In the age of search engine and social media dominance, it is easier to market content. However, only a few can cut through the noise.
In the 90s, if you wanted visibility, you needed to market your website manually. If you wanted visibility, then you needed referrals, and emails lists. You must also ensure your site is ready to send out RSS feeds.
How do you create an interesting, viral-ready post in social media? You just need five things to work to your advantage.
Five Ingredients of a Perfect Social Media Post
An Attention-Grabbing Headline (That Follows the Rules)
You want your headlines to highlight the subject.However, you don’t want to reveal the outcome or some important details. Writing them in this way makes them irresistible. To formulate excellent headlines, you can compare the content of your story to competitive and viral posts.
You can assume that some people have already seen a donkey jumping on a stump. So, you can use a headline that is unique and has the attributes of the content. An example is: “A fat donkey jumps and mauls stump.” The sample headline grabs the attention of your audience because a jumping fat donkey is rare. How its actions affect a stump, which the headline claims is mauled, is an interesting bit to see.
Following the outbreak of “clickbait” headlines, which conceal or “hype” the particular outcome of content, algorithms, so create headlines within the guidelines and algorithms.
Value-Adding to Both Audiences and Their Networks
Writing content about a donkey jumping on a stump and flattening it is entertaining and funny. It adds value by exuding a positive mood to your audience, which urges them to share this content to their friends who need a pick-me-up or just a laugh.
Content that adds value can contain emotions, accurate and educational knowledge, unique experiences for the viewer, and a social media profile enhancer.
Individuals who share your content on their respective profiles want to be associated with your update. For example, sharing the post about the donkey gives the profile owner a “funny” and “humorous” side. If you post intellectual content aligned with your brand, you can expect audiences that understand and interpret your content correctly to react and share your content.
The way your content adds value depends on your target audience, which is why target market profiling is important. However, always remember that all published content must add value every single time.
Utilize Relevance to Your Advantage
Another reason to profile your audience is to ensure your content is relevant to their lives. If your target audience were chefs, fun social media content for them would be inside jokes in restaurants or videos and blogs focused on dining humor.
However, you can also align yourself with certain trending events if your brand is relevant to it. For example, if you’re running a confectionery business, you can always ride with holiday trending topics. To have the best results, you can build an amazing cake worthy of a marketing stunt, include its making-of video, and apply the tag or hashtag. Use a paid advertising campaign, and you will definitely see great outreach!
Remember to always make your brand’s story focused, coherent, and personal.
Research Peak Hours of Visibility
To ensure your well-made content is visible to your target audience, know the peak hours most of them log into social networks. Unfortunately, this is not an exact science even if analytic information can give you certain insights.
Most studies, such as Co-Schedule’s own analysis of its analytic information, shows that about 1-4PM in your local time zone during weekdays is the best range to update your page. If you have to post your strongest content, you can obtain maximum visibility during Fridays (the day people are obviously happier than the rest of the week).
You can see the rest of the studies about peak hour visibility on social media here.
Connect the Analytic Dots
The best way to know how each of your content is performing after posting is through the use of analytic information. Facebook’s Analytics tool allows you to gain insight on your paid advertisements and can show you the click-through, view-through (for videos), and overall impact rate on your target audiences, segregated according to gender, location, and other factors. Aside from Facebook Analytics, other tools can help you collect and analyze date more accurately to help you shape your next content in the best way possible.