Major Social Network Best Practices

Prepared by: Grant Kenney

Senior Digital Strategist Twitter: @GrantKenney

May 3, 2016

Why Facebook? Facebook is the world’s largest social network and one of

the most versatile tools available to online marketers today.

Facebook can be a powerhouse in your online marketing strategy…if leveraged correctly.

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Best Practices: Post Length How long are your Facebook posts?

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Ideal length for a post is 40 characters. Less is more.

Best Practices: Structure Separate

components to make posts

more digestible to users.

Ask simple

questions that are relevant or that could drive conversations

and future content ideas. #PureMichiganEDU

Best Practices: Structure Avoid the dreaded “Big Box O’ Text”

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Best Practices: Invite Likes

Don’t have many Page

Likes?

Invite people to your page!

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Best Practices: Hashtags

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Hashtags are a great way to join

or start conversations to allow people to

find your content.

Best Practices: Hashtags

Stick with one or two on

Facebook to consistently

use in order to increase

awareness.

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Speaking of Hashtags

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ALWAYS use the Pure Michigan hashtag!

Best Practices: Imagery Be visual and always use compelling photos or

videos.

If the post looks ugly to

you, it will look ugly to

your audience.

Best Practices: Imagery

Speaking of being

visual…

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Best Practices: Tracking URLs

Use a URL shortener to shrink your link to avoid

long and ugly URLs.

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Best Practices: Post Data Look at your Post Data through Insights to get a breakdown of individual post performance.

Best Practices: Post Types Experiment with different formats for content and use insights to deliver content that is the most engaged

with.

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Best Practices: Frequency/Timing Post once per day on your Facebook page and use

Facebook Page Insights to determine the best time to post.

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Best Practices: Password Protection

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Why Instagram? Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing

and social networking service.

Instagram provides a veritable cornucopia of uses besides simply sharing pretty pictures.

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Best Practices: Posting

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Tell a story with your images and give people something they can’t get themselves to get a behind the scenes look.

Best Practices: Hashtags

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Research the hashtags you want to use to ensure they’ll be seen by a relevant audience.

0 posts 4,260 posts

Best Practices: Hashtags

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Use 3-5 hashtags when posting to Instagram.

Best Practices: Engagement

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Engagement plays a key

role in growing and cultivating a successful Instagram presence.

Best Practices: Engagement

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Regularly search for content and relevant hashtags relating to your business or DMO and either like or

comment.

Best Practices: Frequency/Timing •  Post four times per week to Instagram •  Users are more active on weekdays and weekends and

busier at night •  See what works best for your brand and analyze results •  Use free tools like Squarelovin or PicStats

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Five Uses for Instagram Pictures •  Include email newsletters •  Showcase in your blogs •  Share on Facebook and other

social networks •  Include in visitor guides •  String multiple Instagram pics

together into a video

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Geotagging Geotagging allows you to create and “check in” to your location on Instagram.

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Why Twitter? Twitter specializes in short messages, which may include

photos or videos.

Twitter tends to have a higher learning curve than other social networks, but can be effective if used properly.

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Twitter as an Amplifier Send out more than one tweet to promote a single piece of content. Deliver multiple tweets with slightly different angles. •  The first tweet builds awareness •  The second tweet is in the form of a question •  The final tweet features a fact from the content being

promoted

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Best Practices: Recycle!

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Repeat and recycle relevant and popular content – just change your language!

Evergreen Content is Perfect for Twitter

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Twitter as a Traffic Driver Like Instagram, the prevalence of hashtags on Twitter allows you to reach a multitude of people who may not be aware you exist.

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Twitter for Customer Service The natural back and forth nature of Twitter makes it a great resource for customer service and handling issues.

Best Practices: Tweet Length Ideal length for a tweet is 100 characters.

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Best Practices: Engagement

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•  Reply and Like when others reply to your tweets •  Don’t retweet every mention you gets

•  Search for related hashtags and Like or comment on what you come across

Best Practices: Structure

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Familiarize yourself with

the way a tweet is sent and don’t be

afraid of Twitter!

Best Practices: Pictures

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Tweets with pictures get

more attention than those

without – but don’t force it!

Best Practices: Frequency/Timing •  Tweet 4-6 times per day •  Typically, posting before lunch and the early evening

works best •  Use a tool like Tweriod to find your best times to post

Best Practices: Use Lists Separating different accounts into Lists is a great way to sift through the noise to find relevant content.

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Best Practices: Social Media Management Tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social can cost money – but are excellent tools for social media managers to monitor, schedule and respond to content.

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Why Pinterest? Pinterest allows users to share and “Pin” items of interest to

collections, also known as boards. Pinterest can be a great way to drive traffic to your website

and showcase experiences visually.

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Best Practices: Buttons Add the Pin It button to make it easier for people to Pin from your website and add the a Follow button on your website

and in your newsletter.

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Best Practices: Pinning Pin regularly so your content appears in

your followers’ feeds and in search.

Also be sure to add

compelling and specific descriptions

to Pins.

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Best Practices: Pin Sources Pin your own content from your own website to leverage the platform more effectively so you’re

sending people back to your site.

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Best Practices: Engagement Follow other Pinners and search for Pins that

relate to your business so you can like

and comment.

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BEST PRACTICES: SEO Optimize the

About section, Boards and

Pins are optimized for search with

relevant keywords.

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Place Pins and Boards

Place Pins and Boards include extra details like addresses and phone numbers and may be

plotted on maps.

However, these are special kinds of Pins and Boards…

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Rich Pins Rich Pins are Pins that include extra information

on the Pin itself.

To get started, you'll need to prep your website with meta tags, test out your Rich Pins and apply

to get them on Pinterest.

If you're not technical, you might want to ask your developer or site owner to help get you going!

developers.pinterest.com

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Embedding

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Widget Builder Use the

Pinterest Widget Builder to create different kinds of

embeddable content from not just any of your Pins and Boards – but anyone’s.

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