It’s no secret that social media is a big part of marketing a business. Due to its unique ability to engage consumers and display a brand’s personality, social media has become a powerful tool for companies. But with over 50 million active business pages on just Facebook alone, consumers are being exposed to a lot of company posts. How do you avoid spamming your followers and ensure that they stay engaged in this pool of marketing content? Let’s take a look at a few quick tips.
1. Post Valuable, Interesting and Relevant Content
Many times, spamming involves repetition — flooding your followers with the same information, over and over again. So how do you avoid this? Make sure that every post you upload to any platform is unique and engaging. The first step to doing this is ensuring that you know your audience well — their likes, dislikes, hobbies and interests etc. This can shape the type of information you share with them as you are more aware of what will grab their attention. Another step to consider is being creative with your content. Some great examples of different types of posts include funny memes, re-posts from other pages, #TBTs, new employee posts, photos from company events, answering common customer questions and comments on local events. It’s also important to be mindful of the platform you’re posting to. Amway, for example, does a good job of keeping their content on LinkedIn purely business related as this is the focus of the platform. The company’s Instagram profile, however, is more colorful and creative.
2. Post the Right Amount of Content
The frequency of your posts will definitely impact your online reputation and whether or not you keep your followers. The important thing to note here is that the acceptable number of posts is different for each platform. Twitter, for example, is one platform where it is advised that the more posting, the better. Specifically, HubSpot has found that for accounts with at least 100 followers, each post gets a business at least 2.5-3 clicks, and therefore the more you post, the more engagement you receive. Facebook, on the other hand, is a platform where you have to be careful how much you post. The same study from Hubspot found that after the 10th post in a week, engagement keeps decreasing — the ideal amount of posts is roughly once per day.
3. Demand Engagement
A good method to avoid spamming is by making the communication two-sided. Rather than just throwing information at your audience, ask for information in return so it seems like a more natural exchange. You could do this by the way you craft your posts: ask questions that people can respond to in the comments section, ask for feedback, initiative photo competitions with prizes, or create a hashtag thread that people can contribute to. Look up global traveling journalists The Bucket List Family for a good example to follow. When you are demanding a call to action for your followers, be sure to incite urgency and give clear instructions about where and when to respond to avoid any confusion. This may take away from the level of engagement you get and therefore ruin the effectiveness of the post.
When marketing your company, be sure to get on social media and utilize its power of engaging your customers. But take into consideration the amount of content your followers are being exposed to, and therefore follow these tips to offer them value online, and ensure a long term relationship.
