Hands up, who has a business account on social media that they wish was doing just a little bit better? Maybe you’re not getting the number of followers you’d like, or the likes, comments and shares we all hope for. Maybe you’re hoping for more enquiries about your artwork, and they just don’t seem to be coming in. 

We’ve all been there. Understanding how to use social media to market your business and get results can be confusing, and figuring out how you can start seeing growth in your business isn’t always easy. So, with the help of my sidekick, Lucy, and her background in marketing, we’ve put our heads together to give you some handy top tips to help you get more out of your social media presence, and to set you off on the right track to more followers, more engagement and, hopefully, more commissions! Here goes…

01. Post regularly and consistently.

Getting the most out of social media, as you’d probably guessed, means trying hard to stay in people’s feeds. It can be difficult to know exactly how many posts per week is the right amount and, unfortunately, it can be very easy to get it wrong. The two main things you want to avoid are bombarding your followers with endless posts, or not posting nearly enough. Post too much, and you risk your followers getting sick of you and unfollowing your page. Post too little, and you’ll get lost amongst everything else on social media and struggle to get engagement.

Lucy did a little digging and, while many marketers have different opinions on post frequency, the ideal number of posts per week seems to be three to four. Not too many, not too few, just right!

02. Keep Posts Short and Sweet

When writing the copy for your posts, bear in mind that people don’t really read. If you confront someone with long, rambling text, they’re more likely to skip over it or simply skim read through it. Try to keep your copy short and only tell people the information that’s important to your post, that way, they’re more likely to read what you have written and pay attention. 

03. Use Hashtags Wisely

I’ve been told that there’s a bit of an art to using hashtags on social media, and it may take a bit of trial and error before you find out what works best for your page. But, the important thing to remember is not to go too crazy and add hashtags willy-nilly. While you can add up to thirty hashtags on Instagram, that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

According to Lucy’s research, the golden number of hashtags is around nine on Instagram, and no more than one on Facebook. Too many, and it will have a negative effect on your post. The best thing to do is make sure you’re only using hashtags that are really relevant to your post and brand, and try and stick to more precise ones. For example, “#drawing”, which is a very generic tag, has over 23 million posts on Instagram. As you can imagine, your post is going to get lost amongst all that. However, “#colouredpencilartist”, which is more specific, only has 13 thousand posts on Instagram, meaning you’re more likely to be found by someone following that tag.

04. Avoid Engagement Bait!

This is a big one. Facebook and Instagram updated their algorithms in the past couple of years to demote posts that bait engagement. That means, if you’re constantly asking people to “like this post” or “share this post”, there’s a chance that your posts will be pushed to the bottom of people’s feeds.

Now, you can’t always avoid this, and one or two posts asking for people to like or share shouldn’t do you much harm, but try to encourage engagement in a more natural way. To give you one example, ask questions that your followers can answer in the comment sections.

05. Use Strong, Eye Catching Imagery

This is another crucial point to remember. Make sure any images you share are high quality. That means no blur, no mess in the background, and nothing that doesn’t show your brand or product in a good light.

Don’t worry about buying lots of fancy photography equipment. Most phones have very high quality cameras these days that will do the trick.

06. Make the Most of Stories

Stories are a really great way of drawing attention to your feed. They are always the first thing people see when they log onto their social media, so it’s an ideal place to remind them that you’re still there.

While Stories only last for 24 hours (with the exception of Highlights on Instagram which allow you to categorise and display your Stories for as long as you’d like), they’re a handy place to share information with your followers without overloading their feeds. If you can manage to post a Story a day, you’ll be doing yourself a favour. 

07. Insights and Analytics are Your Best Friends

They can seem daunting and confusing (I know because I’ve avoided them for years!), but keeping an eye on your insights will be a big help. There is so much information that can really work in your favour, it’s daft not to pay attention!

Lucy’s favourites are as follows, and she’s broken them down for you to make it a bit easier to understand:

• Posting times: find out when your audience is online and when is the best time to share posts. Insights breaks this down into days and hours, so you can see which days you should post and at what time.
• Post types: Facebook and Instagram give you figures that show which types of content work best on your feed. From this, you’ll be able to figure out what you should be posting in the future.
• Engagement: see exact numbers of how many people are engaging with your posts. This will give you a more specific idea of which types of posts people react well to. Pay attention to which posts have had more engagement than others, and see if you can figure out why. Did you share a photo or a video? Did you ask a question that people have answered? Was the post longer or shorter than others? There are lots of reasons why some posts do better than others, but if you pay attention to the ones that have done well, you should hopefully see a pattern explaining why.

08. Make Your Life Easier with Scheduling

Uploading content in advance where possible can be a really useful way of freeing up your time. Instead of having to post on the day, you can have posts already waiting to go.

I’d recommend giving Creator Studio a try. It’s free, and allows you to schedule posts onto both Facebook and Instagram.

09. Engage, engage, engage!

Outbound engagement is one of the most important things you can do on your social media accounts. If you want to push yourself up in the algorithms and make your way to the top of people’s feeds, you need to engage with other accounts. That means liking, commenting, and even sharing relevant content. The more you interact with other people and pages, the more likely you are to encourage others to engage with you.

And, most importantly, if people are engaging with your posts, be sure to show some appreciation! Whether that’s a quick comment saying “thank you” or a simple like of what they’ve said, it will help you not only in the algorithms, but in building a relationship with your potential customers. 

10. Stay Up to Date!

Possibly the most important thing to remember is that social media platforms are constantly changing and updating. Keep your eye on what’s new and what’s different to make sure you’re still doing the right thing.

Both Facebook and Instagram have some really useful learning resources that will help you stay in-the-loop and keep learning. I’d really recommend giving them a look, which you can do for Facebook here and Instagram here.