Social media allows you to stay connected with what’s happening in your field, create a dialogue with new and existing clients and increase your brand awareness. Getting started with social media marketing may seem overwhelming, so here’s our handy guide to help you effectively promote your business across social networks. To help keep things simple, we’ve focussed on three of the most popular channels – Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Twitter has over 330 million monthly users. It’s a great opportunity for you to share photos and videos, create custom lists, send direct messages and more. Content can be promoted organically, with Twitter cards or paid promotions.
When’s the best time to post?
The most successful time to post (which according to findings receives the highest average click-through rates) occurs between Mondays and Thursdays, 1 pm and 3 pm. Posting during this period will give you the biggest chance of driving more traffic back to your website.
What is the ideal image size?
Tweets with strong images are the most effective. You are able to use different sizes of images on this platform but if you want to convey professionalism then it is wise to use images that follow the twitter guidelines about publication and size.
- The optimum header image size is 1500 x 500px. The maximum file size is 5mb.
- The optimum profile photo size is 400 x 400px. The maximum file size is 2mb.
- You can upload videos up to 512MB, however you will be prompted to edit videos to 2 minutes and 20 seconds or less in length.
Our top tip
Your pinned tweet is the first tweet people see when they visit your profile. You can change your pinned tweet whenever you want. Take advantage of this and create a really memorable message that shows off your brand.
Instagram has been rapidly gaining in popularity since it’s release in 2010 and now has 800 million users. This is the most visual platform where strong images and engaging videos can really help to promote your brand. It can be accessed on the web from a computer, but you are only able to upload and share photos or videos from your iOS or Android device.
When’s the best time to post?
Engagement on Instagram is pretty constant throughout the week with Sunday being the only day that sees a slight drop. Commuting hours and lunch breaks are typically the best times to post as users will be more active and take the time to explore your profile further.
What is the ideal image size?
- Square images work best on Instagram and the optimum file size is 1080 x 1080px.
- At present, Instagram Stories are limited to a length of 15 seconds whereas videos in the main feed can run to 60 seconds
Our top tip
Promotional video is a fast growing and effective method of advertising. It allows you to say more than you could in a typical post without taking up much room and gives viewers an insight into your business. To see some of our short promotional videos click here
Two billion people use Facebook every month and it is a great place for building your audience and creating targeted advertisements. “Facebook Ads Guide” walks you through the entire advertising process, including planning, creating ads, testing and understanding insight statistics. You can also boost posts, whereby you can chose your target audience and your budget and Facebook will roll your post out to the relevant people.
When’s the best time to post?
- The best time to post on Facebook is between 12 pm and 3 pm during the week
- And on the weekends from 12 pm to 1 pm
You can also do your own research into when is best for your particular business to post by going into your Facebook Insights and looking at Posts > When Your Fans Are Online. These hour and number correlations will be adjusted to the time zone of your computer and will let you know when your audience is most active.
What is the ideal image size?
- Your page’s profile picture displays at 170 x 170px on your page on computers, 128 x 128px on smartphones and 36 x 36px on most feature phones.
- Your page’s cover photo displays at 820 x 312 pixels on your page on computers and 640 x 360 pixels on smartphones
Our top tip
You can place a simple call-to-action button at the top of your Facebook Page. You can choose from pre-made button options (For example “Sign Up,” “Shop Now,” “Contact Us,” “Book Now”) and link it to your website to direct traffic there. It could link to your homepage, a landing page, a video, or somewhere else.
In today’s digital world, social media is regarded as the ultimate tool for promoting your brand. Using original imagery and creating new and exciting content will gain people’s interest. Whatever way you choose to boost your social presence, preparation is the key – once the foundations are in place, you can then build on this and watch your audience grow.