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Social Media Content Rules You Should Follow

December 13, 2018

Posting on social media sounds like a simple task, but it is not. If you want to get new subscribers and become famous in virtual world, you should work hard and follow basic rules. The most important thing is to create unique content, which is 100% informative, interesting and relevant.

There are so many social networks and so many niches you could choose in the web, but rules of success always remain the same. Keep reading and you will know how to post content right.

Create High Quality Visual Content

If you consider posting on social media as a way to make money online, you should use reliable photo equipment. And it doesn’t matter whether you are going to promote sales of decorated cakes via Instagram, or music instruments via YouTube. In the age of tough social media competition, a high resolution of visual content is a must.

You would never become an Instagram superstar, if you take selfies using 0.3MPx camera. However, new smartphones with 13 MPx or 21 MPx cams will help you to cope with this task easily. New technologies offer numerous affordable tools for quality content creation, so try to use them all.

Another rule is about diversity of the visual content. There are so many kinds of post you can create:

Quotes: When you want to share a famous quote with your subscribers, utilize online service WebDonut or QuoteMaker (for Apple).

Layouts: It is a great way to make a beautiful photo of numerous small items. Layouts go well for unobtrusive advertisement in social media.

Infographics: It is a great tool to present complex information in the simplest way possible. Try free services recommended by Forbes: Infogram, PicktoChart and Easel.ly.

Short video clips: The time lapse series, slow motion and other cam settings of the smartphones and apps allow creating an original catchy content. Short video clips usually attract more attention than ordinary photos.

Live Streaming: Most of social media offers this option, which allows enhancing communication with the followers. Live streaming once a week is a great way to increase the subscribers’ loyalty and engagement.

Do not stick to only one kind of visual content. Make some experiments and find out what kind of posts do your followers like the most.

Create High Quality Textual Content

Creative writing is another important part of the successful SMM. Textual content must be extremely interesting and catch users’ attention from very first sentence. If this task seems to be too difficult, it is necessary to find professional copywriters and ask them for help.

Moreover, any post: from a long article to a short Tweet must be grammatically correct. It is good idea to utilize proofreading service such as TopAustraliaWriters, or find the best copywriters at BestWritersCanada . When text is free from the errors and typos, subscribers read it with pleasure.

Social media content should be always relevant, so focus your attention on finding new hot topics. Watch news, subscribe to popular hashtags, and analyze content of other bloggers in order to stay informed about the latest sensations. Otherwise, share your personal fresh ideas with the world and become a trend maker on your own.

Post New Content Regularly

Social media is a source of the infinite flow of information and major task of the blogger is to keep this flow going. YouTubers should upload a new video at least once a week, and Instagramers should make 3 posts per day and create Stories. Depending on the particular social media and a niche taken, the frequency of the posts could vary a lot.

This is a challenging task to understand how much content your subscribers would like to get. Because an excessive posting can be considered as a spamming, which leads to the decreasing of loyalty. At the same time, irregular posting is not able to ensure growing of the social media presence.

Moreover, time plays a curtail role for the social network management. It is important to publish fresh content during the peaks of followers’ activity. As a rule, 3-4 PM EST is the most popular time.

Daniela Spouse, a professional copywriter at Canada-Writers suggests: “Scheduling of the social media posts can be easier with the apps, such as Preview for Instagram and Postify for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. User-friendly tools help to plan an activity in advance for a day and for a week.”

Use Hashtags

Hashtags are as important for social media as SEO keywords for websites. If you want to enlarge the reach, you should use a maximum amount of hashtags in every post. You should find out what are the most popular keywords in your niche and stick to them all the time.

Every hashtag must be relevant to the topic you discuss and to the photo you publish. Thoughtless use of tags could only harm your profile promotion. If it is difficult to find out what kinds of keywords are suitable for your blog, check automatic generators AllHashtags and Leetags.

Moreover, it is a good idea to create your own hashtags or even few of them. It will help your subscribers to navigate through your profile. For example, your major hashtag could be #JessieVegan and additional ones could be #JessieVegan_Recipe, #JessieVegan_Workout and #JessieVegan_Trip.

Respect Copyright Laws

When you start blogging you should clearly understand one thing – all content you will provide must be 100% unique. If you want to become an influencer, then your photos, videos and texts must be created by you. Modern users are too demanding; so, if you are not ready to offer them an exclusive content, then you have no chances to succeed.

However, you are eligible to use some pics or quotes created by other people, if you get their permission. If you have no opportunity to contact an owner of the content, you should tag this person in the post. Never forget to mention phrase like “photo credit @user” in order to avoid the copyright infringement.

Answer Comments of Your Followers

Feedback from your subscribers is the most valuable reward, which you can get. Even if you get too many comments, you should try to answer them all. Your followers require your attention, your advices and your support.

Blogging in the social media is a new kind of communication, and it’s always a dialog. So, when you start a topic by publishing fresh content, you should be able to discuss it. Try to be an expert and provide valuable information in every post and in every comment you write.

Deal with Haters

If you have haters in the social media, it means you are getting famous. Congratulations! However, you should be very careful interacting with people, who write evil comments. There is a line you should not cross: never use an obscene language.

There are three ways to deal with the haters in the world web: answer their comments politely, ignore them or simply block their accounts. You should choose one strategy and follow it strictly. Communication with the jealous people can be depressive, so you should be ready to face the dark side of the fame.

Follow and Comment Influencers

This rule is simple to understand: influencers in your niche are great examples to follow. If you want to be as popular as they are, you should analyze their profiles in details. Find out what kind of content, how many times per day and at what exact time do they post; and take a look at geotags and hashtags used.

Followers of the influencers in your niche are your target audience, so you should attract their attention. When you wittily comment post of the famous bloggers, numerous users would like to check your profile. This is a great way to get free real followers in a short period of time.

Run Contests

Entrepreneur.com states that people adore free stuff even more than you can imagine. Everyone in this world would be happy to get something valuable without paying for it. This is why various giveaways in the social media are getting more and more popular.

In fact, running a contest is affordable for everyone. And if you are not able to offer a new iPhone as a prize, don’t worry; there are so many cheap things you can give. For example, if you are a travel blogger, you can start a giveaway of the postcards from your last trip.

For launching online sweepstakes, you need to use tools such as ShortStack and Rafflecopter. These services make it easy to manage the process: you can randomly pick up a winner in few clicks.

Do not Become a Beggar

Never ask people to like or repost your content. Most of users dislike “social media beggars” and it is a fact. If your posts are good enough, then your followers will share them without unnecessary reminders.

But when you start begging, users find it really annoying. Consequently, the only “reward” you can get from tearful soliciting is an increased number of unsubscribing. The major rule of the success is simple: if you want users to share your posts, work harder on creation of unique valuable content.

Promote Yourself in Professional Social Networks

Professional social networks such as LinkedIn and AngelList work great for a job promotion. Your major tasks are to post relevant content and update profile regularly. In fact, your professional account should look like a perfectly written detailed resume.

If you find it difficult to design a professional LinkedIn profile, you can utilize ResumesCentre and get an adequate help. Then you can be sure that this profile represents you as a great specialist in the field.

Feel free to link your LinkedIn account with other social media platforms, which demonstrates your portfolio. If you are a photographer – show your professional Instagram profile, if you are a TV host – present your YouTube channel.

If you write the academic papers, you can post them too. However, you should pay attention to the correctness of citation.

Summary

There are many social media content rules, but all of them can be summarized in few words: content must be interesting, informative and relevant. Stay creative, focus on diversity, post content regularly, launch giveaways and then your profile will be in the center of attention.

Social media provides you with a free opportunity to express your personality and become popular. You should take this chance wisely and utilize professional online services, if necessary. Never forget that hard work will be greatly rewarded with the positive feedback and monetary benefits.

James Daily

James Daily is a professional writer, content manager, and blogger. When he is not involved in career-related tasks, he follows his other many interests, including astronomy, psychology, and cinema. Check his personal blog at Brainished.

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