After the announcement from Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chairman and chief executive officer, that Facebook users would soon see more posts from family and friends and fewer ads or posts from businesses, small businesses began to worry. Startups and small companies – those that don’t have an endless marketing budget – rely on Facebook and other social media platforms, to reach their target audience and convert readers to buyers.

Fighting against Facebook’s ever-changing algorithm isn’t the only battle businesses face. A poor social media strategy can cost your company’s image and bottom line. Understanding how to create the best social media posts will build your branding and ultimately help increase your revenue.

Unpredictable Posting

Create a social media calendar for posting. To build your branding, you must have consistent engagement with your social media followers. Content is king, but posting it regularly will keep your customers coming back. While using a tool like Hootsuite supports your social media engagement, don’t solely rely on automated tools. Being present on your platforms involves listening and responding to your customers so you build your rapport and trustworthiness with consumers.

Being sporadic with your content or engagement diminishes your brand’s value and leaves room for your customers to question your intent. Make the commitment to be engaged on social and build the relationships necessary for your business to grow.

Inconsistent Message

Be intentional with your social media posts. Your brand’s messaging needs to be consistent across all platforms – videos, photos, posts, tweets – and speak to your company’s mission. With more than 500,000 “likes” on Facebook every minute and 500 million tweets being sent every day, there’s no shortage of content being posted.

Consumers are being more discerning about who they follow, like, and engage. If your social branding isn’t in line with your company’s message, your audience will disengage.
To build a consistent message across social media, you’ll have to say “no” at times. Whether that be to a spokesperson, movement or partnership, if joining forces or supporting another brand or group doesn’t align with you mission, don’t compromise.

It’s All The Same…

Create a personal experience for your customers. Your audience can unfollow, unlike, or disengage with the click of a button, so creating a personal experience for users is key to keeping them around. Whether it’s a response on social media or a tailored experience on your company website, your audience members must feel valued. Any experience customers have with your brand should be a memorable connection. People connect through emotions, not products, so humanizing your brand makes the customer’s experience memorable and encourages them to return. When your brand’s tone acknowledges emotion, customers will more easily relate.

Lack Of Tracking

Track your brand’s social media efforts. After dedicating the time and resources into creating a social media content calendar, posting the content and engaging with customers, it’s time to track your success.

When you follow the analytics of your social activity, you’ll be able to determine which posts, photos, and videos connect the strongest with your customers. Tracking the reach of your posts and tweets will give you the data needed to make adjustments to your social media strategy over time.

As you monitor the engagement and learn audience habits, you’ll soon be able to predict trends ahead of time. Rely on user behavior patterns, your market’s trends, and content needs to determine what type of content you should post.

Social media trends will change, but your brand’s messaging should not. Be consistent. Be uniform. Engage with your audience to determine their needs. Track your posts to determine the best social media posts for your brand.