Complement Your Online Marketing And SEO Efforts With Social Media - Our Top Tips

When correctly, posting to social media can build brand awareness and complement your SEO and online marketing efforts. Here are some of our top tips for posting on Facebook and Instagram.

Instagram

1. Post consistently. Stick to consistency in posting and know what times/days work best for your account. Frequently post to keep those who are interested in your content engaged. Many businesses find that posting at “off-times” will produce the best engagement - think, for example, lunchtime and after work.
    
2. Promote your content with hashtags. Use hashtags - Instagram gives you 30 hashtags to use per post, make sure you’re utilizing these so people within your niche are able to find your content.
    
3. Create a community. Build a community and gain new content to repurpose for your account. Create a unique hashtag and ask others to use it. Once people start using the hashtag, then you can share their photos (with their permission and using proper credit). You can even begin creating specific hashtags for events.
    
4. Ask followers on other platforms to follow you on Instagram. Chances are, people who are following you on one platform, aren’t following you on another. Share a post encouraging them to follow you on your other networks, and don’t forget to include links on your newsletters and website!
    
5. Encourage people to engage with your content, and take the time to engage with others. Share your content and encourage your followers to like and comment on the post. If others see people in your network commenting and liking, they’re more likely to take action as well or reply to their comments. Respond to comments you receive from others, leave genuine comments for others.
    
6. Consider using Instagram stories and video content. Using different sources of content, like stories and video content, will boost your ranking according to Instagram’s algorithm.
    
7. Tag people in your posts. Posts that include another handle gain 56% more engagement. Additionally, if you’re sharing someone else’s photo, always make sure to give appropriate credit.
    
8. Use Emojis. Emojis are frequently used in Instagram posts - in fact, Instagram reports that nearly 50% of all captions and comments on the platform use emojis. Using emojis in your posts increases your searchability.
    
9. Keep your brand voice in mind. Always keep your demographic in mind - who are these posts meant for? Copy should be written in a way that is consistent and true to your brand while capturing the attention of your intended audience. Similarly, ensure that the images have a consistent tone and feel and can appeal to your audience.
    

Facebook

1. Vary your posts. First, write exciting content for your industry. Every industry in the world has the potential to be exciting. The more exciting you can make your content, the more attention you can generate for your business - more attention = more engagement. Then, remember to vary the type of posts you are pushing. Creating a mix of promotional and more lifestyle-, industry news- or audience-focused posts can keep your audience interested, keep your feed from becoming too "salesey".
    
2. Share original content. Use Facebook to share important news and updates about your company, as well as original branded imagery. This helps you stand out from the crowd. You can easily use Facebook to link to blogs, which provides your followers with valuable content and can complement your SEO efforts.
    
3. Engage your community with questions. Prompt your following with engaging questions. If they’re already following you, chances are, they like your content and are waiting for you to make a move. The ball is in your court.
    
4. Don’t be robotic. Add a human touch to your posts - don’t just focus narrowly on your services. This is not effective and inauthentic and can really tank your ratings on the platform. Vary your posts, change up the type of content you share and make it obvious that you’re trying to create a connection, NOT just sell. 
    

   For example, include content featuring your team, your company values, local events, or even “slice of life” content focusing on what’s going on at your location! If your goal is to draw a significant amount of attention to deals or services, Facebook ads might be a better bet than your daily posts.

    
5. Don’t be a spammer. Facebook has a huge team dedicated to cracking down on spammers - never buy Facebook likes, don’t spam your followers with clickbait content, or valueless updates. 
    
6. Make sure the posts you’re pushing are consistent with your brand. Adding a touch of personality to your local business’s Facebook page can help show personality and authenticity. However, it’s important to keep your brand image in mind. Unprofessional or controversial content is best saved for your personal feed!
    
7. Figure out the best time to post your content. Test, test, test. Always experiment with post times to see what works best for your audience and your engagement since this varies from industry to industry and often day to day. 
    

   Try posting in the off-hours when far more users are offline. When there’s not much being shared to your audience, your posts have a higher chance of popping up in their feed and standing out. If you can ramp up the engagement rate of off-hours content in evenings, your content is likely to be sitting at the top of the news feed for users when they wake in the morning and start checking their feed.

    
8. Respond to people’s comments. By responding to comments from your followers, it makes them feel valuable and validates their interest in you. Additionally, responding to reviews can foster goodwill and mitigate any negative situations.

Contact Us

When you’re spending time working on your business, setting up and managing your company’s social media profiles can seem like a daunting task. To enlist the help of experts, contact our team at 587-880-3358 or through our online contact form!