Five Questions to Ask Yourself Before Posting to Your Business’ Social Media Account
In today’s day and age of content, content and more content, it can feel really easy to fall into the trap of posting just to post.
That said, it’s critically important that you don’t waste your audience’s time…even if it’s just a quick Instagram post. Put yourself in their shoes for a second. When you’re scrolling through your feed and see a pointless post from a brand, does it make you want to engage? Do you want to remember them? Or do you think about unfollowing them…especially if you haven’t needed their product or service in a while?
See what I mean? So before you go posting just because you think it’s the right thing to do, ask yourself these questions:
1: Will my audience get value out of this post?
Value can have a variety of meanings! Here are a few ways to provide value:
Teach something! Either about your product/service, the industry itself, or something related to your mission.
Give a business update…but make sure you’re expressing why this is important to your viewer, not why it’s important to you.
Share a discount or a sale! Who doesn’t love that?
2: Is this helping me toward my goals as a business owner?
This one really takes some quick, deep reflecting. Is your goal to gain more followers? Maybe you’re doing a giveaway to help get there. Is your goal to educate? Increase sales? Curate engagement? Everyone is different, but once you know your goals, it’s easy to know if the post will help you get there.
3: What am I trying to get the viewer to do or feel?
No matter what we post, it’s always going to invoke some sort of emotional or physical reaction out of the viewer…even if it is to just scroll past. Ensuring you know exactly what you want that viewer to feel or do when they read that post will help guide you in what to say.
4: Does this post truly align with my brand and it’s purpose and message?
Too often I see brands posting random stuff just to post. Maybe it’s a cute puppy photo or who knows, but it’s really easy to tell when it just doesn’t fit quite right. This is a big one when someone is posting just to make sure they hit some sort of quota. Honestly, sometimes it’s better to not say anything than to post something off-brand.
5: Am I just feeling pressured to post for the heck of it?
This is a big red flag. If you’re feeling pressured to post, but un-inspired in what to say, here’s my advice: don’t do it. Wait to post until you have a purpose, point to make or a real message to share. Trust me, it’ll be worth the wait.
Not sure you want to handle all this social media posting on your own? I totally get it. That’s why I do what I do!
Contact me or click here to learn more about my social media management services.
