Currently more than half of the world’s population uses the social media. 58% according to a report from Datareportal in partnership with We Are Social and Hootsuite. That is 4.62 billion people, who spend an average of 2 hours and 27 minutes per day browsing.
This is reason enough for organisations and companies to understand social media and more so, how the almighty algorithms work. As communicators we need to optimize our time and include some important tactics in our strategies. Below is a collection of best practices freshly picked from the internet garden, regarding social media platforms’ LinkedIn and Twitter and how to increase post exposure and reach out. The focus on only these two platforms is because they are primarily used as B2B social media platforms. I believe Instagram has strong potential to be included in B2B communication strategies, but I will not analyse that this time.
Generally speaking, be thoughtful about representation on social media, particularly if you are communicating on behalf of your company. Advise your colleagues or staff, to create social media accounts using their own personal email. And advise them also to express their own opinions and make sure it’s clear they are speaking on their own behalf.
Two golden rules are that images and video are still kings of engagement, and do not engage with negative coverage or comments.
LinkedIN, Get the conversation going!
Placing a call to action in each post is good to generate engagement. It is advised to publish on Tuesday and Thursday morning for increased exposure.
Hashtags are important, very much so. Go big & broad with 2 related hashtags and use 1 niche hashtag. General LinkedIN hashtag best practice:
Use 3 hashtags # and not to exceed 10 (considered spam) - less than 3 the reach of your post loses 40%, more than 5 = -20%.
Using the same hashtag across posts increases the reach of posts containing it by 10%.
Place hashtags at the end of content.
Post comments, they increase the visibility of conversations and the algorithm ranking.
Comments generated within 24 hours of publication brings 4x more reach than a like, and 7x more if it is posted within the first 2 hours.
The comment must be longer than 5 words.
It is easy to hit the sharing button, but sharing others’ posts does not boost the visibility of your posts (90% less than a classic post). However, if you apply the following rules, you increase the reach of your shared post:
Add 150 words in the description.
Place 3 hashtags not mentioned in the original post.
Tag the original author.
Make sure the original author comments.
Respond to comments within the first hour.
On PC: LinkedIN shows more polls, videos, and posts with documents.
On mobile: the platform favors advertisements, the content of company pages, shared posts, and job advertisements. Likes have more impact, and comments and shares have less.
Some hot tips for Twitter:
Write a strong profile bio including a hashtag.
Tweets with images get up to 3x more engagement, while with videos up to 10x.
Not possible to edit posts - spell-check!
Twitter polls, - good post format for the platform.
Show personality. Communicate using brand values. Here is a link for a quiz to understand your brand voice.
Be human. Opt for plain, accessible language over jargon, abbreviations, and acronyms.
Be original. Each of your tweets should be unique, otherwise you’ll seem spammy.
One to two hashtags per tweet is optimal.
Be sincere. The goal of Twitter is not to attract followers by any means necessary; it’s to help you connect with your target audience and build trust with them.
There, I hope these tips are useful when developing your social media engagement strategy. I suggest developing a social media guide and distributing to your organisation ambassadors, i.e. your colleague and staff.
