Using a lot of resources to make one post go viral is a poor strategy when you get better results for your business if you use those resources to consistently deliver posts that bring continuously growing results for your business.
Many think going viral is your ultimate goal, but most businesses don’t get more sales from a one-off viral post.
- Virality and the boost it gives your business is short-lived.
- You may get more followers, but they may be window shoppers rather than solid leads for your business.
- Going viral often happens quickly and unexpectedly, and the business needs to be ready to capitalize on it or handle any backlash. (Google “Ann Donnelly AND Dr. Dre”)
- Yeah, backlash. Viral posts often get negative responses because they are contrived, you are getting in front of people who don’t have a relationship with your business, or because “haters gonna hate.” Will you be prepared to wade through the muck to make this work for you?
The best use of your resources is to create a long-term strategy that includes consistently creating and delivering posts to build a following and engagement that will better lead to sales (or whatever your objective is: memberships, donations, etc.). But first, you need to understand what goes into a social media post that will be successful for your business and work toward your overall strategy to build brand awareness, increase engagement, and get your desired results.
Anatomy of a Truly Successful Social Media Post
- Set An Objective for the Post. Plan various objectives and approaches to content using the 4E’s: Educate, Experience, Entertain, Emotion. When creating a single post, you need to know a) what segment of your target audience you want to reach and b) your primary objective of the post – what action you want the reader to take (join a mailing list, follow your account, share to their feed, purchase a product, etc.).
- Start with an Engaging Hook. Use a headline that speaks to your target audience’s needs, wants, and emotions and will draw them to your post.
- Make It Relevant & Remarkable. Ensure the information is relevant to your target audience, your business, and the specific objective of this post. Also, make it interesting, informative, entertaining, unique, and of value to the user so they are likely to engage, take the desired action, and look forward to your future posts.
- Set the Tone. Use a variety of tones across your posts, in keeping with what is suitable for your business and your audience: humor, journalistic, sarcasm, skepticism, insightful, opinion, etc.
- Use Various Formats. Create versions in various formats and lengths suited to different platforms, posts versus reels, etc., including video, text, static graphics, with and without audio, etc. If you use an app to post across multiple platforms, ensure the post is formatted correctly on each platform.
- Layout to Catch Attention. Format the post layout to catch your audience’s attention in a crowded feed. Ensure that it is easy for the reader to scan. Fancy fonts may look cute but may be hard to read!
- Outline Key Points. Use bullet points, emojis, etc., to list critical points at the top. Ensure the essential information is definitely above the “read more” cut-off.
- Don’t Forget the Call to Action. A clear, prominent Call to Action (CTA) is the most forgotten element of a social media post, especially in videos. When prompted, users are likelier to take action (especially your desired action). Even if you think the necessary action is obvious, assume it is not. The CTA can be a button or link (“click to go to the website”), a question (“What do you think about…? Leave a comment below.”),or a simple ‘Please like and share.”
- Use Hashtags and Tags Appropriately. Include relevant hashtags, but don’t clutter your message with them. Some people put them down a few lines after the end of the text or in a comment. Tag the people and organizations relevant to the post so that they will see and will hopefully engage and share.
- Schedule. Time the posts to go live at times relevant to your audience and the type of content. You will learn this from observing your feed and the statistics from your activities, and you can finetune this over time.
Allocate time for these two other essential elements of a successful social media strategy:
- Engagement – Ensure you promptly reply to comments and thank users for sharing, leaving a review, or posting something relevant to your business. Share these when appropriate. Comment on and share posts of other individuals and businesses relevant to your audience. In this way, you can build a group of relevant accounts to collaborate to increase the reach of each other’s posts.
- Monitor Results – Keep an eye on what works and what doesn’t work and update your plan accordingly.
Use this checklist of elements to ensure your posts are effective as part of a long-term social media strategy, and you will build long-term results that surpass the possible short-term results you may get from going viral.
Time to Take Action!
📍Pick one idea from 12 Interesting Content Ideas.
📍Use the list above to create a great social media post and schedule it to post.
📍Tag me, and I will like and share your great work!
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