Stephanie Donelson

Major social media networks have been around for more than 10 years now: Facebook will be celebrating 16 years in February, Twitter will have 14 years in March, and Instagram will be having its 10th birthday in October next year – and in those 10+ years social media marketing has evolved quite a bit.

The networks have changed algorithms or revised best practices, meaning social media marketers have to adapt their strategies or invest in new tactics to see strong performance on social media channels every year or even every few weeks.

But in that time, some social media best practices have remained consistent and provide a strong base for your marketing strategy. From focusing on a customer-centric approach to analyzing your performance, there are ways to continue to see ROI in social media marketing in the new year.

Make the most of your social media marketing in 2020 by reviewing these 10 social media best practices.

1. Quality vs. quantity

When it comes to any marketing tactic, quality is always better than quantity. Don’t try to be on every social media channel if you only have time to do one or two really well. People would rather see a strong, engaged presence than mediocre and sparse posts so focus on networks you can properly manage – and that have your target demographic.

Understand what they want to see, what they want to talk about, and where they want to have these conversations. You might find that LinkedIn and Twitter perform well for your B2B brand but Facebook is a waste of time. That’s fine! Put your attention on networks that will provide ROI and that you can provide a valuable experience for your customers.

2. Pay to play

The social media landscape is extremely competitive as you’re not only competing with other brands but your customers’ friends and family for their attention. Don’t be afraid to invest in advertising to get your brand in front of the right people. 

Today’s ads can be built to promote your brand’s social media pages and gain new followers, direct people to a specific landing page, encourage them to sign up for emails, re-engage with current clients, or download a free trial. You can use ads or promoted posts pretty much any way you want and ads can be a valuable tool to drive engagement and conversions. 

3. Create a strategy

You can just start posting willy nilly to your social media channels but then expect results that mean nil. 

Take the time to draft up a plan for your social media posts, whether you’re trying to drive brand awareness, engagement, conversions, or retain customers. There should be a goal you’re going after or a reason why you post what you do.

I follow the 80/20 rule, where 80% of the content I share is educational, informative, fun, or links/posts from others, and 20% is promotional. I’ve known other social media marketers who use the rule of thirds: ⅓ promotional, ⅓ influencers or partners, ⅓ personal stories.

Mix up your content types too so you’re not just sharing the same type of post over and over and over again. Share a link to a podcast on Monday, then on Wednesday share a link to a complementary guide on the podcast topic, and on Friday share a motivational quote or fun video. 

4. Adjust content across networks

Craft unique messages to go with your content for each network. Is it more work? Yup. Is it worth it? Oh, yeah.

No one wants to see a brand share the exact same message at the exact same time across all their social media profiles. One, that shows they don’t really understand or care about the audience that’s on that specific channel, and two, your brand could be missing out on impressions and engagement that way.

Optimize your posts with hashtags, the appropriate image sizes, shortened links or deleted links like on Facebook, and the right message. Sorry, copy and paste just won’t work with this best practice. 

For example, I’m sharing a link about the top 10 things to do in winter in Denver. On Twitter, my message might look like:

But on Facebook I would not use hashtags, I would delete the link from my message as Facebook automatically attaches links below the post, and maybe list one or two of the things to do as a teaser. 

5. Post at the right time

Similar to writing unique content for each network, post when your audience is visiting the network! Most social media channels allow you to see the best times to post to your accounts to get the best reach and, hopefully, the best engagement.

If you schedule your posts in advance, which you should to save yourself time, use this information to schedule your posts wisely. 

6. Watch the competition 

Keep up with the Joneses, or at least keep an eye on them to see what your competitors are doing on social media. This can help you make sure you’re on the right channels, sharing the right content, or identifying gaps of content you can fill to drive more engagement and brand loyalty on your page.

Take note of what kind of content they share, what works well and what doesn’t drive engagement, and even what influencers they’re partnering with in your industry. You should also take into account their following as that can help you set benchmarks and goals for your own brand. 

7. Customer service

Social media is a natural extension of customer service and provides an opportunity for you to get ahead of problems or negative brand mentions. Listen for mentions, respond, and solve their problem or move the conversation offline. 

You will not make a good impression on social media if you ignore people who are mad and continue to post promotional posts or posts saying how great your brand is. It’ll come off as fake and people will rip it apart.

You may even want to hire someone who solely focuses on customer service or help on social media so they can have technical or product-focused conversations right away instead of having the customer passed around from department to department. 

8. Find relevant conversations

Don’t just stick to your own content schedule, monitor the networks for relevant conversations that your brand should be a part of. Search for hashtags or Twitter chats you can jump on to establish your brand as a thought leader and drive up brand awareness. 

9. A/B test your content or ads

Want to learn what your audience prefers in a fun, easy way? A/B test your social media content!

You can A/B test: 

• CTAs 
• Images 
• Videos 
• GIFs 
• Messaging and tone of voice 
• Using a stat vs. a quote 
• Length of the post 
• The use of emojis
• Time of day
• Day of the week

With any A/B test, make sure you only edit one variable so you can be sure that change is what got you your results. Run the same piece of content, at least a few weeks apart, and change one thing about the post and see what happens. Does a GIF on Twitter get more likes and retweets? Does a quote get more shares and comments on Facebook than a statistic?

This will help you craft better posts in the future as you know what your audience responds to. 

10. Measure your results on a regular basis

You won’t know if your strategy or tactics are working if you never measure their performance. Set up monthly, quarterly, and yearly audits to make sure you’re improving and finding new areas of opportunity for your social media marketing.

Some common metrics you’ll want to track:

• Impressions: The number of times your posts were displayed
• Reach: The number of people who saw your post
• Engagement rate: A percentage that tells how much your posts are liked, commented on, or shared
• Followers: How many people choose to follow your brand and see your updates in their feeds
• Clicks: How many clicked on your post
• Website clicks: How many clicks to your website were generated
• Conversions: How many people from social media became leads or customers
• Social media contributed conversions: How many conversions received assistance from social media

Have any other social media best practices? Feel free to share them in the comments below or share on Twitter and tag me, @sjdonelson303!