So, your organization has figured out which social media platforms to use to brand itself, reach potential customers and clients, and spread the word about products, services, and promotions. But you want to do better by maximizing and optimizing each post. That’s great! In this two-part article, we are discussing best practices for social media and business. 

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What are social media best practices?

There are lots of social media platforms, and there are lots of ways to use each one. In the first part of this two-part article, we talked about best practices that applied to all social media. Here in the second part, we’ll get specific and talk about platform-specific best practices. 

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Facebook

According to 2022 statistics, Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, with approximately 3.94 users. There are a total of 3.96 billion social media users worldwide, so it stands to reason that almost all of them use Facebook. The aging platform may no longer be considered as hip and revolutionary as it once was, but anyone doing sales and marketing via social media should be on Facebook unless there is a good reason to the contrary.

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Because Facebook is basically the oldest global social media platform, there are lots of best practices, hacks, and tips. The following five come from online marketing corp SocialChamp.

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1. Get verified. 

Follow the steps to get Facebook verification for your page. This will increase your cred in the eyes of potential followers and reduce your exposure to trolls and scammers. It involves completing a form, but it’s worth it.

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2. Use high-quality graphics. 

Facebook users have been around too long to tolerate blurry low-rez photos, incorrectly proportioned banners and profile pics, or other amateurish content. Use professionally produced graphics.

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3. Make your posts actionable. 

Send your followers to your latest coupon, product, or call to action. Not all posts must include an action, but when you have an actionable post, you can measure your success and calibrate goals.

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4. Know your audience. 

Use Facebook’s Page Insights to see who you are reaching and who’s responding the most enthusiastically. Then use that data to be on target with future posts.

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5. Keep it simple (which really means keep it short). 

This may come as a shock, but the optimal length of a Facebook post is now 50 characters. You’ve certainly seen very long blocks of text on Facebook, but the posts that get the most mileage are quite short: less than a dozen words.

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Instagram

From social media consultant CaveSocial comes five up-to-the-minute optimization tips for Instagram.

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1. Use reels. 

Reels were introduced in 2021, and since then they have become a dominant way to post both on Instagram and Facebook. Followers love reels! If you’ve got a message for your followers, place it in this new format—60 seconds long (or less) and vertically oriented (filmed with your phone “upright”). 

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2. Post at the right time. 

You can do lots of research about the best times to post, but IG users are online, but Instagram’s Insights allow you to find out when your followers are online. That’s when you should be posting.

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3. #hashtags!

Hashtags are keyword prefaced with the “hash” mark, also known as the pound sign (#). On social media platforms, hashtags aggregate and curate content that followers can easily search. How do you know what hashtags to use on your content? Here’s what CaveSocial advises:

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-Use your competitor’s hashtags

-Use the hashtags that influencers and celebrities are using

-Use related hashtags—branch out into related content

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4. Use location tagging.

If your images and videos are geographically tagged, the post will be shown to users who are proximate to that location, thus increasing your reach and possibly picking up more engagement.

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5. Make sure your account is a “business profile.”

By switching to a business profile, your IG account will have access to call-to-action options, improved insights and analytics, and the ability to produce paid advertisements. 

TikTok

TikTok is a relative newcomer to the scene, and although its beginning was somewhat obscure and dubious, it has quickly risen to prominence and now has 800 million users, competing very effectively with all the major social media platforms. From social media consultants Hootsuite, here are some tips and tricks to maximize your TikTok traction.

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1. Switch to a TikTok Pro account.

Similar to a business profile on Instagram or Verified account on Facebook, a TikTok Pro account unlocks many powerful tools.

2. Find your subculture.

TikTok users spend most of their time using a feature known as “For You.” This feed provides content to subcultures (interest groups, basically) based on the TikTok algorithm. Investigating various subcultures on TikTok, then using content and hashtags to enter those groups will give you access to millions of potential followers.

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3. Maximize first moments.

TikTok is a fast-moving platform in which the content that grabs the most attention in the first few seconds is prioritized over content that does not. You can’t waste time with introductions or set-up. You’ve got to find ways to get traction right away.

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4. Create high-quality videos specifically for TikTok.

You can upload practically any video to TikTok, but the platforms own production tools enable you to create fresh catchy videos with a certain TikTok look and feel, and these are more likely to catch on.

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5. Use trending sounds and music.

TikTok has become known for borrowing sounds, clips, and music from existing videos, creating chains of meme-like videos that may gain popularity in a few hours and persist for weeks. The more you use TikTok, the better you’ll be able to identify catchy content that can rocket your content to virality. 

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Sources:

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7832-social-media-for-business.html

https://www.shopify.com/blog/most-popular-social-media-platforms

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-july-global-statshot

https://www.socialchamp.io/blog/facebook-best-practices/

https://cavesocial.com/optimize-instagram-posts/

https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-algorithm/

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