With so many posts competing for attention on social media feeds there has never been a more important time to look what elements it takes to create the perfect social media post that gets noticed.
By perfect I mean one that gets heaps of engagement, commented on and shared. A social media post that travels well beyond your existing sphere of influence.
There is so much hype out there in the world of social media I was very hesitant to give this blog post that title that I eventually landed with. But essentially that has been a part of the relentless journey I’ve been on over the last few years. Which is to get my audience’s attention and do everything I can to keep them engaging and sharing our content.
1. Have a strategy
My social media strategy is to ‘create content that my audience will love to share and engage in.’ While this is a very top-level statement, if I can get my social media audience to interact then half of the job is done. The post will spread.
So before you hit ‘post’ ask yourself. Would you share this post with your social media buddies?
Above all, use your imagination. Here are eleven imaginative posts that I’ve previously highlighted.
Many posts I see are focussed on informing people to try to attend something. There is a place for those styles of posts, but major on engaging posts and minor on informing.
If you dive down into the insights or analytics on the informing style posts you will almost always find that they don’t reach many people.
2. Choose the right type of post for the social media platform you are on
Just because a post works on one social network it doesn’t mean that it will work so well on another.
If you are on Facebook right now live video is giving you incredible reach. If you can lean into video as much as possible. Read more about how you can get the best out of Facebook Live here.
Depending on the platform it could be a picture post, if you are on Instagram a picture tells a thousand words. Here are some brilliant examples of Instagram posts.
Simple text open-ended question posts can also work really well too. Here are a few examples that can still work for you.
Bottom line. Ask yourself, does your post stand out in the feed?
3. Ensure you have the correct sizing
Ensuring that you get the right size picture for the right platform is essential. I often see photos with text on them with the text buried out of view on Twitter because a person is using a deeper picture than Twitter naturally shows. You can also choose the wrong size too on Facebook. Here is a really handy cheat sheet where you can find the right size for the social media network you want to post on.
Video tends not to be a problem so much.
4. Test and test again
I’ve found that scoring the goal, hitting that home run can come as a result of lots of testing. Seeing what works and what doesn’t. You won’t get the viral post every time, but it will come.
Here is one of my recent video posts on Facebook from last week that spread very quickly because it was a powerful story with a feed stopping headline that got people’s attention without being click bait.
Your turn
Have you ever had a social media post that went viral? Share a link to it below and tell us why you think it worked so well. Got questions? Comment below.
