You’ve received 3 likes. Pretty good, especially for a social media novice. Those 3 likes feel good, as it means that your effort wasn’t entirely ignored, and hey, we bow our hats to you. Well done!
But 3 likes, to anyone else, might not seem that great. Sure, it’s your own triumph, but it’s not theirs. If only they could see your genius, and how the cogs move! How dare they!
So, it’s on us now, to turn those 3 likes into 10, maybe a 100. This is our guide to posting like a pro, in 2022. Enjoy!
Visual Content
The first sense we use, when we browse social media, is sight. If it’s smell, return your device. Trust us on that.
Knowing that sight is the King of content, the best way to leverage this, and to triumph automatically over the majority of text posts, is using images and photos.
Be Authentic And Creative
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using stock images. Loads of others do it, why can’t you, right?
Well, we want to turn you into a pro, and to achieve this, we need to set one thing straight. Use your own images.
It’s more than likely that others have used the image you’re using. So be unique. Use a photo, create an image, throw anything you have into Photoshop, make something entirely yours.
Don’t forget to make it relevant to your content, however.
Get To Know The Photo Editing Basics
Here are a few general rules to keep when planning your photos and images:
- For starters, don’t over-edit. Simple touches. Bear this in mind going forward.
- Rule of thirds. A shooting style, with a 3 by 3 grid. Your camera will have this as a setting. Turn it on, and place your subject in the middle!
- Natural light and complementary colors. Natural light is the best type of light. It’s also free, so time your photo op’s carefully. As for colors, if you have control over them, check out color palettes or color wheels, for the best combos.
- Finally, contrast. Contrast brings out depth in your photos, making colors more vibrant and richer. Too much, and it’ll look sunburned. Too little, it’ll turn into black and white. Experiment!
Use Text And Keep It Simple
Typography is a skill on its own, and can provide some much-needed context when dealing with visual content.
There are a few general rules to follow in this regard, for the best outcome. Here are a few tips:
- Make sure it’s easily readable. If needed, place a rectangle behind your text if it’s not meshing with the background.
- No more than 20% of text in an image. Anymore, and it won’t perform the best. More text can be overwhelming to people, as they see a lot on their feed anyway. Get the point across as quickly as you can.
- Choose a good font and color. Fonts are a matter of taste, but hard colors, like red, green, and yellow, should be avoided for the text. They can strain your eyes.
- No stranded words. If you make another line, and there’s one word below the rest, remove it and restructure your copy.
Copy & CTAs
Copy and CTAs are critical to becoming a pro poster. Let’s make sure you know why.
Focus On Your Headline
We’re starting with headlines because they stand as the second most crucial element in your content.
There’s a lot of content out there, and it’s becoming really difficult to make a person click on your post and then read it. So, it all begins with a killer headline.
Power words, uncommon words, emotional words, the length, how it appears in search engines, make sure you study up on these concepts. Luckily, the bar to being better than 90% of content creators out there, is low. You’ll do fine.
Educate Your Audience
Your headline has made a person click. Great job! Now, how do you keep them around? Simple. You provide value.
An easy way to give value is to have your content educate the user. We’re not saying post an entire course within each post, but similar to the post you’re reading now, give them something to take away.
Start A Conversation
There’s also value in approachability. Inviting users to talk to you is never a bad call, as the interaction goes beyond the words you write down.
You can angle your content with CTAs to have users give us their input. Do you think this is a good call? Do you have a better idea? Let us know!
If you’re about to go ahead and type a response in the comments, or on social media, that’s a simple CTA in action. You have to let the user that it’s OK to speak to you. Otherwise, you’re just a wall of text.
Use Emoji’s
Emoji’s have been around forever now, and it’s only recently that they’ve started to be use in more professional settings.
Before you go ahead and plaster your content with 7 happy crying emojis, here’s a short explanation of why this is now being used within content and copy.
Using emojis is essentially a shortcut to showcasing emotional context. It’s difficult to write in the feeling behind words, requiring writers of exceptional skill.
But with emojis, you can skip the master craft, and end your sentences with the relevant emojis. Simple, yet effective! 🙂
Be Relatable
In your entire life, have you ever been talked down too? Ever enjoyed it? Me neither. It’s hard to relate to someone who believes themselves to be superior to you. So, don’t do it in your posts!
Write, post, and design your images, as if you were doing it all for a friend. You’re here to help, not chastise! Speak clearly, and never post from a place of superiority. Be kind.
By doing this, you instantly become relatable. And that’s about it for this one! If only I could write more… relatable, right?
Break Up Your Copy
Ever seen a big mountain of text that just never, ever ends? No line breaks, just words and words and words. An endless cornucopia of letters, all strung together, trying their best to convey a point that simply just cannot be reached, due to the absolute, humongous number of words that are presented one after the other, never ending, never getting exciting, and you just ugh when you see it? Ever felt that pain? Have you? Have you? Sounds bad, right? That’s because it is. It’s terrible, it’s asinine, it’s a pain in the big old butt, and it stinks as well. Ew.
Hey, great to see you on the other side. If you skipped all of that, let that be an example of why you should space out your text. It’s great for readability, and your users will love you for it.
Always Include A CTA
What’s the point of having someone read your content, only for them to bounce away after? Wouldn’t it be better to get something out of it?
Not to say you should throw your users into the slaughter, but if they really liked your content, why not tell them you have a newsletter? Why not tell them there’s a course available for the topic you’re writing about?
Each post is an opportunity to retain a user. So, always put a CTA at the end!
Hashtags
Hashtags can seem like a mystery to many, but their function is simple, and very effective if used properly.
It takes a bit of planning, but it’s nothing that requires a huge amount of skill. Just some time. You may think that the best hashtag to use are the biggest ones, but wait. There are better ways, and I’ll explain why.
Tier 1 Hashtags
Tier 1 hashtags belong to hashtags that have been used over 1 million times. Why is it bad to use these? Everyone else is using them.
If you’re a big name in your industry, sure, go for it. But if you’re starting out, consider the next tiers.
Tier 2 Hashtags
A hashtag that’s been used over 100,000 times. A bit less than tier 1, but still a bit of challenge if you’re trying to target a niche.
Throw these in regardless, there’s always a chance you’ll catch someone’s interest. But the real meat is the next tier.
Tier 3 Hashtags
Hashtags that have been used under 100,000 times. Sure, it’s less of an audience, but you have a greater, more focussed, chance of getting yourself a new follower.
Optimizing Discoverability
Now that you know the tiers, here’s how to apply them.
- Use all 3 tiers, but keep them relevant and specific to your brand as much as possible.
- Use between 3-6 hashtags. Throwing as many hashtags into your content as you can, appears spammy and untrustworthy.
- DON’T put hashtags in the comments. Whilst they still have the same effect, regardless of where you place them, it can still seem spammy, and that’s not good for your brand image.
Final Thoughts
And there you go. That’s all you need to be a pro at posting in 2022!
Whilst most of this is better said than done, with a bit of practice, it’s not that difficult to fine-tune your process, and make a bigger impact.
Just remember, this does take a lot of time to perfect, and even more to understand the advanced methods. So if you don’t have the time, but have cash to spare, consider hiring an agency instead.
They’ll have a bigger team with tons of training, and it’s always cheaper than hiring a dedicated employee. Once everything is set up and running smoothly, hire your own dedicated team then.
Had a post that went viral? Seen great success lately? Let us know! We’d love to hear about it!