Social Media Do’s and Don’ts
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Social Media Do’s and Don’ts
Do’s
- Do post regularly
- You don’t need to post every day, but it will help your posts get boosted through the algorithm if you post on a somewhat consistent schedule
- Do considering posting different content on different channels
- Think about who your audience is on each platform and if the content is appropriate for that audience
- Do add captions to videos
- This makes your content most accessible for those with disabilities
- Many people watch videos on mute
- Facebook and Instagram now have built in caption creating features
- Do engage with partner pages
- Like and comment on posts from partner pages
- Engaging with audiences outside your own content will introduce your page to potential new followers
- If you engage with content on partner pages, they are likely to return the favor and engage with your content
- Share content from other pages if it is content that is appropriate for your audience as well
- Do make sure your content is at least 50% original content
- While sharing other page’s content is an easy way to get posts out, make sure you are providing original content for your audience at least half the time
- Do use a combination of photos and graphics on your page
- Studies have shown that images with no text or a small amount of text perform better than images with lots of text
- The point of an image on social media is to grab the user’s attention, not to tell the user everything they need to know. There is space in the post copy to add more details.
- Do consider size when creating graphics for social media
- Every platform is slightly different and all are constantly changing – look up current preferred image sizes when creating graphics
Don’ts
- Don’t post graphics with a lot of text
- Studies have shown that images with no text or a small amount of text perform better than images with lots of text
- Try to keep text to 20% or less of the graphic
- Don’t include a URL on a graphic
- Users cannot click on URLs on graphics. Only include if it’s a very short vanity URL
- Don’t post the same content repeatedly
- It is okay to sometimes repurpose content if enough time has passed since it was last posted, but audiences expect fresh content and are likely to unfollow if the content is repeated too much or stale
- Don’t post irrelevant content
- Be sure to post content that is relevant to the topic of your page
- Don’t create social media pages on new platforms if you do not have the capacity to maintain the page
- It’s better to have one page that performs very well and has an engaged audience than to have seven pages that aren’t maintained well and don’t have fresh content to keep audiences engaged.
