Social Media Marketing: Best Practices for Writing Social Posts
3 min read
The best social posts capture immediate attention and clearly state the purpose of the post.
Publish a social post when your business wants to share an important update, a limited time sale, an exciting announcement, or when a timely action needs to be taken (e.g. sign up for a class).
In this article, learn more about:
Choosing a social post image
The image is the main focus of your social post, especially for Instagram. The Social Posts Editor gives you many options for templates that include eye-catching images and headline designs. If you want to use your own image and text, however, make sure to follow the best practices below.
Learn more about how to create a social post from the Social Posts dashboard.
Use high resolution images
If you're uploading your own image to your social post, make sure you're using an image with the best resolution possible. The clearer the image, the more professional your post looks. You should also choose an image that clearly shows the point of the post. Someone viewing your post on their social media feed should immediately understand its purpose.
The better resolution your images are the more professional your ad will look. Follow the image formatting guidelines below to make sure your image doesn't turn out blurry or pixelated.
Don't add too much text to the image
If you're adding text to your social post image, make sure the text doesn't distract or crowd the image. Stick to the '20% Rule': Facebook research found that images with less than 20% of text got more attention and performed better.
If you are posting about a limited time sale, for example, your image text could say "50% off site wide for 2 days only." Remember you also have the caption to add more text and detail.
Writing captions for social posts
Social post captions appear above the image on Facebook and below the image on Instagram. When you write a caption for your social post, it appears in the preview on the right to show you what it will look like live.
Here are some tips for writing your social post caption:
- Be concise: Try to keep the caption content short and to the point of the social post. Include any important information that people need to know right away, and link to your website to learn more.
- Include your call-to-action in your caption: Make it obvious exactly what action you want your audience viewing the social post to perform, e.g. 'Make sure to sign up today before appointments are gone!'
- Know your audience: Think of the existing followers or friends you have on social media who are already fans of your business. What words would encourage them to interact with your post? Is there a particular offer you promoted before that got a lot of attention that you could reference?
- Add value: People scroll so quickly through social media that at the end of the day they want to know: what's in it for them? Give them an incentive or reason to click on your post in the caption and aim to capture their interest.
Adding hashtags to social posts
To generate more engagement and traffic to your post, add hashtags and attract people who aren't already following you. Hashtags help promote an organic reach to your posts, as people searching lists with the same hashtag will see your post appear.
When choosing hashtags, consider the following:
- Don't add too many or your post will look like spam
- Choose hashtags that are highly relevant to your brand
- Think about where your ideal audience is 'hanging out' online
- Don't string long words together or it's too difficult to read (e.g. #thebestsummersaleever).
Media requirements for Facebook and Instagram
Here are the recommended media requirements to consider when posting to Facebook and Instagram:
- File type: .png or .jpg
- Resolution: Upload the highest resolution image available. For ad images with a link, Facebook recommends 1,080 x 1,350 pixels. The minimum pixel requirements are 500px x 500px on desktop and a width of 320 on mobile.
- Ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
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