2020 - Why your social media presence is even more important!
Ok, so this year hasn’t been a great year for lots of people and plenty of businesses. To say it’s been challenging, would be an understatement. But in a world where the decisions on big issues are way out of our control, it’s worth remembering that when it comes to our own social media marketing, we can still make a noise and utilise our voice in a positive way.
It’s all too easy when things get difficult to stop doing something and I’ve lost count of the number of individuals and businesses who seemed to have walked away from their social media accounts completely. This to me seems like the wrong thing to do as your audience will quickly forget that you exist and all your previous hard work will be in vain.
So, what’s the right thing to do?
Like all marketing channels, social media success relies on three things to be successful
- Regularity
- Consistency
- Relevancy
At Footprint Social Media, I advise my clients to keep posting valuable content, which will be of interest to their target audience. It’s also worth emphasising that you need to keep your profiles up to date, like, share and comment on other people’s posts, reach out to others, respond quickly to people who have contacted you and of course do everything you can to encourage engagement.
What’s the optimum?
I’m often asked whether there is an optimum number of posts that you should do on each platform. Well in my experience, every social media business has a different view on this and the figures can vary enormously.
It goes without saying that if you don’t maintain an active presence on your social media profiles, customers are likely to choose another business when searching for products and services. However, posting too often will leave your followers feeling overwhelmed and give you a negative reputation. Do this for too long and they’ll probably unfollow you.
See below for my advice, and some finding from recent research, for four of the main social media channels.
Frequency
- LinkedIn recommends sharing 20 posts per month, which averages to about once per business day. However, it’s worth stating that it’s not just the frequency that’s important, but the type of content you're sharing. It’s a business networking site, so industry news, business announcements, job opportunities, etc. are great, plus some Friday fun can help too.
- Facebook – According to HubSpot, businesses with more than 10,000 followers see an increased number of clicks when posting more than once per day. Businesses with less than 10,000 followers received 50 per cent fewer clicks per post when they published twice per day. And finally, brands that posted just 1-5 times per month saw their engagement nearly double!
- Twitter - You can post as often as you want on Twitter because the average lifetime of a tweet is between 15-20 minutes and most retweets happen within an hour of publishing. Our advice is to Tweet periodically throughout the day, but don't overload your followers with tweets.
- Instagram – Your audience size should dictate your posting frequency. For example, businesses with smaller audiences are better off sharing 1-2 photos a day. Whatever you do consistency should be paramount. Don’t post 5 times one day and then not again for a week, as you will see a drop in engagement and probably lose followers too!
When it comes to social media it’s essential to maintain a regular and consistent presence, personality and voice across the various platforms. Our advice is to draw up an integrated strategy from the start to give your social media campaigns real clout.