Crafting Perfect Social Content

By Susan Tucker

It can get overwhelming, not to mention confusing, trying to figure out the best social content to share and where, especially with all the constant changes on social media sites. However, being aware of all the different types of content – text-based, images, videos, micro-videos, slides, infographics, etc – that can be shared, and which social media sites gain the most engagement for each, can take your strategy to the next level.

As far as social content goes, shared images take the lead across the board. And that is no surprise, with visually based sites such as Pinterest, Instagram and SnapChat taking on a huge portion of the market-share.

A recent Ipsos survey, shows that a significant portion of social media users are not only sharing images, but all types of content, including: Something they like or recommend, such as products, services, movies, and books (25%); News items (22%); Links to other websites (21%); Reposts from other people’s social media posts (21%); Status updates of what they’re feeling (19%); Video clips (19%); Plans for future activities, trips, and plans (9%); and Other types of content (10%).

So how can you craft the perfect social content? Here are my tips:

Facebook

• Provide information- the most clicked Facebook content includes a teaser headline and a link.
• Use images – Posts with images get the generate 53% more like and 104% more comments than text-based posts. The optimal image size 403 px x 403 px.
• Be positive! Positivity breeds engagement.
• Infographics typically do not format well on Facebook

Twitter

• Include a compelling CTA, and add the shortened link in the middle of your Twitter post
• Text-based posts are the most shared, but Twitter recently began to showcase image posts and these receive the highest engagement.
• Use hashtags – but sparingly. Tweets with one or two hashtags receive 21% higher engagement than those with three or more hashtags.

LinkedIn

• The most in-demand content on LinkedIn is Industry Insights.
• Earlier this year, long-form posts were rolled out, and in 2013 the ability to upload presentations using SlideShare.
• Users are finding the highest ROI from Group participation.

Google+ for Business

• Product gifs do surprisingly well on Google+ and is one of the only social channels that allows gifs. Gifs can show your followers something in 5 seconds that they may not have watched a full video about.
• Long-form content such as ebooks, reports and wordy status updates (they will show more than 10 lines) are also high performers on G+
• Because G+ is connected to YouTube, videos are easily shareable.

Others Social Media Channels

• Pinterest – infographics
• Instagram – altered images and micro-videos (6 sec or less)

No matter where you are putting your time and efforts for your social media, I always recommend testing out content to see what is resonating and with whom.

What’s been working for you? Share your stories below.