majority of your followers use mobile devices, so make sure you use simple imagery that will be easily seen on mobile devices.

Keep Things Positive: Positive posts equal engagement and sharing and will also inspire your users.

Best times to post are between 1pm - 4pm. Worst time to post is 8pm - 8am.

Twitter

Call to Action: Make sure your call to action is clear to your readers so that they know what you want them to do.

Punctuation: Please avoid abbreviations and all caps. Don’t sacrifice grammar just for the sake of space - be professional and concise. 

Format: Use questions, facts, and figures to engage readers and drive retweets. 

Mentions: Use mentions to prompt influences to engage with you and then respond.

Retweet: It's perfectly okay to retweet relevant content for your readers.

Best times to post are between 1pm - 3pm. Worst time to post is 8pm - 9am.

Pinterest

No Human Faces: It’s been known that images with no human faces get shared more often than those with human faces.

Multiple Colors: Images that are bold with dominant colors (think red, green, blue, etc.) get 3x the amount of likes and repins.

Light and Color: Images with at least 50% color saturation get repined 4x more often than those with 100% and 10x more than black and white images.

Portrait Style: You may want to consider vertically oriented images as those tend to get better results than horizontally  oriented images.

Lots of Red: Go bold! The vitality of reds and oranges really stands out and get 2x the amount of repins.

Little Background: The background is usually not your focal point, so use backgrounds that take up no more than 40% of your image.

Best times to post are between 2pm - 4pm and 8pm - 1am. Worst time to post is 5pm - 7pm.

Google+

Tag Brands and People: When you tag brands and people, they will get a notification and this can potentially engage them in your post. Only use when applicable.

Utilize Hashtags: You can increase your page’s reach by including relevant hashtags to your post. Keep in mind that Google+ will automatically include hashtags for trending topics.

Interact with Commenters: When you have comments, reply, and extend the conversations to drive more interest. 

Use Images: If you can, go with full size images. They will make your posts stand out more compared to tiny images or thumbnails. 

Trending Topics: Stay on top of what is happening around you. By getting involved with trending topics, you show yourself to be aware of current events and you will increase your brand’s visibility.

Best times to post are between 9pm - 11am. Worst time to post is 6pm - 8am.