Social media isn’t a one-size-fits-all marketing solution. With over 5 billion users worldwide, each platform requires a unique approach. Think of it like a puzzle – different strategies fit together to create the perfect picture for your brand.
That said, there’s no magic formula that will get your posts viral. Instead, you need to focus on strategy and stay aware of common pitfalls.
The good news is that following these social media best practices will lead to success. Combine them with a social media scheduling tool, and you’ll build a strong online brand presence.
Social Media Marketing Best Practices in 2024
Social media has become super crucial for marketing. It affects businesses, nonprofits, and regular people too. Since things online change quickly, it’s essential to know the latest trends that work well with social media marketing. Firstly, let’s get the basics right. Success in social media marketing comes from something other than random actions. It comes from a solid strategy based on data and understanding your customers. Here are some social media best practices in 2024:
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Vary Your Content Offerings
Maintaining a varied content lineup is as crucial as posting regularly. To keep your audience interested, mix up your content with educational posts, industry insights, how-to guides, quick tips, polls, Q&As, contests, updates, and news related to your field. Also, diversify your formats, including photos, videos, live broadcasts, and e-commerce integrations.
Maintain Brand Consistency
While each social media platform has its unique flair and audience expectations, your brand’s core identity must remain consistent across all channels. Whether your brand embodies a fun and contemporary vibe, ensure this is reflected in your messaging on all platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, among others.
Optimize Audience Interaction
Engaging with your followers is not something to overlook. Notice who interacts with your posts and reciprocate with likes, comments, and shares. Encourage further interaction by organizing polls, live streams, Q&A sessions, and even contests or giveaways.
Use Visual Content Tools
Captivating visuals are key to attracting and retaining social media followers. If creating high-quality graphics and videos seems daunting due to a lack of in-house resources, tools like Canva and Freepik offer easy-to-use templates that help produce eye-catching visuals quickly and cost-effectively.
A snapshot of Huda Beauty’s visually aesthetic post Incorporate Hashtags
Hashtags serve as beacons, guiding users to relevant topics. Therefore, including relevant hashtags in your posts can enhance your brand’s visibility. For instance, if your business offers accounting services, hashtags such as #CPA, #taxseason, and #accounting could prove beneficial.
Recycle and Repurpose Your Content
There’s no need to always start from zero if you have existing content that aligns with your brand. Smart content reuse, such as showcasing customer testimonials on social platforms or republishing blog articles or press releases, can save time and resources.
Track Performance With Analytics
Understanding the impact of your social media strategy is only possible when you track performance metrics. Utilize the analytics tools provided by social media platforms or invest in comprehensive analytics software to monitor metrics like engagement rates, impressions, clicks, and follower growth. This data is invaluable for refining your strategy over time.
Social Media Best Practices for Businesses
Research shows that 90% of users follow at least one business on social media. Considering this, you need to have a strong presence on social media, where you can sound professional, approachable, and on-brand. Here are some social media best practices for businesses:
Make Clear Goals for Social Media
First, decide what you want to achieve with social media for your business.
Having clear goals means you can track and see if you’re succeeding. This helps you stick to strategies that work and change those that don’t.
Remember, your social media efforts should do more than just get likes or shares! Make sure every post has a purpose and supports a specific goal.
Some goals you might have include:
- Making more people aware of your brand.
- Getting new customers by guiding them to your social media page or website.
- Improving how you help customers by answering their questions or solving problems with your products or services.
- Get more audience interaction by giving them reasons to talk about your brand and recommend you to others.
Choose the Best Social Media Platforms
Handling all social media platforms can be overwhelming. So, you must pick platforms based on where your target customers spend their time online. This way, you can focus on creating the right content for the right people.
For the most popular platforms, here are some tips:
Facebook
- Post daily with a photo or graphic and a call to action.
- Use images because they get more reactions and comments. Ask questions or use exclamation points to encourage more engagement.
- Use hashtags, as they can convert to clickable links.
Twitter
- Tweet at least five times a day. If you’re a brand, aim for 10-30 times if you have enough relevant content.
- Share your original content along with content that others will find useful.
- Use 1-2 hashtags to reach more people, but don’t go overboard.
- Attach images to your tweets to make them stand out.
LinkedIn
- Post 4-5 times a week with content suited for a professional audience.
- Create a company page and pages for your products or services.
- LinkedIn can drive more traffic to your website than other platforms.
Quality Matters More Than How Much You Post
Posting a lot isn’t always the best approach! Whether it’s your website, blog, or social media, your customers will appreciate high-quality, useful content.
A balanced mix of social media posts should include:
- Posts about your products or services.
- Expert advice or insights.
- Interactions with your followers.
You must keep your social media pages fresh with timely and relevant posts. Plan out your content for the next 3 months using a calendar. This helps you stay organized. After 3 months, see which types of posts got the most attention and plan your next steps accordingly.
Keep an Eye on Your Social Media Performance
Checking your weekly social media stats helps you know if you’re reaching your goals. You can use tools like Social Champ, Google Analytics, or the tools provided by the social media platforms themselves.
Social media strategies for small businesses must adapt over time, so it’s important to follow the latest trends and adjust your approach.
Learn From Your Competitors
To get a sense of what works in social media, look at what other businesses in your field are doing.
See how they handle their social media presence and what kind of content gets people talking.
Pick a few key players in your industry to compare and learn from. Then, start following and interacting with them!
Things to watch include:
- How they brand themselves
- How popular they are
- How often do they post
- How much engagement do they get
- What kind of content do they share?
Be Patient and Consistent
Building a loyal audience takes time. To keep the relationship going, you need to earn the audience’s trust by being consistent with your posting. The results may take time, but you must stick with your strategy and be patient.
Related Article: The Best Social Media Sites: Top 20 Platforms to Consider in 2024
Social Media Policies Best Practices
Social media is a great tool for businesses to connect with customers, build brand awareness, and promote their products or services. But with this power comes responsibility. A well-crafted social media policy is essential to protect your organization and employees while ensuring you get the most out of your social media efforts.
Here are some key best practices to consider when developing your social media policy:
- Clarity and Specificity: Don’t leave room for misinterpretation. Clearly outline what kind of content is appropriate for sharing and what is not. This includes confidential information, discriminatory language, and negative comments about competitors.
- Transparency and Disclosure: Be upfront about any affiliations or sponsorships. If employees are promoting something personal, encourage them to disclose that it’s not affiliated with the company.
- Protecting Privacy: Establish guidelines for how employees should handle customer information and privacy.
- Respectful Communication: Set expectations for online etiquette. Employees should be professional and courteous and avoid getting into arguments or online debates.
- Security Measures: Include procedures for creating strong passwords and using two-factor authentication for both personal and company social media accounts.
- Accessibility and Inclusivity: Employees should be mindful of creating content that is accessible to everyone. This includes using alt text for images, closed captions for videos, and inclusive language.
Best Practices for Social Media Posting
Posting on social media is more than just sharing fun content. It’s about planning and understanding how each social media site works. Here are some social media best practices to make your posts stand out:
Post Regularly
Consistency with your posts is very important in keeping your online presence active. By sharing content regularly, you keep your followers interested and show them your brand is up-to-date. Regular posts can also help more people see your content, as many social media sites prefer accounts that post often.
To keep posting regularly, even when you’re busy, you can use tools that let you schedule your posts ahead of time. This way, your social media pages will always have new content.
Tailor Your Posts for Each Platform
Every social media site is unique. It has different types of users and ways to sort and recommend posts. So, it’s not a good idea to share the exact same content on all platforms. Make sure to adjust your posts for each site, considering things like picture and video sizes, hashtag use, and language style.
For example, hashtags are used a lot on Instagram and Twitter to group content, but they might not work as well on Facebook. Also, LinkedIn users usually prefer more serious and informative content, while Instagram users like casual and visually appealing content more.
Use Hashtags Wisely
Hashtags are like keywords that help more people find your content. They can greatly increase how many people see and interact with your posts.
Look up popular hashtags related to what you do and include them in your posts. You can also create your own hashtags that represent your brand or particular campaigns. Additionally, use specific tags to reach a smaller group of people who are likely to be interested in your content.
Try Different Types of Content
Pictures, videos, and live streams can attract much more attention than text posts. They are more likely to grab people’s attention and are often shared more.
Create eye-catching content that effectively shares your message. Try out different types like infographics (a visual representation of information), GIFs, memes, live streams, and short videos. Sites like TikTok and Instagram Reels are great for sharing short, entertaining video content.
Remember, social media is all about connecting and interacting with your followers. The better you understand your followers and how each social media site works, the better you can make your posts match.
Use a Social Media Scheduler
A scheduled posting tool like Social Champ can make this process easier and ensure you’re doing things right.
With Social Champ, you can plan posts on different platforms, check their performance, and interact with your audience—all from one easy-to-use dashboard. This simplifies the process of implementing the social media best practices stated above.
Related Article: How to Create Content Pillars for Social Media in 2024
Social Media Design Best Practices
Making attractive social media posts can grab people’s attention and make them want to interact with what you’ve shared. Here are some social media best practices to help you create posts that people can’t help but notice.
Visual Hierarchy
This is a design trick that arranges elements to guide the viewer’s eye through your post. You can do this by using different colors, bold letters, and well-placed calls to action (CTAs). CTAs are phrases like “click here” or “find out more” that encourage users to take action.
For example, you can use a big, bold font for your main message and a smaller, lighter font for extra details. This helps guide the viewer’s eye to the most critical parts of your post first. Using different colors can also help certain parts stand out and grab attention.
Consistent Aesthetics
Having a consistent look across all your social media posts helps people recognize and remember your brand. This includes using the same colors, fonts, and logos.
For example, using the same fonts and colors in all your social media images can create a unified look that’s instantly recognizable as yours. Including your logo in your profile picture and your posts can also help increase your brand’s visibility.
Consider Accessibility
Making posts that everyone can enjoy means thinking about accessibility. Use alt text for images, which is a short description of the picture for those who can’t see it. High-contrast text (like black text on a white background) can make reading your posts easier for people with vision problems. Also, make sure videos have captions for the hearing impaired.
Test on Multiple Devices
People use various devices, such as smartphones and desktop computers, to access social media. So, your designs must look good and work well on all kinds of screens. This might mean changing the size of images or adjusting layouts so they display correctly on different devices.
Use a Variety of Designs
Using different kinds of designs can keep your content interesting. This could include photos, infographics (which are visual representations of information), quotes, behind-the-scenes pictures, content made by users, and more. Try out different formats and see what your audience likes the most.
By following these best practices for social media, you can create eye-catching social media posts that grab attention, improve your brand’s image, and reach more people.
Social Media Best Practices for Nonprofits
Nonprofit organizations are groups that use their profits to help others instead of making money. They have the special job of getting people to care about and support their cause. Here are some social media best practices just for nonprofits.
Show Off Your Good Work
A great way to get people interested in your nonprofit is by showing them your good work. You can do this by sharing stories from the people you’ve helped, giving updates on your projects, or posting before-and-after pictures to show how you’ve made a difference. When supporters see how their donations are being used, they feel more connected to your cause.
A snapshot of United Way’s partnership with Publix Team up With Others
Working with other organizations, influencers, and brand ambassadors (people who promote a brand) can help you reach more people. You can do things like encouraging each other, running campaigns together, or guest posting on each other’s social media accounts. This not only makes you more visible, but it also makes you look more trustworthy because you’re associated with respected partners.
Use Social Media Campaigns
Social media campaigns are a strong tool for spreading the word about your cause, getting donations, and pushing for change. These campaigns should be well thought out and designed to get people to do something. This could involve making engaging visuals, writing an inspiring story, or even starting a social media challenge to get users involved. Remember, the aim is to get your audience to take action – whether donating money, signing a petition, or sharing your content with their followers.
Get Volunteers
Social media is a great place to find volunteers. Share posts about the benefits of volunteering, such as the skills volunteers can learn, the difference they can make, and the satisfaction they can feel. Talk about what your organization needs and the great experiences volunteers can have. You could also share stories from current volunteers to give a real-life view of the benefits of volunteering with your organization.
By following these best practices for social media, nonprofits can use social media to connect with their audience, get more visibility, motivate people to take action and help their cause even more.
Take Away
Social media is like a bustling market that keeps changing. To stay in the lead, you must know the best ways to grab people’s interest, form a group of followers, and reach your goals. When planning your approach, remember that social media is all about connecting with people, and that’s where your attention should be—keeping these social media best practices.
Learning about the best ways to use social media is ongoing. As technology and people’s behavior change, it’s important to stay informed and make adjustments as required. Always remember to review and update your social media plan regularly, test out new features and platforms, and prioritize customer service and interaction. By continually improving and refining your strategy, you can establish a strong presence on social media that effectively promotes your brand, interacts with your audience, and achieves results.
