How to Optimize your Social Messages like a Pro
Maintaining a social media presence is hard work, and driving consistent engagement is even harder. If you’ve gone through the hard work of generating fresh content and curated the best of the web, but you’re still not seeing engagement, it could be because your messages are not optimized for social media.
With the proliferation of social media channels, it is difficult to keep track of what each platform’s requirements. Thankfully, CoSchedule has stepped in to help social media users with a great new tool. The Social Message Optimizer helps you create social media copy that drives engagement and converts potential customers.
If you’re familiar with CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer (that I wrote about here), then you’ll be comfortable with the layout of the Social Message Optimizer. If both tools are new to you, don’t worry – it is super simple to use. You type your message at the prompt, choose your message type, and hit the button. That’s it, the mysterious inner workings of the Social Message Optimizer takes over from there and delivers a score for each social media platform.
Getting the Most out of Social Media
To help you get started, I’ve distilled out the most important rankings with the Social Message Optimizer. Follow these best practices, run through a few options, and watch your social media presence start to thrive! There a few oddities with the tool, but I will address those as they come up.
- Post Types: According to CoSchedule, links are the best post type – followed by images, text, and video (in that order). I love CoSchedule, but I have a hard time believing this to be true. My own experience points to something more like this: Video > Images with links in text > Images > Links > Text.
- Hashtags: Zero, zilch, nada. Facebook has very little love for hashtags so leave them out.
- Emojis: One sad, lonely little emoji get the best engagement
- Characters: 111 characters is optimal.
- Post Types: Pictures are best, followed by text, links, and video.
- Hashtags: Two naturally placed hashtags do best
- Emojis: Twitter real estate is valuable, so one emoji is best.
- Characters: 103 does best, but anything under the 140 limit isn’t bad
- Post Types: Pictures and video both do well, but still images take the prize here
- Hashtag: Eleven. That’s right, hashtag fans, you can go crazy on Instagram
- Emojis: Let your emoji flag fly with 3 per post
- Characters: 241. That seems like a lot until you factor in the recommended 11 hashtags
- Post Types: Pictures reign supreme on Pinterest. Don’t forget it
- Hashtags: Leave your hashtags at home when you’re posting to Pinterest
- Emojis: Nope. Don’t even think about it.
- Characters: 215 leads to the best engagement rates
- Post Types: Links take the top spot, followed by text, images, and video
- Hashtags: Zero. LinkedIn has no hashtag love
- Emojis: You’ve entered the no-emoji zone. This is a place for professionals
- Characters: 149 characters
Google+
- Post Types: Links reign supreme. With images, text, and video following close behind
- Hashtags: You get three – so use them wisely
- Emojis: One lonely little smiley face, if you want to optimize for G+
- Characters: 46. That’s right if you thought Twitter was hard, get ready for some red ink on your G+ posts.
Optimized for Social
By following these guidelines, you can position your content to garner the most clicks, shares, and conversions. It’s a lot to remember, but CoSchedule has made all our lives easier with their handle little optimizer. As the creators say, “No more spray and pray!” Make sure that you’re getting the most of your social media effort by creating content that is positioned to succeed.
If you’re struggling with your business’ social media presence, Fusion Group USA offers full-service social media management services. We handle everything from advertising to content creation – all in monthly plans that fit your budget. Contact us today to learn more about our social media services!
