What Are the Best Practices for Self-Publishing on Social Media?

A marketer’s web presence makes a big difference. And if a modern promoter wants to go the route of digital or content marketing, it’s even bigger. For social media marketers, our online presence is our brand. It matches a voice to a face, a message to a name. It helps us reach, grow, and maintain new audiences for our products, services, or just plain old information for information’s sake. Whatever the reason for publishing ourselves, it’s important that we do so well and do so often as marketers of the twenty-first century: a time when every post is a publication. Which is why we’ve taken this post to explain some of the best ways that that you can implement the best practices when self-publishing on social media.

Create a Consistent Message to Promote Across Platforms

Never underestimate the power of uniform messaging. If you want to keep things simple, go all-out professional and use the same photo across platform boundaries (along with the same bio), so as to communicate singleness of purpose. If you want to go the custom-creative route and use Facebook for personal posts, Twitter for business promotion or LinkedIn for professional development publications, then make sure to use photos that are correspondingly personal, promotional and professional. Be wary of sending mixed messages. If you decide to use Twitter for business, stick to it. Tweet content related to your business like it’s your job, as it should be if you’re a digital marketer. Avoid confusing friends, followers and connections by spouting political opinions on FB, cat videos on LinkedIn, or tweeting at celebrities, unless of course your business is politics, entertainment or feline veterinary medicine. Having a consistent message also means adapting every post you publish to meet your primary audience for each unique profile on each unique platform. Remember: “Same message” does not mean “same post.” It means same gist across all platforms, which means tailoring word choice and choosing formats to cater to the individual needs of individual audiences on a per-platform basis.

Commit to a Post-Per-Day (At Least)

Once a message is decided, make a habit of posting everyday on topics that fall under the category of that message. Share or repost content from publications that carry a message similar to your own, taking care to draft a message that offers a unique perspective on the topic. Some platforms demand different posting frequencies, but in the beginning, it’s reasonble to commit to one post per day, per platform. Do so while paying attention to feedback in the way of likes, shares, retweets, follows, friends, connections, and the analytic data that each platform provides will help gauge which platforms best fit your audience and your message, as well as give you a benchmark for how often you should be posting to those platforms. Getting more likes for certain types of post does not always mean to post more content like it with greater frequency. Some segments of your audience can wear out fast if they sense they’re being hit over the head with the exact same message over and over, which is why variety is key to reaching audience diversity. Remember: Listen to your audience, and pay special attention to the post frequency of fellow self-publishers with audiences you admire. They will show you how often to post in order to meet the needs of your target audience, as well as the type of messaging that one of your target audiences is responding to. They may post content that you can share to cultivate your own audience, too.

Interact with Your Audience

When communicating in an online environment, it’s extremely important to come across as a human. That is, to not sound like an automated reply, which most real-live human users dislike. Which is why it’s important to tailor each and every response to each and every audience member who reaches out to us. Even. Trolls. That’s right, unless an individual comment amounts to genuine online bullying from a specific account—in which case you should respond by reporting them to the respective platform authorities—then you should respond. How? With grace and precision. Take care not to match the naysayer’s tone, but to acknowledge that you have heard their concern. Some of the best interactions with angry commentators demonstrate that the group or individual being marketed can both see and understand the negative commentator’s point of view, while simultaneously disagreeing or offering a new piece of information for consideration. One’s attitude in monitoring comments that are intended to inflame should be always be diplomatic, so as to neutralize the negativity. Remember: The best self-publishers can strike a balance between communicating healthy skepticism and a genuine understanding of a naysayer’s point of view, all while always striving to “call people forth” rather than “call people out.” After all, calling people forth creates a much more open and constructive conversation than calling people out.

Research Trends Per Platform (and Respond to Them with Content of Your Own)

If you’re like most social media marketers, you’re looking for the magic piece of content that will propel your brand to viral stardom. But writing and posting alone won’t get you there. But listening will. Or that is, conducting research on what topics are trending around and impacting your core message is where the magic happens. That’s because you don’t want to be publishing without a purpose and shouting into the void without knowing that what you’re saying is relevant to someone’s interests besides your own. Take the time to search the working title of a piece you want to write. Read content that pops up with similar headlines. And make sure yours contributes something new to the conversation. Remember: Sometimes a major news source will publish on a topic that you’ve already written and published on. Use the buzz surrounding this news to enter the discussion as a thought leader, someone who has already given a great deal of thought to the topic at hand. Reach out to us at j.r.jacksonian@gmail.com if you have any questions about this post or any other post on BestMarketingDegrees.org.