Content Savants aims to continually enhance and improve upon social media content, and as such, we are ever in search of tips, tricks and hacks that help to boost performance of social media postings.  By “boost performance”, we mean increase social engagement, likes, comments, and… most importantly, grow sales for you and your business.

Use Video Content

Research on social media marketing says again and again, videos perform better than stills.  According to research by online content consultant BuzzSumo, Facebook video posts enable over 70% more engagement than posted photos.  For the same set of clicks it takes to post a meme, the video content will outweigh the benefit by far, according to this and many other research reports. 

The challenge with video content isn’t imagining why or how it draws better engagement, nor is it in the effort of posting.  The challenge is in the development, requiring much more time and complexity.  The good news is that still, video content represents a minority of postings (~10% on Facebook and Instagram).  Your business can stand out better, enabling much greater value for the work you put into video content. 

Use the right language

While it remains true that nearly any content posted on a regular basis can have a positive result for engagement with potential customers, what makes content development a professional art is the fact that there are some patterns which can distinguish a “good” post from an “average” post.  We’re not even talking about a “bad” post – in this context, meaning one that works against your business interests.  Offensive material would, for most industries, count as a bad post.  What we’re looking at here is the opportunity to optimize postings from simply “Product x available” to “Shop now for your new Product x”.  The former is a rather bland statement that merely announces availability, compared to the latter which touches on enthusiasm and personality.  Here are some other examples:

“OK”	“Great!”
See our new Product X	Check out Product X
Top 10 new products	The most sought-after products of the year
You’ll love…	You’ll be amazed… or You’ll be inspired…
Let us show you	Come and explore
Be sure to check out our latest products	Don’t miss out on limited-time offers

Leverage built-in features

Instagram has a great sticker as part of Instagram Story called the countdown, making it possible for individuals and businesses to set a countdown clock for publishing new content.  This feature is brilliant for generating curiosity and interest, particularly for product launches, business openings, special events and live streamed content. 

Use quizzes

Through a Facebook lead gen campaign, you can also set up quizzes by using the lead form.  Typically this feature is used to interact with the audience after they have clicked on your Facebook ad, and is meant to help categorize customers by obtaining their initial feedback on an offer or opportunity.  Giving customers a quiz enables more active engagement and begins the customer on a journey.  Questions that are on-topic (relevant to your products or services) while invoking common knowledge can give the prospective customer a good feeling for being smart and knowledgeable, effectively creating a positive association with their first experience. 

Avoid the mistakes

As mentioned earlier, there is a way to place “bad” content online, and defeat the purpose of your own efforts.  That’s why we recommend playing it safe from the start, avoiding political, religious or other potentially contentious issues.  A quick search on Google will reveal gargantuan mistakes made in the past by well-known global brands.  While they can buy their way out of a PR disaster, small and medium-sized businesses wouldn’t have the resources. 

More subtle mistakes that many marketing teams make is to focus on branding.  Brand and image are important, but the leveraging of good branding at the early stages of a marketing campaign is far outweighed by the need to educate your customers and raise awareness of the business.  That’s why content rules the day for fast-growing businesses, enabling posted messages to reach more effectively into the customer’s needs and motivations for seeking out your products and services. 

Closely related to an excessive focus on branding is a more practical mistake that is all-too-common, not giving customers a way to respond.  Clever memes and stories are great to entertain your audience (and that has value), however give your customers a link, a phone number, a web address… anything that allows them to initiate a connection and reach out directly. 

And finally, the most impactful mistake that companies make is to start a social media campaign and quit too early.  Real results take time.  At the heart of social media marketing is an effort to connect with customers, and to make your business a part of their thinking.  Specifically, the aim of a social media campaign is to trigger action, preferably immediate action, but if the customer is not ready to respond, the posting must set a trigger which reminds them of your business at a later time.  In this way, consistency and perseverance are everything when it comes to sustainable success.