It’s no easy task for businesses and marketers to reach customers organically on social media, especially when the algorithms of social platforms are forever changing. With more and more algorithm refinements happening every single day, you have to either learn to work with the systems, or watch your social metrics and traffic steadily decline.
So, how can you ensure that you get the best results? Here are six tips on how you can work with social platform algorithms to maximize your performance.
Video content is an extremely powerful way to organically reach people on social media. It’s also the current type of post that most favorably plays to each social platforms’ algorithm.
Natively posted video content receives 10x more shares than Youtube or other third party sources. Make sure that your videos include captions so that the audience can understand your content even without the sound
If producing long, elaborate videos doesn’t fit your schedule or budget, try posting micro-videos. It only takes a matter of minutes to shoot, edit and post these short clips.
Posting videos natively is a great start towards earning more social media engagements, but you can take that success even further by utilizing live social media broadcasts. These can allow you to show off the more personal side of your brand by sharing behind-the-scenes content or real-time customer testimonials and events.
Avoid short live streams. People need time to tune into your stream while it is still active. Your followers will spend 3x more time watching your video while it is live than they will after the fact.
GIFs are an awesome way to more adequately express emotions and experiences on your social media platforms.This makes them highly shareable and, potentially best of all, can require no effort on your part if you choose to use ones that have been created elsewhere.
Facebook and Twitter have already included GIF keyboards that allow you to simply choose your favorite when it’s time to post. If the overachiever in you isn’t satisfied with the options, you can always build your own GIF and include branded content.
Take your GIFs to the next level by adding text and turning them into a meme. Like GIFs, they are very shareable and can help your brand produce viral content.
Keep in mind that LinkedIn does not currently support GIFs, so you’ll have to stick with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the time being. Each of these platforms via GIF as a short video, so you will get the current algorithm benefits of a video post.
When users create (positive) content about your brand, take the opportunity to highlight, retweet and repost it.
User-generated content puts the customer front and center. It lets your customers take note of how people use your products and share their passion for the brand.
When consumers scroll through their social media channels, they are looking for new and interesting content that captures their attention. If your content captures their attention, they are far more likely to engage with it. The problem is customers have grown tired of overly branded content, so they are less likely to respond to it. However, using user-generated content provides an authenticity that consumers like to interact with. Plus, this engagement will tell the algorithm that these type of posts are doing well, and will show these posts to even more fans and followers
If you’re expecting your audience to engage with your posts, know that your fans and followers have the same expectation in return. It’s great to like and repost user generated-content to let your followers know that you are paying attention to them and appreciate them. But, your engagement shouldn’t stop there.
When questions are asked, or comments are made, it’s important to take the time to respond. Some comments simply require a “like,” while others require a written response. No question should ever be left unanswered. Typically, you have 24 hours to respond to a question or comment. You can accomplish this by setting aside a few minutes on your calendar each day to check through your notifications.
A word of caution: generic copy and paste responses are easily spotted and can take away from your authenticity. Take the time to tailor your responses. You also don’t want to get the dreaded unfollow or spam report, as the algorithms on each social network do not take kindly to this type of feedback.
If you want your followers to engage with the content you post, it only makes sense that you should post content they’re interested in.
With just a few simple searches, you can discover trending topics that will captivate your audience and show your commitment to staying in-the-know.
Holidays are an easy way to add some non-branded content to your social platforms. From there, you can create content about local activities or stories that will encourage engagements. All of this engagement, once again, tells the algorithms of the social networks that you have high quality content that should be shown to fans and followers.
With these 6 tips you can begin planning engagement-friendly content that will allow you to work with every platform’s algorithm. Do you have additional tips to add? Let us know in the comments