Use Facebook creator studio for managing/scheduling Instagram too.
Facebook creator studio has been around for several years, but is still a good free social media tool. I only use it for IG and not as often as I should, but it is a great tool for scheduling out your content and you can even see a week and month in a glance on the planner. This is a great way to plan out your social media content of static and carousel posts and have it post to either Facebook, Instagram, or both at the same time. I think you still need to go into your IG app to post reels, but you can now schedule reels to post at a certain day and time as well as and choose to have them post on both platforms at the same time. I think you can do this with Canva as well, but it requires a monthly subscription.
I don't have any other Facebook tips because I do not and do not plan on using it, but maybe other people have some good tips.
Instagram best practices (for the time being anyway since they are constantly changing) say that while reels were king in getting pushed out last year, they are now recommending that you have a good mix of single photo, carousel (multi photo), and reel posts. Square content as far as images still receive the highest engagement according to what I have read despite allowing rectangle images the last few years. The good news is that that is an excellent way to reuse all those cover photos we work so hard on.
When posting reels, original audio is favored, which just really means videos where you talk are best, but don't underestimate the power of adding trending audio occasionally. You can still add music to all of your videos along with your original audio and adjust the volume of each inside the reels editor. Also, adding captions to your reel (where as you talk the words automatically pop up on the screen or typing in your own text that comes up on the screen- not the description below the video) is really good for keywords that help push your reel out the the right audience. The description is a good place too, but for some reason they favor what is being said in the video and like the onscreen captions from everything I have read.
This also pertains to TikTok. You can use a little trick on TikTok (and maybe IG as well, not sure) where you type in a list of keywords and then scoot them off screen so they are not seen over your video, but they are still functioning as if they were. I do believe they favor original audio as well.
Pure product videos don't do nearly as well as the more fun videos using trends or something unique and eye catching so it is good to try and figure out a way to make those work for your niche and add them occasionally. Also, try to add a call to action when possible, like "follow for more tips like this" or "click the link in my bio to personalize this now!" Or something way better...I am terrible at that!
The videos and posts where I was in the video or doing fun transitions last summer- when I was consistently active on IG- and making fun reels have at least 10 times(reels especially) the engagement and reach of pure product content.
Which brings us to consistency is key. I don't think you have to be on social media everyday (though it doesn't hurt especially to build up a lot of momentum with your account), but you do have to be on it regularly to grow. You kind of have to play with it and see what works for you, your niche, and your audience. I don't think once a week is probably enough, but maybe Monday through Friday or every other day. Believe it or not there is such a thing as posting too much. You will become just white noise to your followers unless you are posting engaging, interesting content that at least sometimes give them value. Even if it is just entertainment like I do with my art video snippets. Give your followers a reason to stop and read or watch and not just keep scrolling so they click through to your profile and hopefully to your links.
On Instagram, using stories is a great way to share things that you don't want to stay on your feed and also a great place to add more personal or behind the scenes content that can make your audience connect with you on a more personal level.
I don't have any other tips for TikTok because I don't use it as regularly as I do IG, but things like consistancy, engaging your audience, and giving your audience value is true for it as well.
I almost forgot one of the most important aspects of all the social media sites. Don't post and ghost! Stick around or come back when you can during the day and engage engage engage. Build up genuine connections with like minded people and give them genuine, thoughtful comments. There are only so many ways you can say thank you when someone comments on your post, I know, but, when you can, try and say why you like something or answer a question they have posed in their post. At bare minimum give a like to other peoples posts. You can't expect people to comment or engage with your posts when you never give a reply or never bother to reciprocate. That is why it is best to follow people you are genuinely interested in because it makes interacting more of a natural response. You will gradually see engagement increase on your content as well as long as you are providing quality content.
I know I have mentioned in other threads that having a bunch of followers that never interact with you is worse for your account than having a few with higher engagement.
Also, I didn't add Pinterest because it is not a social media site! They are a search engine that is starting to focus more on the shopping experience (with the addition of their new CEO) and that is why, despite all the changes, they are currently still the best platform for promoting your item. And, everything I used to know about Pinterest has changed and now I am trying to research it all over again.
Add your tips here as well. I hope it isn't too jumbled, but I thought it might be overkill to post a different thread on each site since there is a lot of overlap.
P.S. I don't tweet so ignore that little bird icon because I never use Twitter. Anyone with twitter tips drop them here too!
Yes, all good tips @Pixelan !
You mentioned a big one too. Reuse your content on all the platforms you are on because very likely you will reach different audiences between them plus it cuts down on the work.
Thank you! At the rate I am going it is going to be a while before I get to silver, but things are going in the right direction!
You're welcome @Marcia Marcia! Even though I pretty much know what to do on social media, that doesn't mean I do what I say. I don't have enough time in the day to enact all these tips plus create my own art and put it on to products....and live life off the phone and computer! Phew!
Also, I very much agree that Pinterest is the best place to use you limited time for getting sales and referrals. I am also trying to build a fan base for my art itself too so I feel like if I keep plugging away at social media I might reach that goal.
That is me too. I get spurts where I am really motivated to post and I am having fun with it and then after a few weeks I will lose the motivation all together and stop suddenly. One of my biggest struggles is trying to juggle the art side with the business side and the artist side of me with the "designer" side of me which is less appealing than just making the art! 😂
That's a lot of detail, thank you, Malissa, it's always good to see how differently people approach things and there are only a few of these strategies noted above that I implement, it'd be interesting to see if I could do even better. I don't have much time for it at the moment though. 😞
A great way to gauge whether something is worth implementing is results!
Split-test and then check the results.
Sometimes, stepping outside the box and doing things a little different works ...
My results on Pinterest currently
In terms of Facebook
In terms of Linkovers from successful strategies
Successful strategies yield results!
I'd love to see other members results! Share them here.
Let's spur each other on with our in and out the box successes.
Thank you again, Malissa for all the time you spent sharing this information.
Those are great results Leah! I do think sharing results could be interesting, but maybe in a separate thread to try and keep this one to just tips and tricks and make it a little easier to navigate.
My pin results? Like my monthly viewers? A couple of years ago my monthly views were at over 3 million and I was seeing excellent referral results and growing and then sometime in 2021 they shut off like a tap and I stopped referring and they never recovered. I had a great pin strategy along with using Mark's nifty tool to take the work out of it, but Pinterest changed something and I have just started digging to find out if I can come up with a new strategy that will get me some results. The over 286,000 monthly views I get are where my account fell to and it stays steady there even though I have hardly touched my account in almost 2 years. I credit that to my old pin strategy.
