3 Ways to Optimize Social Media Posts For More Clicks

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If you’re managing your company’s social media marketing, sometimes it can feel like your posts are falling into a black abyss, never to be seen or interacted with by your target market. You need more engagement in the form of shares, follows, comments, and most importantly, clicks.

This task is easier said than done. It takes time and some fine-tuning, but you have to start somewhere, so start with these three tips to optimize social media marketing and increase the amount clicks and interactions you receive.

Use a Clear Call-to-Action

Unless you already have the most engaged audience of all time, you need to push your fans and followers down the funnel from follower, to engaged reader, to lead/customer. The best way to give them a little nudge is to tell them exactly what they’re going to get by clicking on the link in your post. Bonus points if you can use some wit and humor.

A good call-to-action will address a common pain point that your audience has and how your valuable content solves the issue. People would rather buy aspirin than vitamins, so tell them exactly what they’re going to get instead of being vague.

For example, avoid using the old-school “click here”, or “buy now”. No one wants to be sold to on social media. Try using a call to action that tells them what they’re getting like, “get your free copy now” if you’re offering a whitepaper, or “subscribe today to get the latest news on x” if you’re trying to get more people reading your newsletter or blog.

Here’s some more call-to-action advice via Heidi Cohen on Social Media Examiner.

Ask For Shares, Likes and Retweets

Sometimes all it takes to get your message in front of more eyes is a friendly request. Try asking your audience to share your content with their networks. This works extremely well if you’re providing valuable, unique content that people can’t find anywhere else.

If you don’t have the most engaged audience, a great tip is to find three-to-five thought-leaders or influencers in your industry (make sure they’re on social media and have a legion of dedicated followers) and ask them to review and share your content. Obviously you shouldn’t just sent a direct message on Twitter asking that question. You should craft a clear email explaining 1) how you found them, 2) how much you love their content (cite a few recent posts and add your unique take on them), and 3) how sharing your content will benefit them AND their audience. Don’t be shortsided here, you want to build long-term relationships with Influencers.

Your social media marketing can’t be all about you, there’s a reason it’s referred to as a community. Follow the 6 G’s of social media marketing and you’ll see better results:

Image via Flickr

Use Appropriate Hashtags

Start off by monitoring which hashtags are used by the thought-leaders you follow. They are likely topics that are relevant to your industry. They could also be unique hashtags that have been created based on industry jargon (i.e. #solopreneur, #bigdata, or #inboundmarketing for the tech space).

Take note on which hashtags are shared most often and implement them into your website content (without the #, of course) and your social media posts. Hashtags work on most of the major social media outlets, including, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, and Vine.

You can also take a peek at Twitter’s trending topics to see what’s hot now:

Be sure to check out how to properly use hashtags across the major social networks.

Additional Ways to Optimize Social Media Posts

Telling your followers exactly how you’ll help them, asking for people to share your content, and using industry-specific and trending hashtags will bolster your social media marketing strategy and help you get more clicks.

There are other things to consider, like time of day when you post, character length of posts, and adding images. What else would you do to get more clicks via your social media outlets? Let’s hear your ideas in the comments!

About the Author

Ryan Kettler is Director of Communications for BoostSuite, the collaborative content marketing system that lets you target and grow your online audience by doing inbound marketing on your own. Ryan is an internet marketing zealot, sports fanatic, devoted runner, avid golfer, beer connoisseur, and live music enthusiast.



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