As a business person looking to maximize on its social media endeavors, the top goal will be to get people viewing your posts. This will do by updating constantly and sharing the latest informative content. However, not every one of your posts will be seen by your audience. Even with your best efforts, some of your posts will pass by unnoticed.
How can you remedy that?
Thanks to research by the Pew Research Center, we have some information as to how you can maximize visibility for each of your posts. The research mainly pertains to how Facebook users consume information, but can be viewed generally as to how online users respond to posts and news events posted on other online mediums.
For your benefit, we’ve culled the relevant stats which we’ll share, then give you three ways to maximize the effects of your posts.
By the numbers
Social media is changing the way people get information from their favorite brands, and how audiences respond to such information. Most importantly, in relation to US audiences:
- More than half of adults make use of Facebook (about 64%), which translates to online use as well. Such high numbers give a picture of a vast market that would be willing to read informative and helpful content.
- 46% of people get their news and updates from online sources, including social networking sites, emails, and search engines. More people chose to get their news online, which bodes well for a smart online marketer.
- For those that require proof that informative and engaging content and posts are crucial to success, consider that 70% of online users click on a post because it is interesting, as opposed to the 13% that click on posts because of the number of “likes” or comments.
- More to that, audiences don’t necessarily have to share your point of view to click on your posts. Only about 27% of online users prefer news that share their point of view, which leaves the rest open to viewing content that is interesting.
- You are going to love this: For Facebook users (to some degree the general online audience), slightly more than half (52%) hate it when people share too much personal information in their posts. Other peeves that online users dislike are bragging (47%), ‘over-posting’ during a small period of time (37%), and politically charged posts (23%). Now you know what to avoid.
Maximizing your posts’ visibility
Let’s delve deeper into practical tactics you can take to be seen:
Engage with the audience. Responding to feedback in a personal way makes the audience feel valued and respected. Besides, you are dealing with human beings who like to interact and be social. A valued audience is more likely to stay tuned for more updates and tell their friends about you, meaning your posts reach as many people as possible.
Interesting content. You’ve seen the stats above, and now appreciate the value of posting informative content (blogs, video, articles, infographics, and so on). Keep the personal more a behind the scenes look. Go ahead and pull back the curtain. Who doesn’t want to get an insider’s exclusive view?
Your audience wants messages that are relevant, useful, informative, and valuable yet authentic to your personal brand. How do you help, with a product or a service, a specific audience? If you can communicate helpful hints or educate others from your strength area, then your audience sees that your messages are relevant and helpful. When they see you as someone who provides helpful, valuable information they’ll seek you out for further business.
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Work to your strengths. Not every social site will work to your strengths as a brand, which means you have to evaluate your goals and engage on platforms you will be active on. Similarly, any online marketing endeavor has to be guided by a plan that outlines goals, targets, and objectives. That way, you’ll know how effective your strategies are, and what to do when the ship goes off course.
The infographic from which the above stats were gleaned can be found here, and feel free to share other ways you feel/know will maximize your posts’ reach and effectiveness.
