Stand Out! 5 Ways to Spice Up Your Social and Get More Clicks

Getting clicks on your social posts is like being picked out of a large crowd; you need to have unique and attractive qualities that separate you from everyone else.

Think of the fans at sports games, for instance. You often see broadcasters zero in on flashy body paint, comical signage, or something else that makes those people different. The same is true for social media: You need to stand out.

While a bullhorn will do you no good on the internet, there are a variety of strategies you can apply to your social marketing that will help get more clicks on posts. Social expertise is something we offer here at OutboundEngine, and we’re always happy to provide some assistance.

To help you boost your engagement online, here are five ways to get more clicks on social posts:

1) Be Visual

No matter what social network you’re working on, posting plain text just won’t cut it. You need to attract your readers’ eyes by including a visual.

More and more often, social networking sites are becoming image-centric. You don’t need to look any further than Instagram’s booming success to see how visuals are the new norm for keeping audiences engaged.

Trying using bright images that provoke an intended emotion, and if you can’t take a high-quality photo of your own, make sure you avoid using images that are clearly stock photos.

Take a peek at these examples…

Good

You posted on social. That’s step one. But you need to add images to attract attention.

Better

Now you’re getting it; you’ve added an image. But do you notice that this image looks far too staged? You’re getting views, but it could be better.

Best

Nailed it! This post has a beautiful visual with great texture and depth that will draw readers’ eyes.

Pro Tip: Video content is quickly growing in popularity across all social networks, so investing time in producing or sharing videos could have a great impact on your social engagements. In the last year alone, Facebook users worldwide were uploading 75% more video content than the year before.

2) Write Great Copy

Whether you’re drafting a Facebook post or buffering a tweet, you need to follow the three C’s of great social copy: creative, concise and conversational.

The words you craft to accompany a visual are your audience’s first taste of the actual content, so don’t lose them with bland, long-winded, or overly “news headline-y” captions (research shows that writing full, conversation-like headlines actually increases click-through rates).

You can draw your audience in with compelling copy in a variety of ways. Consider describing amazing benefits the reader will receive by clicking, incorporating surprising numbers and stats, or asking a thought-provoking question. We’ve listed 5 crucial elements for writing great social media posts before, and these tips still hold true.

Here are two examples to show you what I mean…

Meh

Bland, boring posts get ignored. Avoid copy like this.

Amazing!

Leading with a question, writing conversationally and including a number are all great ways to entice readers.

Pro Tip: Spend extra time thinking about the keywords you want to include in your posts. Carefully selecting specific words will help your tweets and updates show up in your audience’s searches, boosting both your click-through rate and overall exposure to readers. Learn more about incorporating keywords via hashtags below.

3) Cater Your Content

Before you post anything, ask yourself: Do I know who my audience is?

No matter how much time you spend taking beautiful photos, editing videos, or drafting creative copy, your social content won’t get clicks if you aren’t posting about topics that interest your target audience.

Once you understand how to choose the right content to share on social media, keep track of what works best. Do your followers like how-to’s? Do they share interesting listicles? Do they engage with industry-adjacent topics or are they looking to you for something more specific?

The better you understand their interests and internet habits, the better your can cater your content to their needs.

Pro Tip: Only share great content. It’s that simple. It only takes one low quality post in a customer’s feed to ruin their perception of your business and make them unfollow you. Don’t settle for mediocre content, and if you don’t feel you have enough time to dedicate yourself to your social strategy, we’re always here to help.

4) #Hashtag

What we once called the pound symbol has suddenly become the almighty hashtag, and using it in your social posts can greatly increase their reach.

By adding a hashtag to a word or phrase, you create an automatic search link that brings the reader to every other post also using that hashtag. It’s a way of adding your thoughts and comments to a global conversation, or on the flip side, an easy way to go looking for information on a particular subject.

Adding hashtags is most commonly seen on Twitter and Instagram, but studies show it’s a great way to boost clicks across every social platform where hashtags can be used. However, it’s important to note that the number of hashtags you should use on each network varies immensely.

Pro Tip: Companies can make unique hashtags out of uncommon words or phrases to have a more focused conversation or collection of social posts. Searching #Startup on Instagram will give you thousands of posts from startups worldwide, but #InsideOutbound will point you directly to us. Using a combination of common hashtags with your customized ones will give your business a ton of exposure and point viewers to your unique brand.

5) Time It Right

Why talk when nobody’s around to hear you?

While social networks are continuously active, there are specific days and times for each platform where user activity is particularly high (or particularly low). You’ll get more traffic to your page if you time your posts for peak activity, so learning the optimal time for each network is very important.

If you’re using an app to queue future posts, make sure you manually set posting schedules that fit these premium social times. Applications like Buffer and Hootsuite are there to help you, but you need to be diligent about scheduling your posts appropriately, rather than letting them fly out of your queue at random dates and times.

Pro Tip: Beware of oversaturating your audience or appearing inactive. Posting too often will annoy your followers, and too little will make you appear lazy or uninteresting. The right posting frequency varies from business to business, but there are general guidelines to get you started.

Wrap-Up

Don’t settle for being another face in the crowd.

All of the strategies listed above have one thing in common: adding value to your customers’ social experience. The more you provide interesting and relevant content, and the more effectively you get it in front of your audience’s eyes, the better the relationships you will build. Over time, these relationships will turn into clicks, and from there, more business.

Stand out, start conversations, and connect with your customers. And if you need help, we’re here to do the work for you.