Marching bands and balloon-festooned floats put patriotism on display. The American flag lends its colors to everything imaginable, from popsicles to pet outfits. Fireworks light up the night sky, their sound echoing from sea to shining sea.
Independence Day proves that freedom is photogenic – and those celebrating the USA’s birthday do their best to capture the magic. Once they’ve perfected their posts, social media is where liberty-lovers turn to share photos and stories of the day’s festivities.
Much like the sparklers clenched in the palms of kids nationwide, social posts must dazzle to truly make an impression. The best marketers remember this year-round, crafting social content that makes brands stand out. That’s exactly what we have in mind for our clients here at Motivated Marketing! Our team works hard to help each client launch the kind of attention-grabbing campaign that gets results. Here’s what we recommend!
Look Past the Price Tag
Organic social media campaigns don’t come with a price tag, but they also lack targeting capabilities. Paid social, however, enables brands to make sure their posts are appearing in front of the right eyeballs. This is especially important in an overly-saturated digital marketplace where many social scrollers fall victim to chronic ad blindness. Standing out is key, and successful brands know reaching their target audience is worth opening their wallets.
Provide Content, Not Clickbait
Grabbing attention is crucial, but consumers can smell clickbait from a mile away – and between the shocking headlines and outrageous claims, you can’t blame social users for turning up their noses. Instead of relying on outlandish content to reel in readers, hint at the value behind the promised content. And then deliver it. Remember, piquing the audience’s interest is the goal, but a broken promise results in lost trust that’s not easily regained.
Set Your Standards
How do you determine if a social media campaign is successful? You can’t exceed expectations if you don’t define them, after all. Most businesses set their sights on revenue/sales, leads or brand awareness. Once you’ve decided which metric aligns with your brand’s specific goals, analyze your campaign’s success using Google Analytics. Tracking clicks on each post’s CTA button can also help determine which kind of post your audience responds best to.
Progress Past Self-Promotion
Promotional posts will only get a brand so far. Think of this type of content as a one-way conversation, one in which your brand endlessly repeats its strengths. Eventually consumers will grow tired of being talked to, straying toward a brand that talks with them instead. Consumers want to be interacted with, heard, understood. Engagement like this speaks volumes about a brand’s commitment to great service, both online and off.
Dress Your Message Accordingly
Presenting the same message the same way gets stale – fast. Remember the ad blindness we mentioned earlier? Lack of variety is one of its main causes. Why not try mixing it up with videos, infographics, blog posts, professional and candid photos? For instance, instead of simply posting photos of cars day after day, a dealership could post video testimonials, an informative blog about used car shopping and photos of staff at a volunteer event. Each post conveys that the dealership cares about the community and customer service, but the varying formats keep consumers from tuning out.
Make Sure Your CTA Isn’t MIA
Even if you’re a vocab virtuoso, your social media post isn’t the place to prove it. Well-written is one thing, but keep in mind that most Facebook users don’t look to their newsfeeds for a lesson in linguistics. Shoot for language that is simple and concise, especially your call to action. The best CTAs start with a verb indicating exactly what you want consumers to do, followed by a few words explaining the consumer’s benefit. Here are some examples:
- Shop now to save big!
- Find relief fast!
- Buy yours now!
- Click to learn more!
Post with Precision
Choosing the right content and the right format are the first parts of the equation, but they certainly don’t guarantee success. As it turns out, the day and time of a post play a much larger role than most people realize. In fact, Facebook reports higher engagement on the weekends (32%), followed by Thursday and Friday (18%). Peak post times are 12-1pm on Saturday and Sunday, and 1-4pm on Thursday and Friday. Make sure content is easily sharable, too!
Ready to launch a social media campaign that will have your audience seeing stars – and stripes? Get in touch with Motivated Marketing today!