The Ultimate Social Media Post

Sharing and declaring are the foundation of social media, but businesses are still unable to decide on one issue: is there such a thing as the ideal post?

What makes consumers like a post? What makes them share? Answering these questions is tough, but can lead to an increase in awareness and stronger customer relationships.

My Clever Agency, an organisation specializing in global social media campaigns, recently created an infographic outlining the different features of an ideal post (see the infographic here). These features vary from site to site, so let’s break them down below.

Facebook

• Provide Information – A post should contain just enough information to generate interest.
•  Positivity – Keep things positive, it encourages sharing.
•  Provide a Link – If you’re posting a link, make sure you do it through Bit.ly, so you can track statistics.
• Include Images – Posts with images generate the most interest on facebook.
• Engagement – Engage people through dialogue! Respond to posts to build a relationship.

Twitter

• Call to Action – Providing a CTA gives readers a reason to share.
• Shorten URLs – Use the most of your 140 characters, and make the post more retweetable.
• Format – Use questions, facts and figures to engage readers.
•  Mentions – Mention followers to encourage retweets.

Pinterest

• No Human Faces - Images with no human faces are shared 23% more often.
• Multiple Colours - Images with dominant colours get 3x more likes and repins.
•  Red Colours – Red or orange colours get 2x the amount of likes a repins.
•  Portrait Style – Vertically oriented images do better than horizontally oriented.

Google+

• Tag Brands and People – Tagging brands and people creates a notification, which could lead to engagement.
• Use Hashtags – Using hashtags broadens the scope of you post by linking it to twitter, as well as Google+.
• Images – Using full sized images will make your post stand out more, compared to smaller images and thumbnails.
•  Find Communities – Post in communities as it increases the amount of engagement possibilities.

Whether or not these guidelines truly lead to the ideal post is debatable, but they serve as a good outline to posting on the major social media sites. Tailoring posts to increase chances of engagement will lead to beneficial results.

Let us know what you think, are these the makings of the ideal posts?

// You can view the Infographic created by My Clever Agency here.