Posting times and frequency for maximum impact.
The potential of social media marketing has received a lot of (some would say too much) attention over recent years. However it is important for businesses to understand that social media is an exposer not a closer.
This means that as a branding tool it can be potentially powerful but as a direct response marketing platform (deal closer) it is not likely to generate fantastic results.
What sort of content should I post?
So now that you understand that social media marketing is a form of branding, it is time to get a grasp on how to optimise your social media presence. One of the first things you should know is that unless you are the sort of business that has die hard fans that hang off every word you say, you are unlikely to achieve a high level of interaction by just posting generic ‘About us’ style posts or links to products on your online store.
Your fans are on Facebook in discovery mode. They are looking for content they actually find interesting or something to share with their friends. It has been documented that photo posts on Facebook receive up to 3 times as much interaction than links and text posts. Try taking a moment to think about your target market. What are their interests? What do they find funny? Then find some content to post which is relevant to your industry (not your necessarily to your business), engaging and interesting.
Your fans will like this a lot. Giving them content they like without selling them anything and at the same time you are becoming common knowledge in the social circles within your target market.
Timing is so important. There is no point posting content on a business page when your target market are asleep, at work, eating a meal or offline for any other reason.
What is the best time to make a post?
Various testing has proved that 12pm on Saturday and 6pm on weeknights are the most effective times to share content on your social media platforms. knowing what time to post is only half the battle. Post frequency can make or break a business’ social media presence so getting it right is absolutely crucial if you want to receive the highest possible ROI.
The industry standard is to post once every two days or 0.5 times per day according to KISSmetrics. Posting every two days gives you enough time to perform effective split tests. You can test things such as; posting follow up articles to previously posted articles (testing which post receives the most attention. With a small fan base you could determine if a similar group were interacting with the original post), forms of post your target market are most likely to engage with, which posting time generate more comments and which posting time generates more likes etc.
Social media marketing is a fantastic way to continue your involvement with past customers and expose yourself to brand new internet users. This being said, don’t get too carried away. In 99.9% of cases, a business website should be the most important aspect of your online presence. You wouldn’t build your house on rented land would you? So why develop your sole online presence on a website you do not own? Especially considering that social media users are rarely in buying mode.
Source: KISSmetrics
