Maybe the question isn’t what not to post as that one is kind of an easy one. Don’t post things that you wouldn’t want your parents, grandparents or children see – or stuff that would just give a bad impression for your business. Obviously the industries will vary and what may be acceptable for a tattoo parlor wouldn’t be acceptable for say, a church. You get the idea.
What Do I Post?
A more common question would be what to post. Now, that may vary too depending upon your audience, but a great start is, what do YOU like to engage with? What do you spot and think, oh, I just have to comment on that, oh, I know the answer to that or I just couldn’t pass this up without commenting on it. Those are things that you will want to start thinking about, for your followers.
In a Hurry?
People are visual and in this time and day, people are in such a hurry, have a short attention span and channel surf on social media. So, you will want to post things that are eye grabbing, or that they can see quickly as they are scanning about.
Post a Variety
If I were to post the same thing over and over, it might get old, so posting a variety of things that can keep it interesting. I was posting for a client who had a service industry outside type job (don’t want to give it away) and he cancelled services and started posting for himself. That’s great – except he posted duck memes… like… for everything. It…. got…. old, he wasn’t getting it.
FYI – the number 1 reason for folks to unlike a business page – uninteresting content! Hello??
Use Humor
Humor is something that I MUST incorporate in my daily life and thus in my business postings – it’s just me. I think that you have to find some sort of humor in most anything and everything you do. (I try at least) We are living our life day in and day out, without humor, it wouldn’t be as worthwhile to me. Anyways, people spend a majority of their lives at work, being professional and not always able to let their hair down, so a few moments to be inspired to made to laugh, it can really make a difference.
So What Do I Post, Really?
Here are some ideas that will surely get a few lightbulbs going and get you started. Create a content calendar to help you organize when you are going to post and what. Maybe center it around a theme if that seems to work best for you. The key here is to post things that will encourage others to like, comment and share. Here you go:
- Motivation is always great, inspiration, quotes
- Questions or fill in the blanks – things that encourage folks to answer, they surely want to give you their thoughts and their brilliant answer.
- Remember when? Nostalgic things, things to spark childhood memories or events
- Talk about your products or services, what research you are doing, published white papers or other resources about your business or products and services, videos are cool too
- Reminder though, it should be 80/20 – more about the consumer than your business – you aren’t hard selling your followers, just informing.
- Company news or events, pictures of team members (being silly) or behind scenes office stuff – it shows you are human, even at work! *gasps*
- Ask for feedback about your business or products and services, customer stories or videos
- Discuss current events – people like to stay informed (way more fun with friends, right?)
- FUN! (I’m all about this one) – crazy memes, cartoons that could be industry related, silly stuff that can ease others’ pains about family, stress, pets, traffic, moving, etc. For some reason, people seem to love pictures of babies and pets – they get gooey – oh, and they love their coffee for some reason! LOL
- Industry specific information and/or infographics – this can be huge, so many topics to cover. Think of anything and everything that can be possibly related to your business and GO!
- Realtors can talk about homes, buying, selling, decorating, inspections, financing, mortgages, home improvement, energy… etc.
- Health/Supplements etc. can talk about inner wellbeing, things to help you be healthy in your eating, in your environment, about exercise, meal planning, eating out, etc.
- My industry (SEO, Social Media) I can cover anything about building and marketing your business, successful business owners and what they do, websites, keywords, consumers, being organize and the list goes on.
- There is so much you can do here, think in and outside of the box and have fun
Remember, be human, be you for goodness sake – everyone else is taken! LOL It’s all about relationships for your business. Get to building!
Don’t forget to boost those posts to be sure you are reaching your own followers, your followers and their friends or a target demographic. It’s super easy, give it a go, see how it worked for you (check your analytics or insights), adjust as necessary and repeat.
What posts do you think work the best for you and your industry? What about what posts you never thought would get the engagement that it did? I’d love to hear your thoughts, let me know.
If, of course, you’d like to learn more about social media, get a social media audit or have a 1on1 consult with me so I can help you do it yourself better, contact me. I’d love to help.
~Kristen
I have to admit, that if I don’t see personality and a bunch of spamming BUY MY STUFF, I am out of there. Facebook is heavily penalizing those types of posts and for good reason. I like to see the person behind the screen. That way I feel like I know them before I hand them my credit card. Some people for some goofy reason don’t think that is professional, but to me, they are not my target audience. I like that my audience relates to me. I say and do funny things. Like you said, we need to let loose and have fun. People take themselves too seriously. I think many people will benefit from this list and give them some really great ideas on what to post.
So very true Heather, before I hand over my $$, I would prefer to know the person, sometimes that isn’t an option, like with bigger stores, but if I do have a relationship with them, my business will usually continue.
Great suggestions all in one place. This post is definitely one to bookmark. So funny the number 1 reason for folks to unlike a business page is uninteresting content! Duh! Keeping it lively is key.
Yea, that was surprising to see, not all that shocking though. Thanks Beth and I love it that you’d bookmark it, thanks!
Great info, you definitely need variety in your posts but also make it relevant and of value to those you want to reach. Also, making it interesting with some kind of visual is important. Make it get their attention and make them WANT to read it in full!
Welcome back to the scene Mike! Yes, it’s one thing to get them to read but the read it completely and click through can be vital. Thanks!
For a purposeful business, there is a need to use and create it more variety of blogs. Thanks for sharing!
Ummm, right Lorii. thanks!
Variety is key, Kristen! Thanks for providing some great examples and suggestions — always a good reminder so we don’t get into a rut and remember that we are posting for our audience, not just ourselves!
Thanks Cathy, you’ve got that right – always good to see what others are doing!
Thank you so much for all the suggestions – I think I need to inject more humour into my posts! 🙂
Surely can’t hurt – we all could use a little more humor these days!
Great ideas and as stated in other comments, tips we know and follow. The other day, every post on my page was visually beautiful. Thy were diversified; inspiration, links, shares, meme, a necklace, and despite that, reached a total of 100 people for 6 posts. It is an uphill challenge. We put a lot of effort and thought into every day’s posts, and will continue to do so.We could use more humor and personality, although that is present in my replies. It also is present in the graphics selected for quotes, although that could be too subtle for some. So what I’m really saying is, sometimes you can be doing all the right things and you still don’t get what the pros say you will get if you just follow their lead. Ok- done with my rant.
Girl, you are preaching to the choir, sometimes we can do ALL of the right things, with social media and even with SEO and still not get the results we deserve. But then again, it’s life and why would our businesses be any different, right?
coming up with ideas for posts can be daunting. I do like to put together a schedule ahead of time and rotate me categories. At least then I know I’m not talking about the same things all the time!
Yes, it can. Wow, that’s a great idea for you Lisa to rotate your ideas so you post an equal share, to be sure you are covering all of your followers’ needs!
Humor? We can use that? Hmmmm….I will definitely have to consider that more in the future on my page 🙂
You should Beth… LOL
Uninteresting content? That’s funny. The main reason why I unlike a business page is because all they try to do is sell, sell, sell. And my second reason: They post way too often…like 15 times an hour. And then third for me is the uninteresting stuff.
I agree that sell or me me me is a major turnoff, but then again, if you think about it… that would be uninteresting content to me… so maybe it’s hand in hand. Funny thing about post too often, unless it’s spam, we aren’t seeing all they post anyways!
Some of these people I put in my Facebook interests lists as sources of information or inspiration, so I saw EVERYTHING they posted. I unfollowed one of them for posting every few seconds. Jumped up and down on my last nerve, it did.
Yea, you know if they are posting every few seconds, it really isn’t them… it’s some automated tool that they aren’t using well, because these tools do know how to que up at the right times. duh.
All great ideas for posting! I have to admit, even if a page is something I am interested in if it’s boring and it’s the SAME THING over and over, they lost me… I too, like to see the person behind the page.
Yep.. I scan blogs for the parts that interest me… and if none of it does, or there aren’t a few pictures or diagrams or something… I’m out!