A Few Simple Strategies for Sharpening Your Social Media Skills
Social media is an essential tool for driving traffic to your blog, but it is only a truly effective tool when it is used properly. In fact, one of the most common mistakes made by new bloggers is to drive prospective readers away because they don’t yet understand the proper etiquette for using each platform and have not figured out how to build a strong following that continues to grow at an exponential rate.
As a result, there is a fairly steep learning curve for using many of the most popular social media platforms, and it certainly doesn’t help that it often seems like there is a new platform being developed with each passing day. Though the successful use of social media can be a fairly daunting task, the following strategies represent simple guidelines for promoting your brand while creating an intensely loyal audience.
It is important to note that every blog regardless of its subject matter can benefit from the sound use of social media. Whether your blog details vital services for cpa Surprise AZ or provides insight into the performance of baseball prospects playing for independent league teams in the Northeast, social media use is a necessary part of promotion and allows bloggers to connect on a deeper level with their readers. There is almost no circumstance in which social media use cannot be of tremendous benefit to a blogger.
You Love Words, But Your Readers Love Pictures
Make no mistake, your words matter a great deal to your readers. It is also the case that your words are far more likely to be read and shared with others if there is an image included in the social media post. This is why all of the most recently developed social media platforms are almost entirely visual in nature, and it is for this reason that you should try to find a visual that is every bit as captivating as your writing.
Timing Is Surprisingly Important
If you are an early bird, here is a bit of advice: Take advantage of those early-morning hours to be productive by staying away from social media. This is because social media posts are far less likely to do well if they are posted before 9 am. Each platform has different times in which it is most ideal to post content, so it is quite important to research the perfect time of the day and day of the week to publish your post to social media. You may have a great post that has real potential to go viral, but you limit that possibility to a great degree if you do not understand the importance of timing.
“ICYMI”
This is something of a contentious issue among social media users, but there is a way to post and re-post content without alienating your readers. Simply be polite about the fact that you are re-posting something by using the preface “ICYMI,” which stands for “In case you missed it.” In addition to being polite, you should also try to post at a time when the readers most likely to have initially missed the info are online and those who already saw the information are offline. Generally speaking, a window of 10 to 12 hours after the original post is rarely considered a breach of social media etiquette.
Headlines Have to Be Compelling
Social media posts are often limited in terms of content, and this is one of the reasons readers find it so appealing. They can quickly scan through reams of information to find something interesting to read. Scan is the operative word here, which means that writing a compelling headline for the social media post is particularly important. While you will likely hear all manner of complaints from literary types about “clickbait” and “listicles,” the reason these kinds of headlines are so pervasive is because they are highly effective. Readers are more likely to read an article if it is broken up into numbered entries or if the headline leaves the reader wanting to find out the whole story that has only been hinted at through a headline teaser.
