We all know we should publish social posts. We tweet or post to Facebook, but what is the best way to do it? How should the posts be formatted? When should we post? Let’s discuss.
Why Does Formatting Matter?
Formatting standardizes your social posts in a way that makes your personal workflow optimal. Adhering to these best practices has helped me build my own brand as well as many others.
You’re completely free to disagree and disregard. With that, however, I ask for an open mind. Try my method for two weeks. See if you get more replies, engagement, and impressions. Do your own test.
More after this video.
People Scan, They Don’t Read
It’s true. People don’t read. They scan. Think about yourself. You’re busy. You open your phone or browser to see what’s happening on your favorite social platform. What’s the first thing you do? Scroll?
In order to get attention, how you format your social media post makes a huge difference.
Format your tweet to make it easy on the eyes.
Use returns.
People scan; they don’t read.#TwitterTip
— Bridget Willard (@BridgetMWillard) May 2, 2015
Stop Excessively Using Emoji
Emoji are visual. They are pictures. Our brain processes images differently than words. (Remember the last time you made a spelling error on a graphic? It’s a different part of the brain.)
Emoji use falls under “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” I know you love your emoji. If you must, use them at the end. Or a GIF (which is automatically at the end). Emoji are not bullet points.
Who is your audience? Can they see the emoji? Most people over 40 who wear reading glasses. Even with my glasses, I don’t always know what the emoji is. I thought the sushi one was a lobster roll and I thought the slot machine was a house. They are too dang small. I’m not even talking about legit accessibility issues with screen readers.
The trend with emojis as bullets in tweets needs to die a horrible public death. #JustStop
— Bridget Willard (@BridgetMWillard) March 26, 2018
Carin Arrigo uses a purple heart at the end of her tweets. She’s using it to reinforce her brand. Purple was her mother’s favorite color. She honors her in all that she does.
To those adult children who made the choice to estrange yourselves from your parents,you, too, are seen and heard.Without dialogue, without a willingness to bridge our own individual gaps,without empathy for the other,we live as we must live. #estrangement 💜
— carin arrigo 🙋🏻♀️ (@carinarrigo) January 14, 2020
Don’t Hashtag Words Within Your Main Copy
I find myself saying this often: hashtags are links. They are for filtering and search. Use them at the end so your copy is easy to scan and read.
I agree. It makes tweets hard to read like #when #every #word #is #a #hashtag.
Even if you format on Twitter native, it doesn’t always render that way on third-party platforms. pic.twitter.com/InOh0YEwWL
— Bridget Willard (@BridgetMWillard) March 26, 2018
Formatting for Social Networks
Each network has their own quirks. This is one of the many reasons why auto cross-posting is a bad idea. Instead, mix up your content and share it intentionally across time.
Formatting for Twitter
Just because you have 260 characters (or whatever they change it to in the future), doesn’t mean you have to use them.
[Intriguing quote or question]
[Call to Action]
[short link]
[Hashtag1]
[Hashtag2]
[Hashtag3]
I use Revive Old Post on this blog (to cycle my content on Twitter). Unfortunately, I can’t format my tweets that way. I really wish I could put the link before the hashtags. Oh well. Nothing is perfect or fool-proof.
Okay.
I just installed Koko Analytics by @dannyvankooten.
It'll be cool to see how it differs from the Google Analytics which I probably don't even need on my WordPress Dashboard.
It's a free plugin here:https://t.co/f5ugWTObFm#Analytics#WordPress pic.twitter.com/xJhLnHIZ61
— Bridget Willard (@BridgetMWillard) January 16, 2020
Formatting for Facebook
Facebook uses Open Graph to pull in the featured image and meta description. Sometimes people don’t realize that image is a link to click on. For this reason, I like to nest the link in between paragraphs.
[Intriguing quote or question]
[short link]
[Call to Action]
When you hire me you get me.
You don’t get an intern and you don’t get automation.
http://bit.ly/BridgetsServices
What do you get from a social media manager you find on Craigslist?
Posted by You, Too, Can Be A Guru on Friday, January 17, 2020
Formatting for LinkedIn
LinkedIn is pretty straight forward. Sharing content is easy and it doesn’t matter if you use a short link or not. Sometimes, LinkedIn gets fussy if the link is shortened. So, go ahead and use the long, ugly link at the end. You can be pretty wordy on LinkedIn if you like, too. People actually read on LinkedIn.
[Intriguing quote or question]
[Call to Action]
[website link]
Formatting for Instagram
Instagram is pretty simple and direct. It’s great to use a bunch of hashtags. You can’t even use a link. The big problem where I see people going wrong is taking screenshots of fliers that no one can read.
I made a tutorial on how to use Canva to make these images instead.
[Intriguing quote or question]
[Call to Action]
[hashtag] [hashtag] [hashtag]
[hashtag] [hashtag] [hashtag]
[hashtag] [hashtag] [hashtag]
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7R6eCfHwKu/
Formatting for Success
Formatting your social posts allows people to notice and engage with your content. I double dog dare you to try it for two to four weeks. Look at your analytics. Notice your mentions increase.
If it doesn’t work for you, I offer a free, money-back-guarantee to this advice.
What do you have to lose?