Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok have become integral tools for businesses to interact with their customers. When used strategically, these platforms help your company communicate about your services, connect with your target audience, extend your reach, and maintain your public image.
It’s important to connect with your followers using a healthy balance of content that engages, informs, and promotes your products. In general, you’ll want to aim for 50% of your posts to engage, 30% to inform, and 20% to promote. Keep reading to learn about the different types of posts and why the 50-30-20 rule is a good guide to follow.
50%: Engage
Connecting with your audience is the primary purpose of social media, and the key to creating social content that they’ll engage with is to showcase your brand’s personality. Ideally, you’ll want about half of your posts to be in this category.
There’s a certain charm to letting your followers see the human side of your business. It reminds them that behind your business persona are genuine folks just like them, and it’s excellent for establishing rapport. Some great ideas for cultivating a positive perception of your brand are behind-the-scenes photos and videos, holiday greetings, meet-the-team mini profiles, social responsibility campaigns that resonate with your target audience, and photos from in-person outreach events.
Another way to engage with your followers is to run contests and giveaways. A call to action such as “Enter to Win!” is guaranteed to generate interaction and raise awareness of your latest offerings without feeling like a hard sell.
For entertaining content, you can create your own branded entertainment pieces or turn to outside GIFs, memes, jokes, and trivia questions that tie into your industry. Remember, though, that not all GIFs and memes are made equal. Keeping your content appropriate and professional should always be top priority. This doesn’t mean everything needs to sound corporate or scripted; in fact, it should not. Rather, make sure your light-hearted and engaging material is fun and personable, but is also grammatically correct and has a safe-for-work feel.
30%: Inform
Educational resources are another type of content that should be mixed into your social strategy. We recommend posting three types of informative content for every ten posts.
To determine what type of information your followers will want to read, pay attention to the questions they ask and the common challenges they encounter. From there, post blogs or how-to videos that answer their questions, provide solutions, and position your company as an industry expert. Consumers will appreciate and potentially share your posts, which further helps grow your customer base organically.
Consider sharing informative content from other authorities in your industry as well. When you come across outside content from reputable sources and share it on your social media, not only does it educate your audience, but the gesture may even be reciprocated. If those sources share your material in return, it can expand your reach and audience.
20%: Promote
You may think the purpose of a business page on social media is to sell services or products. That’s why you went into business in the first place, right? However, instead of using your social page purely for sales, think of it as a place to sell your brand and limit your promotional posts to one out of every five.
That might seem like a low percentage of posts to earmark for promotions, but remember that social media is a two-way street with the intention of connecting with people. Think of this analogy: When you go to a party, do you spend the whole time touting your services to the guests? Or do you regale them with entertaining stories and share nuggets of wisdom?
Respect your audience’s wishes for more engaging and informative content, and promote what you have to offer last.
Experiment
While the 50-30-20 rule is great to follow when outlining your social media marketing efforts, it is not absolute. Every company is different and needs its own custom formula to find that social media “sweet spot.” Experiment with different kinds of content to see what gets the most engagement.
You may also find that some of your posts perform better at different times of the day or year. Fine-tune your social media marketing calendar to what best suits your business by studying your page analytics. Be willing to adjust your mix as trends evolve.
Hire a Pro
If you feel like social media isn’t your forte and you prefer to focus your time and energy on other areas of your business, let a professional handle your social media marketing. At Stray Media Group, our team can build a social media marketing plan that can be customized to fit your needs. Contact us today to see how we can help!
