Imagine that social media is a lot like an in-person social party hosted by your local chamber of commerce. There are quite a few people there and you know that in order to successfully navigate this party, you’re going to have to strike up some face-to-face conversations with the potentially new customers who are there.

The easiest strategy that has almost always shown a good success rate in driving interactions is what is known as the 80/20 principle. 80% of your interactions like Likes, Shares, Comments, Replies, Retweets, Hearts (Instagram), etc. should be focused on your followers and not on you.

I want to repeat that so it sticks. 80% focused on your followers and NOT on you.

Once you have established a relationship with them and interacted with them in some way, they will feel connected to you and your business. Social etiquette dictates that they should reciprocate any attention you give them. At this point, you can start mixing in direct offers or promotions to get those followers to start clicking or buying from your website.

You should aim for a style that is approachable and authentic. A good sense of humor is always a plus and don’t be too formal. Keep a unique style and tone that is fun and professional.

There is no wrong way to do this. However, here are some helpful tips.

Try different times of the day to see when you get the most engagement.

Try to post updates regularly so your user base can get used to your schedule and look forward to your quality and entertaining content.

Your followers and fans will thank you.

content ideas

Create a theme for each day of the week:

• sale monday – Highlight a sale or discount code valid only for this week
• exclusive tuesday – Show a photo or video giving a sneak peek behind the curtain.
• useful wednesday – Informative tips or trends in your industry
• featured thursday – Publicly respond to customer questions or show a positive review.
• friday feature – Showcase a broader industry news article or relevant content
• giving saturday – Focus on some kind of neighborhood charity or non-profit event that you support.
• sunday people – Highlight your employees. Show them that you have fun at work.

Updates that are effective at driving engagement

Do this if you want your followers to share, reply or like your content

• GetVisual – They are more likely to respond to funny newsworthy and inspiring images (photos) than just text updates.
• Ask what you want – Believe it or not, just ask people to share your content and they will. Of course, the content has to be share-worthy.
• sixteen the moment (Trending Topics) – Take advantage of current conversation trends. Be it seasonal, cultural or even current events. (Google Trends is a good place to find out what’s going on right now. http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends)

Updates that are good for encouraging direct response

If you want action NOW, then do this;

• Convincing offer – Drive clicks and generate leads by offering a truly compelling offer. Ask your users for suggestions for these.
• sense of emergency – Limit your offer to a specific time period to create a sense of urgency.
• Clear call to action – If you’re trying to drive traffic to a specific URL, don’t include anything else that might distract people from going somewhere else. Create the funnel.

I hope you find this information useful and that it gives you a good starting point for developing a strategy that you can customize for your particular industry or business.

I understand that there is no “one size fits all” answer, but that is why the experts exist. We have made all the mistakes and we know what to avoid and what to emphasize. Good luck to all of you.