Managing Social Media and Gearing Content For Different Platforms

Have you ever had a social media post completely fall flat? There’s nothing worse! While sometimes engagement rates are out of our hands and simply the workings of the Meta-gods, there are some key things to keep in mind when posting to help maximise the success of your content’s reach. Different types of content are more successful depending on the social media platforms they are being posted on. When trying to reach the widest audience possible, it is best to take into consideration what content should be posted where, and how to create content that is geared towards the different platforms. Because of the varying algorithms, audiences, and purposes unique to each different media platform, different types of content land much better depending on where it is posted.

 For instance, on TikTok, content tends to get more views when they are more light-hearted. Usually, this means making a video to a trending sound that shows a bit of the brand’s personality. TikTok videos perform best when they aren’t overly scripted or refined, and instead, focus on being funny and relatable. It’s a great social platform to use as a window into daily office life, staff, recent events, etc. It isn’t a space people would typically go to for key information about your brand, or anything too logistical. Bitesize, easy-to-consume content with a bit of personality is usually the way to go.

On TikTok, it’s a good idea to interact with other accounts. Liking and commenting on other people’s videos increases the likelihood of interaction with your own account and is a great way to connect with other brands.  It puts your own brand name out there, as people often utilise the comments feature on TikTok to communicate with one another and to see who else is posting. The other caveat is that TikToks get more views when they are made with a trending sound and sounds only trend for a few days at a time. It’s a good idea with TikTok to jump on trends immediately when they appear, to keep your content as relevant as possible.

On the other hand, Instagram posts tend to do better when they are made more uniform and adhere to a certain theme. This could mean editing the posts in a similar fashion to create a certain aesthetic and mood, as well as having consistent templates and colour palettes for posts that require text. Instagram also tends to promote stories which use the app’s different interactive features, so making a post that uses something like a question box, a poll, etc, increases your chances of being favoured by the algorithm. Finally, posts that feature people tend to have the largest reach. While you likely need a bit of everything on your feed, if you could make a post that features some friendly faces, it might be beneficial to your numbers. While Instagram posts do better when they are uniform, Instagram stories and reels are great tools for more relaxed and personal content, similar to TikTok.

For your brand’s Instagram account, it may be beneficial for you to plan out the grid in advance —- gather content, then plan out postings which create the most aesthetically pleasing and thought-out collection possible. Tools such as Meta Business Suite and Hootsuite allow you to plan out postings in advance, so you can map out exactly what needs to be posted and when to have your grid look the way you want. Scheduling posts is also useful as you can plan to have posts published on days and times where traffic on socials is highest, improving your engagement rates and reach. The more consistently you post, the more successful the page is, so having a scheduled plan of content ensures your accounts never go dormant for any extended periods of time.

Lastly, it is always important to consider your audience when deciding what content is being published where. If you are advertising to a younger generation, TikTok is a good path to take. However, if your consumers fall into an older age range, it may be more helpful to put more time and energy into your Facebook. Instagram usually caters to a variety of ages, but because it is part of the Meta-sphere, you can easily share every post to Facebook as well to ensure it reaches the widest audience possible. On top of all that, LinkedIn is crucial for networking and sharing business-centred content. Posting about brand updates, projects, events etc, via LinkedIn is always the way to go.

Having an online presence is a critical part of marketing in the digital age. Hopefully, these tips gave you a bit of insight into how to ensure you are strategically using these platforms to the best of your brand’s ability and are getting the absolute most, you can from your social media presence.

If you would like advice on how to manage your social media for your business, or maybe you would like someone to take it on for you, please get in contact with us as we would love to help you! You can reach us at [email protected] or fill out a contact form here and we will organise a chat with you!