With a staggering 5.07 billion people on social media worldwide, it’s a fantastic opportunity to get your message out there. But unfortunately, that also means two things: not everyone of social media will be interested in what you offer and there will be a lot of noise from competitors. Information overload can be a real issue, and feeds are flooded with content. That’s why today, we’re sharing some tips for methodical social media posting to ensure your posts resonate with the right people and achieve your goals.
Know your audience
Before you start posting on social media, it’s important to take a step back and understand who you’re trying to reach. This is also known as your ‘target audience’. Your target audience is the specific group of people most likely to be interested in your offering. It’s important to define your target audience as much as you possibly can, because as previously mentioned, social media is very saturated. Therefore, making sure your posts resonate with the right people can act as a self-selection tool! This is where crafting an ideal client persona comes in. Your ideal client persona details the demographics, interests and pain points of your perfect customer. Read more about how to create your ideal client persona. Once you have this recorded, you’ll be able to tailor your posts to make them more methodical and impactful.
Set objectives and goals
Setting clear objectives and goals makes your social media activity more focused and methodical, and it can also help with accountability. It allows you to track what works (and what doesn’t) with your target audience. It’s important to ensure your objectives are SMART: Specific Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-bound. Once these objectives are set, it’s also important to set key performance indicators (KPIs) to use alongside the objective. KPIs act as specific indicators of what success looks like within each objective.
For example, your objective might be to increase brand awareness within a specific timeframe. A KPI for this could be the number of website visitors referred from your social media posts, or the increase in mentions of your brand name online. Finally, you should go back to your objectives regularly (usually every quarter) to make sure you’re on track and make any required adjustments.
Create content pillars
Now that you know your target audience and your objectives, it’s time to make sure your content topics resonate with your audience. So often, businesses post about topics that they think their audience MIGHT like. Sometimes, the post topics are completely random and serve no purpose… Enter content pillars!
Content pillars are groups of topics that align with your overall strategy and target audience preferences. They ensure your content stays focused and delivers value to your audience. We always say that every post should have a purpose and if you can’t name what that purpose is, don’t post it.
Some content pillar examples include:
- Industry news
- Latest industry trends
- Our story
- Meet the team
- Curated content
This list isn’t exhaustive but provides a good example of how these content pillars could come together to create a purposeful content schedule. Which brings us to our next point… How do you make sure your content is not only methodical, but consistent?
Use a content calendar
Planning your social media posts in advances save you time, allows you to build campaigns strategically and ensures consistency. There are paid social media managements tools out there, but a simple spreadsheet like Excel or Google Sheets can be ideal for creating a content calendar. A basic content calendar should include:
- The platform you’ll be posting on
- The date and time of your post
- The content pillar
- The content itself (including graphics)
- The relevant hashtags
- The CTA
You can adjust your content calendar based on your unique requirements, but these 6 points can make the basis of a good, functioning content calendar.
Engage with your audience
Don’t just post content and then disappear! Respond to comments, answer questions, participate in relevant conversations and connect with those in your target audience. Building relationships with your audience through engagement (sometimes called ‘social selling’) is key to success on social media. According to LinkedIn, social selling creates 45% more opportunities. This demonstrates how important it is to actively engage with your target audience. We’d recommend setting time aside each week to ensure you show up and engage with your audience. This can also positively impact the performance of your organic posts!
By following these steps, you can help to make your social media posting more methodical and purposeful. Remember, consistency is key! So, put these tips into action and watch your social media channels grow.
