Social media marketing doesn’t have to be as complicated or expensive as it first appears. By keeping to some of the simple core principles of design, you could see your social media engagement rise and to generate more leads or sales for your business.
I’ve put together this article on how you can (quite easily) improve the performance of your social media campaigns. You don’t need to be a certified professional to get the best out of your campaigns. Just knowing a few tips and tricks will make the biggest of differences.
Use the right dimensions!
If you’re using infographics or images as part of your social media post (actually, if you’re not, you really should be!), using the correct dimensions takes high importance. Social media sites use different image sizes on their feeds – so if you use a design that is perfect for Facebook but too big for Twitter, you could see that part of your image is cut off or not proportioned correctly – leading to an unprofessional first impression.
Social media companies change their default image dimensions on occasion, but see below for the current (as of 2022) sizes:
If you’re struggling with producing engaging social media graphics for your business, Black Fox Marketing offer this as one of our services. Contact us here for a free estimate.
Bonus tip: If you’re posting daily on social media and don’t have the time to resize your graphics, usually Instagram’s 1080 x 1080 size is compatible with the biggest social media feeds; Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
Stick to AIDA for your social media post copy
Haven’t heard of AIDA? You won’t be the only one. AIDA in the marketing industry is well known however, and it stands for:
ATTENTION – Grab the user’s attention with an eye-catching headline
INTEREST – Get the user interested in your product or service with a snappy description
DESIRE – Create a reason for the user to act – it could be a special offer or discount
ACTION – A call to action for the user. For example, a link to your website or to call your business
Remember, attention span is generally low for social media so stick to these four principles when posting a marketing update and you can improve your engagement and website lead-through.
Bonus tip: These four principles can be used in any type of advertising – especially Google Ad creation.
An example of an AIDA social media post –
Focus on your image and keep text short and snappy
The aged old saying, a picture speaks a thousand words could not be truer for social media posts. Users’ attention span on social media is, by design, low. The quick scrolling through feeds means that you need to grab the users attention within a second and too much text will not keep your user interested.
A picture or video however is what will grab the users attention – the text is what they will read after. So put your primary effort into the imagery!
Bonus tip: Some social media companies like Twitter place character limits on text. It’s good practice to create separate text copies for different social media sites.
Use hashtags for your social media marketing
Hashtags may not be what they used to be 10 years ago in terms of the way users generally find content. Nowadays, social media websites use tracking cookies to give you relevant ads. However, hashtags are still prevalent on Instagram in particular and if you’re trying to grow local exposure to your business, using hashtags such as #norfolk or #suffolk can be an easy way to show up in feeds free of charge.
Boost your posts!
What is boost posting? Social media sites such as Facebook & Instagram allow you to ‘boost’ – aka advertise at an expense – a post you’ve created at the click of a button.
So why do you need to boost your posts? Unfortunately, social media sites have changed the way they display content on feeds and prioritise ‘boosted’ posts over free ones. So even if your Facebook page has thousands of likes, the reality is that if you do not boost a post, you may only find that less than 5% of the liked users will actually see it on their feed.
What’s the cost? The great thing is that you only need to spend as little as a £1 each time you boost a post.
As a real-life example, Black Fox submitted a free ‘website launch’ post on our Facebook feed recently. The reach was a paltry 13 users. From just a £1 boost however – we increased the reach by over forty times that figure as it reached nearly 400 users.
So if you post twice a week and budget £1 advertising per post, for less than £10 spend per month you could see your reach and engagement increase dramatically. Keep on increasing/decreasing your boost spend until you find the sweet spot of what your business can afford and the return it’s giving you.
Black Fox Marketing offer all in one support with social media– especially with Facebook & Instagram. If you’d like us to create engaging campaigns on your behalf – get in touch for a FREE estimate emailed to your inbox here.
