Social media is a useful marketing tool to connect directly with current and potential customers. Social media can be used to give your audience an idea of who you are as a brand, share interesting and entertaining content, and promote your business.

Sharing quality social content that your audience engages with starts with knowing who your audience is and using analytics tools to determine what content they are interacting with the most. There is no single set of instructions to create effective social content, but there is one solid guideline you can use in your social media content strategy to see stronger engagement from your audience.

Stick to the 80/20 Rule

80% of the time, it's not about you

It's easy to treat social media as a purely promotional tool, but to your audience this comes across as spammy. Like all of your marketing content, your social posts should provide value to the reader. About 80% of your posts should be providing informational, educational, or entertaining content that does not promote your products or services. This can be content that is relevant to your industry or outside of your market but relevant to your audience personas. And your educational social posts can still lead your audience back to your website through a blog or landing page that provides content with value, but this is not the time to share a link directly to your contact page or a specific product.

20% of the time, it's all about you

This is where you highlight your business and the products and services you offer customers. Remember, these posts should still be providing value to your audience, but it's about framing your social sharing so that your business or products are the value provided. What solution do your services provide to potential customers with a problem? And you may have more content for promotional posts than you think. Share high-quality images of your products, testimonials from customers, product polls, behind-the-scenes videos meeting employees or showing your production process, links to your email newsletter subscription, and any other content that highlights who you are as a brand and drives visitors to engage with you further.

To see if your social media sharing could be doing more for your business, book a free social media evaluation!