Optimizing your social post efficiency can be complicated. It’s a vague concept that can be tricky to pin down because it varies from audience to audience.

Let’s start by defining social post efficiency. All this really means is that you’re getting the most out of your social content. Choosing the right time to post, curating your image selection, crafting headlines carefully, and selecting relevant content are all critical to your success. But how do you figure out what works for your audience?

Fortunately, we have learned a thing or two, and we want to pass along what we know. UCLA, a True Anthem client, invited us to be a part of The Bar Raiser series, where our CEO Chris Hart and UCLA’s Judit Nagy spoke about optimizing your social post efficiency. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert when it comes to creating social content, we’re here to help you harness different social platforms to optimize your post efficiency and engagement.

When and how often you should post to social media

Timing

The time of day and the day of the week matters. Your audience will have a natural ebb and flow, and it’s important to know when they’re around. Most platforms have robust insights that will allow you to track your audience activity, including when they are online and engaging. Don’t sleep on the platform analytics. If you are a True Anthem customer, we can help you find this info and provide you with all kinds of insight.

Cadence

Spacing out your posts matters; wait 30 minutes to several hours between posts to maximize follower reach. A lot of things will factor in to your cadence, but consider the following:

• How much content are you producing?
• When is your audience online?
• Do you have the staff/AI support to post consistently and effectively?
• How much content does your audience actually want from you?

What should you post?

Often times, the key to optimizing your social post efficiency is simply getting it right. It’s a matter of doing more with less. If your posts are reaching the right people the first time, you’re going to be in a much better position.

Let’s talk best practices.

New content

• Should be shared within 48 hours or less of publication.
• Post format matters!

Recirculated content

• It works. We promise.
• Only about 5% of your audience will see your post in their feed the first time. There is no harm in getting it in front of more people.
• What should you recirculate?
  • Recently published content can be posted up to 3 times, as long as it’s relevant.
  • Evergreen content can be shared for years after original publication.

Post format matters

There are several types of posts. You’ve got your link posts, image posts, and video posts. They can all serve different purposes, so it’s a good idea to include them all and change it up. Here is how they can work for you:

• Link posts: Good for traffic. You’ll see lower impressions, mid engagement, but the highest click-through rate.
• Image posts: These are a better engagement play. Mid-level impressions and engagement—for sure. step up from a link post. You won’t see the click-throughs that you see with a link post, but more people will interact overall.
• Video posts: Also an engagement play. They’re a bit of a higher lift from a creator standpoint, but they’ll pay off in higher impressions and engagement.

Post appearance

It should not be a surprised that what your post looks like matters. Your post copy, post image, and your headline are all critical to the success of your content.

Post copy

This is the blurb at the top of your social post. Make it work for you!

• Take a moment to think about the value of the Facebook copy to the user’s interest and/or entertainment
• Use of hashtags can help connect to possible conversations and make the copy stand out (on Facebook Feed and LinkedIn, # are highlighted with blue text)
• An emoji addition can dramatically increase post performance
• Adding an engager can increase engagement which helps drive overall post reach

Post Image

This is the leader image that populates when you link a post.

• Post image with strong visual characteristics immediately stand out in the feed.
• Leveraging interesting, odd, exciting, etc. imagery can drive immediate higher
  performance.
• Goal: “thumb-stopping” images to stop the user.
• Grainy photos or headshots tend to have lower-performance overall.

Post headline

• Phrasing headlines to create more connection to the reader without giving out lead drive higher CTR
• Identifying methods of teasing a quote or exciting/interesting point/fact can dramatically increase performance.
• Focusing on headlines point to tease or “beg the click” in without giving away the lead of the article will increase social media performance

Optimize for the network that you’re on

Aside from making sure the mechanical parts of your post are in order, you want to know the strengths and weaknesses of each platform.

Each Social Network has its strengths and weaknesses

• Facebook: 2.9B MAUS; friends/family/news; skews older; great for traffic
• Twitter: 435M MAUS; interest-based network; @mention and #hashtag
• LinkedIn: 810M MAUS; professional network; @mentions work
• Instagram: 1.4B MAUS; Younger audience; video/photo eng; @ and #work
• TikTok: 1B MAUS; Younger audience; video; good for engagement

With a little bit of research and leg work, you can make your content work better for you the first time! Contact us to schedule a demo.