{"id":9367,"date":"2020-07-26T12:40:11","date_gmt":"2020-07-26T18:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chrissniderdesign.com\/blog\/?p=9367"},"modified":"2020-07-26T12:40:11","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T18:40:11","slug":"five-questions-to-ask-before-you-make-that-next-social-media-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chrissniderdesign.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/26\/five-questions-to-ask-before-you-make-that-next-social-media-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Five questions to ask before you make that next social media post"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Social media used to be easy … just throw something up and wait for the comments and clicks to start rolling in.<\/p>\n

Social media today is far more challenging for brands. Social networks prioritize interaction between people<\/a> \u2013 not brands. Brand marketers have to step up our game to have our content seen.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, most brands are really bad at social media<\/a>. Answering a few simple questions will take our content from boring to great. Read on to learn five questions you should ask before you post to social media.<\/p>\n

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Ready to really take your social media to the next level? Sign up for my online social media strategy course<\/a> (discount code at the bottom of this post).<\/strong><\/p>\n

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1. Who is this post for?<\/h2>\n

A great way to ensure your social media content will succeed is to create it with a particular person in mind. We call that person a marketing persona.<\/p>\n

Think about a particular person. What questions do they have about your business? The next time someone calls your business with a question, that is probably a good thing to post about on social media. This post from the Blank Park Zoo about updating their business hours<\/a> got 36 reactions and 8 comment. Why? That’s useful content.<\/p>\n

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What problems do potential customers have that your company can help solve? Create posts that show how you make one person’s life better, and that will likely help hundreds more people as well.<\/p>\n

And you won’t end up relying on international cat day and talk like a pirate day<\/a> for content.<\/p>\n

2. What action do you want people to take?<\/h2>\n

Do you want comments? Likes? Clicks? Phone calls? Figure out what action you want customers to make once they see your post. Then make it clear what you want them to do (but remember that Facebook doesn’t like when you explicitly ask for comments).<\/p>\n

This post clearly asks people to follow along in Stories for more content. It’s clear what the brand wants people to do, so they’re more likely to do so.<\/p>\n

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3. Can you make the post interactive?<\/h2>\n

This post is great content. When it’s hot, parents need ideas to entertain kids. But that doesn’t necessarily make it great social media content.<\/p>\n

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Instead of sharing this link, I would suggest asking people to share their favorite ways to entertain the kids on a hot day. You’ll get comments, which are important on Facebook in 2020.<\/p>\n

And better yet don’t need a link…<\/p>\n

4. Do you really need the link?<\/h2>\n

Unless you’re linking to pages that use Facebook’s Instant Articles (and deliver Facebook ads), there’s no real reason for Facebook to want to send people away from its site. So why post content as a link that could have been included in the post?<\/p>\n

Raygun could ask people to go to its website to submit ideas. Those people might even stick around and buy something. But why? People came to Facebook. Let them stay on Facebook.<\/p>\n

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If clicking on the link doesn’t benefit you in some way, try to make your post without a link?<\/p>\n

5. Is the content native to that platform?<\/h2>\n

Native content is content that looks and feels like what real people post to that social network. If your post doesn’t look like something that a real person would post, then it’s probably not good social media content.<\/p>\n

Do real people post photos of Bud Light bottles perfectly placed on the beach on Instagram? No, so that’s not native content.<\/p>\n

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But they do post photos of dogs. So this is native content on Instagram.<\/p>\n

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Online social media course<\/h2>\n

Ready to take your social media to the next level? Sign up for my online social media strategy class<\/a>. Use the code SAVE50 to save $50 off the cost through July 31.<\/p>\n

Here’s what’s included in the course:<\/strong><\/p>\n