Many different details have an impact on your success. Often bigger than you might think. Sentence structure, post type and many other things are important to reach as many people as possible. However, this isn’t what todays analysis is about. A fraction of a second can decide whether your post ends up breaking records or is drowned is all the other, inferior posts that pop up in a users newsfeed.
We collected a few, very handy tips that will make your life easier and help you waste less of your precious content, time and nerves.
What are the details that have an impact on my success?
1. Don’t be scared of emoticons
Quite a few studies found that posts that end with an emoticon receive 56% more likes and 33% more comments. However, using the correct facial expression to appeal to as many people as possible is a tough thing to do. Using an emoticon that winks 😉 or smiles 🙂 at your users will be less likely to generate additional feedback. Grinning or laughing 😀 on the other hand is proven to have a significant impact on a posts success. Consider this the next time you end one of your posts with a smiley.
Emoticons influence a posts mood. A sentence that transports positive emotions will almost always be more successful. Use this knowledge to your advantage.
2. When to ask a question?
You probably heard this a dozen times by times already: ask more questions! Confront your users, motivate them to comment and get involved in the discussion. This isn’t news and most community managers probably know about a questions value already. But did you know that asking a question at the end of your post increases its interaction by 15%? Why is this the case?
Asking a question at the beginning of a post increases the risk that it will be forgotten by the time a user finished reading. The probability of getting distracted is way higher so make sure to always put questions at the end of a paragraph. This way you make sure that the user is directly confronted and way more likely to actually type out a response. Where you place a question becomes equally as important as what you’re asking about.
3. Collages are more successful than pictures
It’s no news that pictures are Facebook’s most popular medium. Everybody tries to exploit this as often as possible. Not even statements or key figures are published in text form anymore. Simply smash them onto a colorful background and all of a sudden you doubled the amount of feedback you received. Everyone does this. But is there more?
Photo collages, as well as posts that include multiple pictures, are much more successful than anything else. The reason this strategy generates so much interaction is because it promotes arguments. Imagine working for a fashion label. An easy way to promote multiple pieces of cloth is letting them compete against each other. Simply ask your fans which piece they prefer. Using this method you will receive a lot more comments and maybe even detect some costumer tendencies.
Here we have a great example. Everyone can make use of this basic strategy. Simply take pictures from different perspectives. This way the photographs downside of being two dimensional will be nullified.
4. Make sure that posts speak for themselves
Everybody knows this feeling. You wrote a thrilling analysis but only a handful of people show interest. This rarely happens because the post itself is boring, but because it’s badly presented. Social Media platforms are drowning their users in content. The moment a person sees your post they have to be interested in clicking it. This is something you have to make sure of by using an insightful and informative picture.
A weird or convoluted cover picture will drive people away. They don’t know what the article is about and can’t be bothered to do the research themselves. Most of the time they will move on, keep scrolling and ignore the analysis you invested so much time into. Make clear what your post is about, even if this means that you have to put in some extra work and create a tiny info-graphic. Try to keep the amount of effort the user has to put in at a minimum. You want him or her to do something for you. Invite them in, don’t scare them off.
5. Hashtags are situational
Thanks to the growing success of Twitter, the concept of hashtags has become more and more popular. Even Facebook users have access to them, the amount of success they generate is rather limited though. This analysis is already a few months old, but the results haven’t changed much. Last year various social media analytics platforms stated that hashtags have a negative impact on the organic reach of your posts. This still is the case.
However, it is important to know how to properly use this tool. It’s not totally useless, you just have to follow a few simple rules. Users are used to browse their news feed to find posts. You won’t get anywhere if all your hashtags do is serve as an easy to way organize your posts.. Showing emotions is one of the few promising strategies. The same way emoticons do, you can exploit the impact that emotions have on your users. Use positive keywords that put your users in a good mood. H&M provided a few excellent examples.
Neutral campaigns were rather unsuccessful. #HMHoliday on the other hand managed to go viral. But why? Holidays are considered something positive. The hashtag does transport positive feelings and not only information.
Did you already know of some of these tricks or were we able to help you improve? The key to success is to constantly analyze and improve. A post can never be successful enough! Did a heartwarming emoticon have an impact on the way your content was perceived? Did convoluted pictures scare off your users? One way to find out is our tagging-tool.
You got some tips that you wanna share? Let us know!
Want to see how big the impact of tiny details is on your success? Try it for free at Fanpage Karma!
