In this article, we will look at the topic of which posts work best on Facebook, Instagram & Co. and which do not. To do this, we identify various success factors and prove them with the help of an example.
When you post on social media in the future, just keep these five key success factors in mind.
At the end of the post, there is a checklist you can use to ensure your success.
To better illustrate the success factors, we use a successful post from the search engine Ecosia on Facebook as an example.
(Here the link to the article).
Take a quick read of the post.
Background:
Hambach Forest received a lot of media attention because the energy company RWE wanted to clear the forest for coal mining.
Ecosia, as an eco-search engine, has taken advantage of this attention and caused a stir itself with a purchase offer.
With nearly 25,000 likes, 850 comments and almost 19,500 shares, this post is one of Ecosia's most successful on Facebook to date.
In the following, we explain the individual success factors based on this example.
Relevance as a success factor deals with the questions:
So, in order:
"Who is my target audience?"
To be successful on social media, you first need to determine who you want to reach. Buyer personas, market and competitor analyses help with this. If you already have a running business, this question shouldn't be too difficult. Think about the characteristics of your target audience (demographics, interests, etc.).
Ecosia, as an eco-search engine, has a very broad target group that tends to be environmentally conscious.
"Which social network does my target audience hang out on?"
Of course, you should only be active where your target group is. Two important factors here are age and place of residence. For example, younger people are more likely to be found on Instagram and the user shares of social networks differ for many countries. Use current statistics to find out which social network is right for your business. Facebook is almost always a good choice because of the sheer number of users.
Since Ecosia appeals to a broad target group, its presence on Facebook makes sense.
"What content does my target audience want to see?"
Now we are back to the interests of the target group. What do these people deal with, what is important to them?
As already mentioned, Ecosia's target group tends to be environmentally conscious and as a result is less likely to approve of the deforestation of the Hambach Forest.
For your own success, this question is very important.
Many companies still see social networks as a channel where only advertising messages should be spread. However, your target audience is not on social networks to see as much advertising as possible. Instead, think about what your target group might want to know about them (e.g. a look behind the scenes, what's everyday work like, what does your team do in their free time, etc.). In doing so, you don't have to touch on highly political topics like Ecosia does.
Relevance means posts that your target audience would like to see more of in the future.
Think of your company as a person. What values does this person have, how does he behave?
Ecosia could only be successful with this contribution because the company has made it its goal to plant new trees with a large part of the profits.
Therefore, the purchase offer to RWE was in line with Ecosia's brand personality.
For your own business, this means:
Show the personality of your company in the posts. Do you not even know what personality your brand has? Then you should make up for it as soon as possible. A look at Aaker (1997) can help, or ask us.
Act with your company on social media as if the company itself were a person.
And show those values and behaviors and habits in your posts.
Interactivity means Likes, comments, shares and reactions to your posts in general. This factor has two positive effects at once.
A) Engage your audience when you publish interactive posts.
B) The algorithms of many social networks prefer posts with interaction. Therefore, these posts are also more visible and get a wider reach.
How do you get interactivity for your posts?
In the example, Ecosia did not directly invite interactions, but probably speculated that the interactions would come by themselves due to the political explosiveness.
You should not necessarily use this kind of political interaction for yourself, as a rule you should stay away from political topics with your company account.
This can quickly backfire (do a Google search for "shitstorm").
Interaction they get through relevant posts that are relevant enough for your target audience to respond to.
Or you can ask your target group to interact directly, e.g. through surveys or competitions.
Even if this factor sounds very general at first: be proactive on social media, act instead of waiting for your target audience.
Would you rather be action or reaction? A post alone is already a proactive thing.
However, to be successful on social media in the long run, you need to post regularly.
The networks' algorithms remember this and reward you for it.
This in turn increases your reach.
In the above example, Ecosia has not only done something in relation to the post, but also for the Hambach Forest.
In the future, schedule your posts. Just take a calendar and tick off each day you want to post something.
Only through a certain regularity of your posts will you build momentum. It's best to post several times a week.
In general: Video > Image > Text.
The attention span of users on social networks is very short.
Only if you grab attention right at the beginning of a post, users will continue to look at your post and understand your messages.
In the example above, Ecosia has included a cliffhanger right in the first sentence with the purchase offer, which raises more questions. The attached image contains a lot of text, but a much greater impact due to the formal formatting of a letter. The post would certainly have been less successful if Ecosia had only published the text of the letter.
Applies to you:
Basically, less text and more visual elements ensure that your target group takes in a post attentively.
Can't you remember all that? Sometimes we can't either.
That's why we have a little checklist for you here. Just look at it every time before you post something.
Then nothing can stand in the way of your success on social media!
Is my post relevant enough to elicit responses?
Am I calling my target audience directly to interact?
Hopefully this post and checklist has helped you.
Do you need individual support? In this case, please feel free to contact us.
We wish you the best of luck with your future social media posts,
Your team from
