Using The Top 5 Social Networks To Share Content

Social Media is a huge marketing resource that’s largely free to use. If you get it right, social media can help your business to grow. The trouble is, how do you know which is the best social media platform and how can you use them to increase brand awareness and engagement? Here is our quick guide to using the top 5 social networks to share your content:

#1 Provoke a reaction on Facebook

Despite many changes to the algorithms and design, Facebook’s news feed maintains a balance of work and fun for the majority of users. For businesses, it is therefore important to keep that balance when sharing content.

You also want to entice your readers to click through, so posting links to content is the perfect way to do this. It’s likely that you’ll want to repurpose content that you’ve used for marketing too. The best way to do this is to give it a conversational edge, making it feel to your fans like you’ve talking to your audience as individuals rather than talking down at them.

#2 Keep it short on Twitter

Twitter’s 140-character limit is what makes Twitter unique from other social media platforms. To maximise your use, choose your words carefully. When trying to use existing content for Twitter, a great way is to sift out some facts, figures or summaries. These get to the point quickly, under the character limit, and are direct. Test it out by thinking about whether you would click on it if you saw it. Use hashtags appropriately and consider using your keywords in posts to improve your organic rankings.

#3 Stun with pictures on Google Plus

Google Plus is one of the most powerful social networking platforms for growing your author rank online. The difference between Google Plus and other networks is that it has a large focus on images. Alongside Twitter, it is one of the few platforms to which animated gifs can be posted. Pick pictures wisely which tell a story or explore a concept related to your reworked content. If you’re posting a blog, think about what image is displayed.

An image is strong if it tells the reader what it’s about at a glance. It should still be effective if you were to remove any accompanying text. Think about giving your readers a different angle – for example how something works, rather than just a picture of your product.

#4 Demonstrate professionalism on LinkedIn

Industry experts can utilise LinkedIn to discuss topics and share content, as well as networking with other professionals. The unique nature of LinkedIn is that it is primary a professional site, giving the opportunity for recruitment, as well as networking. The overall feel is much more formal and less conversational, with discussion of related topics being more appropriate. In this way, you should repurpose your content to provoke commentary from readers, posing questions and inviting your readers to join the discussion. Read more about How to maximise your publishing exposute on LinkedIn.

#5 Get noticed on Instagram

Instagram’s unique video and photo sharing platform makes it a great way to get noticed, particularly within the younger generation. By using hashtags to caption content, you expand your audience to those searching those terms. It can be good to pick existing hashtags to gain followers, however it can also be worthwhile creating your own.

Asking your audience to join your campaign is now no harder than asking them to use your hashtag. It makes it easy to follow your content, plus generates a greater momentum for your campaign. Hashtags can also be used to represent your brand name, to bring all of your content together in one place easily.

Get advice and inspiration from our experts

What good and bad social media experiences have you had? We would love to hear about what you’ve learned, so leave a comment below.

To find out more about using social media effectively to market your business, or see how we could manage your social media for you, get in touch today on 020 7100 0726.