Quick and EASY Guide ON What and When to POST on Social Media
Are you having trouble coming up with content to post on social media? You’re not alone. I talk to people everyday who are trying to tell the world about their work or their project without sounding too “selly”. It can be tough. I get it. Sometimes, it’s just easier to live tweet your favorite show instead of actually talk about your book.
I have a solution. And it’s free and simple.
I’ve come up with three types of posts that you can start creating on social media right now that will help take the guesswork out of posting, hone your skills and have you on your way to planning out your content ahead of time. (That’s the goal!) There are thousands of ways to approach your social media strategy when it comes to your service, store or product, and if you’re not used to or comfortable on social media it can be incredibly overwhelming. But if you start organizing your content into one of these three categories and then start mixing up that content online, you’ll be surprised how creative you can get!
The three categories are:
Inspire
Instruct
Incentivize
Inspirational Posts
Inspiration posts can be quotes, beautiful photographs or even reposts or retweets from someone else that really resonate with you. (The only rule if you’re using someone else’s work is to credit them). A great source of quotes is @Pinterest but I’ve also created a bunch myself using apps like @Wordswag . If you are a writer you should definitely be using that one. Breaking full stories into smaller posts with a beginning middle and end, can make you a better writer too! You can create/organize your inspirational posts by holiday or theme. Or create a bunch of quote posts ahead of time to use when scheduling posts or if you don’t have anything to share one day. A good rule of thumb is to not try to “sell” anything when you use a quote post. People can always tell when they’re being sold to and they won’t click, or even unlike your post if you get “salesy” on them.
Instructional Posts
Outside of fashion and music, the most popular content across all demographics on social media are tutorials and posts that teach us something. Don’t overthink this though. Keep things simple. I bet there is something that you do every day that someone else would LOVE to know how to do. Start from what you already know. For instance, when I found out that you can use IG’s swipe up feature even if you have less than 10K followers, I KNEW I had to show other folks how to do it. (If you haven’t seen it’s here on my IGTV check it out!) And it’s one of the most popular posts that I’ve made on Instagram to date. When I was frustrated with how I and other customers were treated at a comic book convention, I wrote 25 Reasons Why you’re Not Making Money at Comic Cons. Video is another great way to share a tutorial. Check out this one I did on how to read your IG stats. And, it’s a gift that keeps on giving. You can repurpose the content across youtube, IGTV, Twitter, Facebook. I’ve even seen tutorials on TikTok!
Incentivize your followers
Now that you’ve gained a few followers that keep returning because of your valuable content and regular posts, it’s time to get them to do something. Whether they sign up for a mailing list, refer other clients, purchase your product or schedule an appointment with you, your incentive posts should lead your followers toward taking an action with you. An incentive can be anything that requires an action.
For instance, giveaways are great vehicles for this. You can create rules where entrants give you their email addresses and follow you on social media in exchange for a chance to win a product or service. Or you could offer discounts or upgrades on referrals. Follow-gating and Like-gating are popular too. (those are contests where someone has to “Like” or “follow” you FB or Instagram to receive something. Instagram is also a great way to show off your followers. “Tag us in one of our products and you could be featured!” Is great for retailers and fashion brands.
The most important thing to have in place before you run any giveaway or sale is having your capture sequence or sales funnel in place. Meaning, whatever link you share in an incentive-based post, on any social media platform, needs to lead them to an ACTION.
Not sure when to post? Use your twitter, facebook, Pinterest and Instagram analytics to find your best times. (Check out my tutorial on how to read your Instagram analytics here). If you don’t have enough followers to get any stats, I suggest posting at 12pm ad 3pm or 3pm and 6pm until you can better gauge your engagment. Once you determine the best times of day to post, then rotate these three types of posts. (See chart below for examples).
If you don’t have a lot of followers, (less than 100) you might want to try mixing your content up this way first…
Once you get the hang of it, then you can absolutely post more times a day if you wish. But to start out, this is what I would start out with. In addition to these three types of posts, don’t forget to engage with others on your platform of choice. This means occasionally commenting, asking questions, answering questions, reposting and following relevant hashtags. Want to learn more about hashtags? Check out my free eBook on Hashtags below!
FREE EBOOK!
If you’ve ever been stumped about what to post and when, this is the book for you!
Everyday Hashtags!
Over 50 prompts for posting everyday of the week! This is the book you need to keep in your arsenal for blog post writing, social media writing even pitching content!