How Your Social Media Content Defines Your Marketing Strategy

According to Backlinko, social media users worldwide climbed by over 13% between 2020 and 2021. Currently, 4.48 billion people use social media worldwide. Given the amount of exposure this creates for businesses of any size, many people will notice the amount of content spread over all social media platforms on any given day. Many companies use social media marketing strategies to raise awareness of their brand, create public engagement, create lead generation, and gain top rankings from the all-great-and-powerful Google as an authority in their field. All of which begs these questions:

• Am I optimizing my usage of social media platforms?
• What can I do to reach a greater audience?
• How can I tell if potential leads are engaging with my content?
• Is my social media content consistent with my branding message?

Working Social Media Algorithms  

Every social media platform has an algorithm that dictates what is shown to consumers in the News Feed.  The algorithm is a mathematical equation that judges the perceived value of content based on three data points:

1. The type of content (text, image, video, live video, etc.);
2. How much engagement it receives and the quality of that engagement (likes, comments, shares);
3. How quickly it receives that engagement.

To help improve your chances of engagement, here are 6 tips for increasing social engagement.

Unfortunately, computers run this process and not human beings, so our News Feeds are often full of spam content.  Facebook, in particular, has come under a tremendous amount of scrutiny for the amount of content on its platform explicitly designed to incite violence or hate.  The problem is that the bots running the algorithm can’t read the text on an image, watch a video, or listen to an audio file – they can only screen and suppress content that is “readable” text.  That is why they have recently created a rule that scans advertising or promotes images for text and, if the image contains more than 20% text, downgrade its performance automatically.  

To optimize your content for organic performance, you need to recognize the algorithm and prevent bots from penalizing you.  

1. Create images and videos that are clear and simple, with little or no text.  We also recommend always including branding of some kind so that the image stays connected to you should it be shared.
2. Be careful not to use trigger words that may cause your content to be suppressed or blocked by the algorithm.  And there are a lot of them!
3. Use the things the platforms want you to use. As new features are added, the list changes. Instagram rewards the use of Reels, a new feature designed to help them woo users from TikTok. Facebook rewards live streaming and posts that take advantage of their proprietary features. Using each platform's unique features gives your content better organic (not paid) visibility.  

Social media managers know that the key to success is sharing authentically valuable content.  If you mix media (images and video) sharing content that your Followers appreciate, the likes/comments/shares will follow.  Trying to “trick” the algorithm is more likely to get you suspended than just focusing on providing fair value. Contact us to receive advice on what social media platforms you should utilize more for your business and receive the tools from marketing experts to build a better brand.