In today’s digitalized world, social media has become an essential and inseparable part of our lives. It came slowly but now it has completely taken over our lives. From being just a craze to connect with each other among the youngsters to becoming one of the most prevailing and useful business tools, social media has really come a long way. Gone are the days when teenagers were mad behind Facebook and Instagram as there, they get a chance to upload pictures, life events, place reviews, and what goes on their mind and then anticipate the number of likes and comments that their latest post would get.

Today, even the famed businesses have turned to knock at the door of social media because guess what! The owners want their business to reach people or in other words, they want everyone to get to know about their existence and there certainly isn’t a better platform than social media to do so. Even so, weighing all the social media websites in the same balance would be a folly. Each handle works on an algorithm of its own which should hence, be kept in mind while creating the content for social media posts.

The apt and well thought use of keywords, catchy captions and hashtags is what is necessary in order to enhance the engagement and outreach of a particular post. If you are wondering what all being mentioned is, let me take you on a ride by the end of which you will be able to tailor a social media post of your own and that too, on any of the following handles:-

1. Facebook

A Facebook post is usually created with either of the two goals in mind- conversions or engagement. It is true that both of these metrics matter a lot but for a specific post, one has to matter more than the other. In simpler terms, a conversion intended post is created when we want the audience to take a certain action after seeing the post like, buying a particular product, subscribing to the newsletter, visiting the website, etc. Through an engagement post however, the aim is to increase the website traffic.

The recommended things to be kept in mind while designing a Facebook post are as follows:-

(i) Noticeable visuals

The purpose of using strong and catchy visuals is to stop the people and make them ponder while their thumbs are scrolling. For this, a variety of static images, Graphics Interface Format (GIFs) or videos can be used. While choosing visuals for Facebook, attention should be paid to get the right specs, limit text, explore the color wheel, and test the images before posting them because 88% of the users use social media on a mobile phone.

(ii) Riveting call-to-action

Call-to-action is one of the most important elements of a converting Facebook post. For this, power verbs like signup, download, subscribe, and click are used to put the users into action.

(iii) Strategic targeting

One needs to be informative about the demographics of their Facebook audience. It should be known that what the largest age group is, whether they are mostly male, female, or gender non-binary, Where most of the audience lives and what their interests are. Apart from this, timing also plays an important role. Via insights, one can get to know the time when the most of their audience is online.

(iv) Captivating incentive

Through the post, the creator should give the viewers at least one good reason to undertake the intended action. The incentive you choose to share should appeal to the audience’s needs and desires as much as possible. Dig into your audience insights and explore the interests of your customers.

Now that you are familiar with these minute points, why not move on to design an engaging post then?

2. Instagram

It is now a common observation that day by day, traditional methods of marketing are becoming less effective. Advertisements are proving to be more irritating than engaging to the audience. In such a scenario, Instagram comes like an obtainable option to turn to. Statistics show that users directed from Instagram to e-commerce websites are found to spend the most time on the latter. So, it goes without a doubt that extra effort needs to be put while fabricating posts for Instagram.

(i) Gripping user generated content

If there is a strategy by which the battle of engagement can be won in the field of Instagram the, it is surely by the involvement of influencers and by employing suitable hashtags. In a way, the aim is to encourage the viewers to create user generated posts featuring your message or product, possibly in the form of a flamboyant hashtag. In this way, maximum reach can be achieved.

(ii) Post user feedbacks

Approaching the people who already use your product or service and request them to give their valuable feedback works like magic! This is because the new users get attracted by the authenticity and find it easier to bestow their trust into the company and the product or service it offers.

(iii) Storytelling

We are humans and have a natural tendency in knowing untold stories. Using this fact, one can create a storyline in the Instagram post by using the slides option so that the viewer remains engaged until they have gone through the entire post.

(iv) Savable content

The comments, shares, and saves on an Instagram post are becoming more important than ever. As a result, focus should be on creating such kind of content which compels the viewer to hit the save button that falls just on the bottom right corner below the post. By “savable content,” it means the content that the audience might want to revisit later. Valuable tips, quotes, and other infographics that are expected to resonate can be used in this context.

3. LinkedIn

A majority of the B2B marketers are well acquainted with the fact that LinkedIn is the single platform on which their customers are spending time, building connections and reading content. This is why around 94% of the B2B marketers are found to be using LinkedIn and that is how it has become their first choice to post relevant content among all the other social networks.

(i) Straightforward content

The content that is straightforward and easy to read gets the most engagement on LinkedIn. In order to ensure if your content is simple for the viewers to comprehend, Flesch Kincaid readability score tool can be used. On an average, a score of 80-89 is most suited and is bound to attract a handsome number of views.

(ii) Optimal length of the content

Knowing a lot about something does not mean that we should present all of it at once in a LinkedIn post. Only the most crucial information in accordance with how much our audience is willing to read should be put out on the platter of a post. Researches carried out on LinkedIn posts suggest that posts with 1,000 words or less are usually shared and circulated the most. So, keep your content well-tailored and of suitable length to capture the attention of the readers.

(iii) Headlines optimization

Advertising legend David Ogilvy said that “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.” This means that one needs to take extra care while crafting the headline since it is what is going to be the most attractive to the reader as compared to the remaining body text. For his purpose, use of some well researched keywords is highly recommended. For example, leaders, mistakes, habits, success, etc. are the most shared elevating keywords.

(iv) Use of visuals

A picture is worth a thousand words and also holds the capability to capture the attention of the audience easily. In a world where everyone is rushing with their lives, it is seldom that a person will stop scrolling and read the entire post. To tackle this, the best way is to use visuals because they are easy to go through and users find them more attractive.

Having gone through the aforementioned methodologies, we are sure that now you are well acquainted with the minute details that should but be kept in mind while drafting a post for a certain social media handle. There is absolutely no doubt about the fact that the world of social media is as competitive as alluring it is. This leads to the conclusion that one has to be up to date and creative simultaneously to bear the best results.

So, what are you waiting for now? Go ahead and try to craft an engaging social media post. Good luck!