Menu

social media

Home / Posts tagged "social media" (Page 2)
What to post — and what not to post — on social media

What to post — and what not to post — on social media

By Paula Maggio

Your company has several social media accounts. You are on Facebook and Twitter, and you’re considering jumping on Instagram. Now you want to know how to keep your social media accounts fresh and engaging.

So you wonder, exactly what will you post on all of your platforms? How will you identify the kinds of posts people actually want to share? And how will you know what not to post?

Never fear. Here are 30+ good ideas for social media posts, culled from the Triple Canopy Media blog, the Constant Contact blog, and the CoSchedule blog.

In addition, we have a list of eight bad things you should avoid posting altogether, as shared by Social Media Today.

35 Good Ideas for Social Media Posts

  1. Link to your company’s latest blog post, which will also help attract and retain visitors to your website
  2. Workplace photo: behind the scenes
  3. An answer from your FAQ
  4. Introduction to new employee
  5. Share product/service popular with your customers
  6. Interview or case study with a customer
  7. Customer review
  8. Community event
  9. Something funny
  10. Memes or GIFs
  11. Your company’s story: share one piece at a time
  12. Podcast
  13. #TBT
  14. Seasonal item
  15. Inspiring quote
  16. Highlight customer of the month
  17. An event you attended
  18. Attention-grabbing statistic
  19. Poll
  20. Fill-in-the-blank post
  21. Video featuring products or people from your business
  22. Repeat top-performing posts
  23. Email newsletter
  24. Infographic link
  25. Survey link
  26. Image
  27. Correct a misperception
  28. Favorite book or playlist
  29. Shout-out to other local business
  30. Industry research
  31. Helpful tip(s) related to your products or services
  32. Celebration of company milestone
  33. Promote your other social networks
  34. Ask people to join your mailing list
  35. Thank you

8 Bad Ideas for Social Media Posts

  1. Negative posts about customers or clients
  2. Irrelevant viral content
  3. Political or religious posts
  4. Content that isn’t properly proofread or edited
  5. Too much overtly promotional content
  6. Content inconsistent with branding
  7. Misleading posts
  8. Unattributed content

Focus on what people like to share

One final note. BuzzSumo analyzed 100 million posts in 2014 to look for patterns in the most shared content. They found that the content people shared most frequently had either some or all of these features:

  • Invoked awe, laughter, or amusement
  • Appealed to people’s narcissistic side – made them look smart for sharing
  • Were lists or infographics
  • Were from trusted sources

So it’s a good idea to create a schedule with a lineup of posts that include some — or all — of the 35 items in the above list — and none of those among the infamous eight.

Then make sure you have a shareable mix that will make people laugh, make them feel smart, and give them quick, graphically pleasing information they can trust.

Why Post on Social Media?

Why Post on Social Media?

By Paula Maggio

According to the Pew Research Center, social media use is well-established and stable. It is not going away. That is why social media should be an essential component of your content marketing plan.

About 90% of marketers agree. They say social media generates important exposure for their companies. Nearly 97% of all Fortune 500 companies use at least one social media network to communicate with stakeholders and advocates.

Social media stats

These statistics show why. According to the 2018 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 87% of respondents experienced increased exposure from using social media, 78% reported increased website traffic, and 63% saw an increase in customer loyalty.

There are approximately 3.04 billion social media users worldwide, with global internet users spending 135 minutes daily on social media sites. About the same number — more than 3 billion — actively access social media on their mobile devices.

In the U.S., 79% of people have at least one social media profile, making the U.S. the largest social media advertising market in the world. Ninety percent of these folks reach out to brands or retailers.

That same percentage of consumers say they are more likely to buy from a brand they follow on social media over one they do not.

More stats

  • 67% of consumers say they are more likely to increase their spending with a brand they follow on social media.
  • 50% of consumers follow brands on social to learn about new products or services.
  • 45% of consumers are more likely to research a product or service when a brand’s employees post about that product or service.

What Social Media Can Do For Your Business

Social media does more than generate important exposure for your business and help communicate with stakeholders and advocates. It also:

  • creates and increases brand awareness
  • builds credibility and trust
  • educates your audience(s)
  • generates demand for your goods or services
  • generates leads
  • builds loyalty and brand advocacy with existing clients/customers
  • builds an audience
  • generates sales/revenue
  • improves search engine rankings
  • increases website traffic
  • drives attendance to events, and
  • supports product launches

Make Your Choices

Now that you know why your business needs to have a social media presence, make sure you know the rest. Find out the demographics of the various platforms available. Learn about the platform preferences of each generation. Find out what makes good content.

Let Triple Canopy Media Do Social Media For You

Trust us. Social media is a key element for marketing success. If you’re not sure how to do your own social media, reach out to Triple Canopy Media. At Triple Canopy Media we would be glad to show you how it’s done. Or do it for you.

Here’s what we do:

  1. We assess your needs, determine which social media platforms will best serve them, and set up a regular process for sharing carefully crafted content about your business via selected platforms.
  2. We create a cohesive strategy and measurement plan.
  3. We integrate the plan across the organization.
  4. Finally, we use metrics to monitor content marketing performance and ROI.
Social media aligns connection, customer service

Social media aligns connection, customer service

By Paula Maggio

Connection. That’s what social media is supposed to be all about, right? But if the research is to be believed, that depends.

When researchers surveyed undergraduate students, they got a different answer. Most of the undergrads said they used social media to alleviate boredom. Results from another survey showed that the emotion most often elicited by social media was envy, not connectedness.

A third study showed that people who had used Facebook felt less satisfied with their lives. The more they used it, the more their satisfaction dropped. Ouch!

Activity and engagement create energy for your business

Active Facebook users experienced the opposite. Those who engaged with content, left comments, and used the chat feature felt better, not worse.

What does this mean for your business? If you want to reach the mainstream and promote growth, provide entertaining content that encourages connections on social networks.

Because if we prompt our audience to become active, rather than passive, consumers of content, we will satisfy the needs of our own business and make our consumers happy as well. We create energy, rather than fatigue. We create followers . . . and they create followers, and the beat goes on.

So go ahead. Share content that promotes action. Promote your events. Create interactive user experiences. Provide information people can use. Then be direct in encouraging people to share it and to use it.

Remember the customer service angle

However, there’s another angle on this. And that angle is customer service. Customers who post questions to a business or brand via social media expect a response within four hours, according to some. But other research says that window is even smaller, indicating that whether a question is posed on Twitter or Facebook, users expect a reply within an hour. Yes, one hour.

That kind of response rate is rare. And as it turns out, getting a response at all is uncommon. That’s because companies ignore 70% of Facebook questions. Yep. Seventy percent. As hard as it is to believe, when Facebook followers post their questions online, only 30 percent of them get their questions answered.

When you consider that connecting with consumers is the goal of having a presence on social media, failing to reach out and answer the queries posted by consumers is self-defeating. Particularly when statistics show that customers receiving a response on Twitter spend 20 percent more and recommend brands 30 percent more actively

Stand out like Starbucks

With businesses failing so mightily at connecting with their consumers, it seems easy to stand out just by improving customer service. That means:

  • providing interactive, shareable content,
  • asking consumers to use it and to share it, and
  • answering customer service questions quickly and completely.

Take Starbucks, for example. The chain keeps its social media profiles ups to date, interacts with customers, responds to their every issue by delivering efficient and uninterrupted customer support, and considers meaningful feedback valuable. It even established a separate Twitter account with the handle @MyStarbucksIdeas to receive customer queries. It now has more than 51,000 followers.

Reap the rewards

Reap the rewards of social media platforms by connecting with your customers and improving your customer service. Deliver interactive and professional content; listen to your customers; build an online community by setting up a Facebook group for your customers to join; and respond promptly to their questions, reviews, and comments.

You’ll help generate revenue, improve your online visibility, and expand your customer reach.

Going viral: Pipe dream or possibility?

Going viral: Pipe dream or possibility?

By Paula Maggio

You dream of your social media post going viral. But is that a pipe dream or a dream that may one day become a reality? The former option is more likely.

“Organic virality is a pipe dream for most marketers,” says Chad Pollitt, co-founder of Relevance, in a post on Social Media Today. “After publishing over 1,000 articles in my career I’ve never had anything go “viral.”

Sophie Elizabeth Smith of Buzzsumo agrees. “Viral posts are outliers. They are not the norm; they are exceptional. We’ve analyzed over 500 million articles to see what the typical share count is. Most content gets very few shares. The average is 8 shares,” she wrote in a post on the Digital Marketing Institute’s blog.

“This is true even of the very largest viral sites. Their top posts will significantly outperform the rest of their content. Even for BuzzFeed and their competitors, their viral posts are outliers,” she added.

And since a large proportion of posts that are retweeted are those written by traditional media, it is not likely average tweeters will find one of their posts going viral. Social media, it seems, functions more as a filter or loudspeaker for news from traditional media, rather than as an alternate news source, according to the authors of “Trends in Social Media: Persistence and Decay.

Even if a post does spread rapidly by being frequently shared with many individuals, its popularity will not last. In “Trends,” the authors note that few trending topics last more than 20 to 40 minutes. Those that do last longer cover topics that resonate with people and derive from stories that traditional media cover and that many users retweet.

The longevity of trending topics

It’s those retweets that determine trends. The greater the number of authors who tweet or retweet about a subject, the greater its lifespan, the “Trends” article notes. “Thirty-one percent of the tweets of trending topics are retweets,” its authors say. The more retweets, the longer the trend lasts.

Go to your own Twitter page for proof and you’ll see that trending topics change frequently within a 24-hour period and the links that show up are often posted by traditional media.

Topics start and stop trending, then trend again – possibly because of different time zones. And there are always many topics competing for attention among Twitter’s 321 million users.

Tips for going viral

None of this means that you can’t try for viral. And social media gurus aren’t shy about sharing tips. Here are some from Jeff Bulas:

  • Write a great headline
  • Keep it short
  • Keep it appropriate
  • Use lists and images
  • Allow comments
  • Make it interactive
  • Take a human angle
  • Make it genuine

Also consider how using – or not using – hashtags can affect your retweets, which are crucial for virality.

Tips for posting what people want to share

In her post on the Digital Marketing Institute’s blog, Smith said that BuzzSumo analyzed 100 million posts in 2014 to look for patterns in the most shared content. According to her, the most shared content had either some or all of these features:

  • Invoked awe, laughter or amusement
  • Appealed to people’s narcissistic side – made them look smart for sharing
  • Were lists or infographics
  • Were from trusted sources

She also shares features of shared content identified by other surveys.

Reality check

A look at posts that actually made it beyond pipe dream to reality by going viral may also help us understand what a viral post actually looks like.

Exploring them can also serve as a reality check that viral posts are rare. And if your bosses doubt you when you tell them this, you can encourage them to do their own reality check by showing them this blog post.

From Gen Z to Boomers: Social Media Preferences

From Gen Z to Boomers: Social Media Preferences

By Paula Maggio

You are putting together a marketing campaign. And because you are doing it right, it includes social media targeted to the market you have identified. That target market can be based on age, gender, location, language, spending power and patterns, interests, or stage of life – or any combination thereof.

Understanding the demographics of each social media platform is essential before deciding which platforms make the most sense for the market your brand is targeting.

If age is an important factor in determining your target market, there is plenty of information out there that will help you choose the platform or platforms that will get eyeballs – of the right age — on your posts.

Choosing social media platforms: What the numbers tell us

It’s important to choose the right platform for your social media posts because social media is not going away. By 2020, there will be an estimated 2.95 billion social media users. Of those, 78% will be in the United States, making the U.S. the largest social media advertising market in the world.

Six years later, by 2026, here’s how the numbers will break down by generation: The Silent Generation (those 74 and older and born before 1946) will make up 14% of the U.S. population; Baby Boomers, 66%; Gen X 65%; Millennials, 80%, Gen Z, 82%, and Gen Alpha, 43%.

Generational breakdown

Of the 2.95 billion social media users who will exist next year, here is how that number breaks down by generation, from Generation Alpha to the Baby Boomers.

Generation Alpha: Born 2010-2025

  • 2 billion by 2025
  • 5 million born around the globe each week
  • First totally digital generation
  • Immersed in technology since birth
  • Technology deeply integrated in everyday life

Gen Z: Ages 13-19 – Born 1997-2010

Millennials: Ages 23-38 – Born 1981-1996

  • 25% of U.S. population
  • Extraordinary buying power
  • Largest living generation in U.S.
  • Unmatched social media skills
  • Social Media Platforms: 70% use Facebook, 63% are heavy YouTube users
  • 43% want brand to reach them via email
  • Spend 8 hours a day online
  • Concerned with financial future
  • Generation most loyal to brands

Generation X: Ages 39-53 – Born 1965-1980

  • 6% of U.S. population
  • Smaller than any other age demographic
  • 58% of internet users in U.S
  • $200 billion in spending power
  • Social Media Platforms: 80% on Facebook and Twitter but only half use their accounts regularly
  • 76% of all online users will access social media in 2017
  • 68% make decisions based on reviews. Pay attention to online reviews

Baby Boomers: Ages 55-73 – Born 1946-1964

  • Spend 27 hours a week online
  • Social Media Platforms: Facebook preferred platform: 45% of 65+; 60% of 50-64; 15% spend 11-plus hours a week on Facebook; 13% use LinkedIn
  • 50% rely on credit cards for purchases
  • Responsible for 50% of total consumer expenditure
  • Most price conscious

Social media use overall — in the U.S. and beyond

When looking at social media use overall, the research shows that today about 70% of Americans use social media to connect with each other. Worldwide, there are approximately 3.04 billion social media users. About that same number actively access social media on their mobile devices. Of these, 90% reach out to brands or retailers.

In the U.S. 77% of people have at least one social media profile. And global internet users spend 135 minutes daily on social media sites.

What Research Tells Us About Social Media and Its Users

What Research Tells Us About Social Media and Its Users

By Paula Maggio

Social media. Who uses it? How often do they use it? And what platforms do they use?

It’s essential to know the answers to those questions if we want to successfully craft targeted social media posts for our businesses.

The Pew Research Center survey

So let’s take a look at the latest research from the Pew Research Center, which routinely knocks it out of the park when it conducts surveys.

From Jan. 8 to Feb. 7, researchers in the Pew survey conducted telephone interviews among a national sample of 1,502 adults, 18 years of age or older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Of the respondents, 302 were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 1,200 were interviewed on a cellphone.

What did the survey conducted early this year find? It found that despite privacy and other concerns, social media use by adults is basically unchanged.

“The shares of adults who say they use Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Twitter are each largely the same as in 2016, with only Instagram showing an uptick in use during this time period,” according to the survey. (Note: There are no comparable 2016 phone survey data for YouTube, Snapchat, WhatsApp or Reddit.)

The previously steady growth in the use of social platforms in the United States during the past decade appears to be slowing, the report shows. While Facebook and YouTube have the broadest reach among adults, Instagram and Snapchat have a strong following among young adults. These findings illustrate the age-, gender-, and race-related differences in platform use that the survey documented, which we share below.

Evolving social media

But first a news update. Although social media use has remained flat, social media design – from its appearance to its features – continues to change – and here’s the latest on that. The Pew survey results hit April 10, less than one month before Facebook rolled out a new redesign for its app and website in late April.

The redesign gives both a cleaner look, more white space, more emphasis on groups, and prominent placement for “Stories” photo-sharing, according to such sources as Business Insider. Facebook says groups, which it counts at 400 million, are among the most “meaningful” ways people use the site.

Included in the Facebook news was a bit about Facebook Dating, which is set to launch in the U.S. by the end of the year. Also included is a new “Meet New Friends” feature. It will be interesting to see how these changes affect Facebook statistics when Pew conducts its next survey.

What the research shows

For now, let’s look at some statistics about social media users using the most popular platforms, as featured in the Pew survey and in an April 10 article and info-graphic on Social Media Today.

The latest survey is just one piece of useful research about social media that the Pew Research Center has conducted over the years, with the first in-depth studies on both adult and teen use of social media conducted in 2007. Find more here.

General social media statistics

  • Approximately 3.04 billion social media users worldwide
  • About the same number actively access social media on their mobile devices.
  • 90% of these reach out to brands or retailers.
  • In the U.S. 77% of people have at least one social media profile.
  • Global internet users spend 135 minutes daily on social media sites.

The platforms

Facebook

  • 2.4 billion users
  • 69% of adults use the platform
  • 74% of users visit site daily
  • 50% visit several times a day
  • 63% male
  • 75% female
  • 70% white
  • 70% black
  • 69 Hispanic
  • 84% of 25- to 29-year-olds use it
  • 74% have incomes of $75K+
  • 75% have some college

LinkedIn

  • 590 million members; 260 million users
  • 27% of adults use the platform
  • 29% male
  • 24% female
  • 28% white
  • 24% black
  • 16% Hispanic
  • 44% of 25- to 29-year-olds use it
  • 49% have incomes of $75K+
  • 51% have college+
  • 70% of users are outside the U.S.

Twitter

  • 326 million users
  • 22% of U.S. adults
  • 24% male
  • 21% female
  • 21% white
  • 24% black
  • 25% Hispanic
  • 44% of 18- to 24-year-olds use it
  • 31% have incomes of $75K+
  • 32% have college+
  • 80% access it via mobile device

Pinterest

  • 250 million+ users
  • 28% of U.S. adults
  • 15% male
  • 42% female
  • 33% white
  • 27% black
  • 22% Hispanic
  • 38% of 18- to 24-year-olds use it
  • 41% have incomes of $75K+
  • 38% have college+

Instagram

  • 1 billion active monthly users
  • 500 million are active daily
  • 37% of U.S. adults
  • 31% male
  • 43% female
  • 33% white
  • 40% black
  • 51% Hispanic
  • 75% of 18- to 24-year-olds use it
  • Dominated by those under age 35
  • Majority of users visit site daily
  • 60% of 18- to 29-year-old users use the platform several times per day
  • 42% have incomes of $75K+
  • 43% have college+

Snapchat

  • 255 million users
  • 24% of U.S. adults
  • 24% male
  • 24% female
  • 22% white
  • 28% black
  • 29% Hispanic
  • Majority of users visit site daily
  • 62% of 18- to 29-year-olds use it
  • 68% of 18- to 29-year-old users use the platform several times per day
  • 27% have incomes of less than $30K
  • 29% have some college

YouTube

  • 9 billion users
  • 73% of U.S. adults use it
  • 78% male
  • 68% female
  • 71% white
  • 77% black
  • 78% Hispanic
  • 93% of 25- to 29-year-olds use it
  • 83% have incomes of $75K+
  • 80% have college+
  • 51% visit site daily; that figure was 45% in 2018
Content Marketing and Social Media: What’s In It For You?

Content Marketing and Social Media: What’s In It For You?

By Paula Maggio

At Triple Canopy Media, we use Content Marketing to help monitor and maintain your company’s reputation online. This strategic marketing approach is focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content, content that will attract and retain a clearly defined audience. Ultimately, this content also drives customers to take action that profits your company. Social media is one component of a content marketing plan.

Social media: an important component

Having a well-developed social media presence is critical in today’s hyper-connected world. Your customers, clients, and stakeholders live on social media, and so should you. Your presence on social media will help you actively engage in reputation management, broadcast (and narrowcast) your public relations messages, reinforce and build your brand, identify and attract new customers, and retain existing customers and clients.

At Triple Canopy Media, we know that social media is an essential component of every business’s content marketing plan. And about 90% of marketers agree. They say social media generates important exposure for their companies.

The benefits of using social media are so great that anyone not using it is missing out on a cost-effective marketing opportunity. It is cost-effective because setting up social media accounts is free. Plus, it only takes the investment of a few hours per week to increase brand awareness and enhance the reputation of your business.

Plan and publish

Simply having a social media page will benefit your brand.  And while it has never been easier to connect with your stakeholders, we strongly suggest that you have a plan before wading too deeply in these waters. It’s easy to make missteps on social media. Once it’s on Twitter, you can’t take it back.

But it is also important to provide updated content on a regular basis if you want to generate a wide audience for your business. As we like to say: Publish or perish. So while you want to update your website and blog content regularly, we recommend that you do the same for your social media accounts.

Figure out what to post

Feeling lost about what you should post on social media? Don’t despair. You’ll soon find your way. Here are a few good places to start.

What is your company’s story? What is its mission? What are its key messages? What makes your company stand out from the others? Craft your posts to convey this important information to your followers and those with whom they share your posts.

Vary your posts. Share links to information on your website, including any case studies you may produce. Broadcast links to new informative posts on your blog. Share news about your company, including links to coverage in media outlets. Share details of your events. Be sure to add visuals. Photos, memes, and videos add interest and variety.

Take a look at other social media pages and accounts — including those of your competitors — and make note of what catches your eye. What do you find interesting, informative, important, or amusing? Let those observations inform what you post on your business accounts.

Don’t forget user generated content. As Social Media Today reports, “the authenticity and influence of user-generated visuals are what people seek, trust and act on most.” Reviews from satisfied customers or clients are perfect, as are video testimonials from that same group. Such content proves you have a valuable product or service, according to the real people who use it.

Remember these two things: Eight-six percent of people say authenticity is important when deciding which brands they like and support. And 93% of consumers admit online reviews influence their purchasing decisions. Both are good reasons for collecting and using user generated content.

Tag and hashtag

Remember to tag other businesses and organizations that you mention in your social media posts whenever possible. Such tags will encourage those entities to like and share your page and your posts, thereby increasing your audience and generating more awareness of your business.

Add appropriate hashtags that refer to the topic(s) included in your post. This will allow those interested in that topic to find your post by searching the particular hashtag. Example: #contentmarketing

Like and follow

Look up your clients and customers on social media. Find the accounts and pages of important civic organizations and others in your community. Like their pages. Follow them. Like and share their posts. Post positive comments. Write reviews. With any luck, they will do the same for you. All of that will increase your audience, your engagement, and your credibility.

What social media can do for you

Now that you have had a crash course in social media engagement, here’s what setting up and regularly maintaining appropriate social media accounts can do for your business:

  • Create and increase brand awareness
  • Build credibility and trust
  • Educate your audience(s)
  • Generate demand for your goods or services
  • Generate leads
  • Build loyalty and brand advocacy with existing clients/customers
  • Build an audience
  • Generate sales/revenue
  • Improve search engine rankings
  • Increase website traffic
  • Drive attendance to events
  • Support product launches

How does TCM handle content marketing?

  1. We assess your needs, determine which social media platforms will best serve them, and set up a regular process for sharing carefully crafted content about your business via selected platforms.
  2. We create a cohesive strategy and measurement plan.
  3. We integrate the plan across the organization.
  4. Finally, we use metrics to monitor content marketing performance and ROI.

Reach out for help

Trust us. Social media is a key element for marketing success. If you’re not sure how to do it, reach out to us. We here at Triple Canopy Media would be glad to show you how it’s done. Or do it for you.