You understand social media – you can pin, chat, post and tweet without fumbling, and your follower base isn’t looking too shabby either. The best way to celebrate your mastery of modern marketing? Doubling down to examine if your tone and timing are making the impact you’re hoping for.
If your social media marketing strategy is limited to the content of your posts, you aren’t seeing the whole picture. It’s a little like an extension of that old philosophical question – if a tweet posts on the web and no one “hears” it, did it really make a sound? Your existing social media presence can be honed to turn research into revenue – here’s how to send some ripples flowing across your network.
Smart Scheduling Makes the Difference
The challenges of scheduling are twofold – getting the right message out at the right time is a given, but general traffic flow and “noise” should be considered as well. FastCompany’s Rachel Gilette notes that midday workweek posts on sites like Facebook and Twitter tend to garner a lot more click-throughs than their primetime counterparts, likely the result of post-lunch boredom at the office.
Too close to noon and you may miss eyes focused on the lunch in front of them – too close to four or five, and those same eyes are occupied with last-minute work or clock-watching. Timezones, cultural difference and a myriad of other variables can affect your optimal posting window too, but it all boils down to a simple concept: when is an individual in your ideal demographic primed to notice you? A few test-runs in different timeslots will give you excellent comparison data to narrow down your targets.
After When, Determine Where
The delicate balance between pouring effort into mobile-friendly formats and desktop-friendly ones has tipped more and more heavily towards the mobile side of things as phones and tablets have grown more advanced. Even at the best resolutions and speeds, a mobile viewing experience is still very distinct, so be sure your words, structure and especially images are set up for dynamic implementation.
Pauline Cabrera of Twelveskip recommends including a set of size and resolution templates in your social media marketing strategy. Simply put, no matter what the message your company is trying to convey, it won’t make an impact if it’s blurry or truncated. Once your posts are live, make a habit of checking them through several different cell phone carriers and OS setups (e.g. both IOS and Android) to be sure your marketing imagery displays both reliably and consistently.
You only get one opportunity to make a first impression, so don’t waste it putting on a skillful play to an unexpectedly empty house. Before rolling out a campaign, make sure your budget and team effort is being channeled at an actual goal rather than in the direction of one. Set your corporate “watch,” double-check your venue viability, and knock it out of the park with a well-timed and well-placed social media marketing strategy.
Delany M is a freelance writer available for projects at WriterAccess.
