“As a guideline try
to post three to five times per week on Facebook” -Joe Cassara, founder and
chief executive of You Need My Guy.
“I post approximately 1-3 times per day”- Slava Rubin, founder and
chief executive of Indiegogo.
“On Facebook, quality over quantity increases engagement significantly. We’ve seen this on our own page and analysis of brand pages. We use Facebook Insights to understand what type of content resonates with our followers. In general, limiting posts to two times per day and four days a week has had the highest engagement.”-Karen Moon, co-founder and chief executive of StyleMusee.
In Buddy Media’s white paper, we found the following advice that
could help FFBL with their posting on social media.
-Posting once or twice daily produces 40 percent higher
engagement.
-Posting one to four times weekly produces 71 percent higher
engagement.
-Posts between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. receive 20 percent higher
engagement.
-On Wednesdays, fan engagement is 8 percent above average.
-Posts with 80 characters or less receive 66 percent higher
engagement.
An
example of a company that has been very successful with social media posting is
a local company call Bodyguardz. I know the owners of this company and so I
follow them pretty closely on social media outlets.
Bodyguardz
does a really great job at balancing their social media posts, especially on
Facebook where I follow them most closely. On their FB page in the last week
they have posted a thanks to their customers, a current event post that would
select a winner from the comments, a product introduction, a tribute to MLK, a
shout out to an employee etc. This type of diversity in posting really allows
the audience to get involved and to not get bored with content. Bodyguardz is a
smaller company that is still growing, but they get lots of participation when
they ask questions and post current events. They are making great use of their
Facebook page with all of this diverse content.
Through
this diverse content they are showing appreciation for their customer segments
and also building customer relationships by offering free product on occasion.
They are showing their value proposition by sharing material/videos/articles
that shows off their products. They are showing their audience their channel by
posting content that is linked to their other sites—website, twitter site,
youtube site etc. They are using a lot of the Business Model Canvas ideas in
their posting which has proven to be extremely beneficial for them.
Ideas
for Westercon67:
Westercon67’s
posting on social media is pretty sparse. Audiences need dependability in order
to engage and really commit to brands/events. My three suggestions for
Westercon67 are to 1) Post content
more regularly on social media sites 2) Post diverse engaging content that will
resonate with audience 3) Use the social media sites’ differences to your
advantage.
Post content more regularly
on social media sites:
If
Westercon67 really wants to get new fresh blood to their convention, they
really need to reach them through social media. Social media is where this
young demographic of new writers/creators spend most of their time. By posting
content regularly on social media sites they will be able to start building
relationships with and earning the trust of this younger demographic. Through
these posts they would be able to reach all of their customer segments and
begin to build customer relationships.
From
the advice I found above, I agree most with Karen Moon’s statement that
“quality over quantity increases engagement significantly”. If I were in charge
of the Westercon67 social media platforms my goal would be to post 3-5 times
per week. With posts Monday, Wednesday, Friday (and a day or two more when
needed), their customer segments would begin to understand and relate to the
brand, hopefully through the content, and then begin to engage with them. I
would also give them the advice from Buddy Media’s white paper, to post between
8 p.m. and 7 a.m. This might seem backwards at first, but after doing research
with a previous client we found this to be true. When do millennials check
social media? Right when they wake up and right when they go to bed. This might
be a beneficial piece of information for Westercon67 to utilize.
Post diverse engaging
content that will resonate with audience:
Westercon67
should take some ideas from the Bodyguardz Facebook page for what types of
content to deliver to their audience.
Obviously Bodyguardz has a different purpose/audience than Westercon67,
but getting ideas of content would really help. Here is a mock social media
posting schedule for Westercon67
· Every Monday post about the
upcoming event—new people who are coming, information that might help them sign
up, cost, ideas that will be shared, information about key speakers etc. This
will allow people to start understanding what Westercon67 is, which will be
very crucial if they want to be successful. Help the audience see the Who,
What, Where, Why, When, & How of Westercon67. Through this step alone they
will be able to build customer relationships, show key resources (guest
speakers that could draw a crowd), give them a cost structure, the actual price
of the event, and give the the value proposition, why this event will be so
valuable to future writers.
· Every Wednesday post
something in the writing/creating world that would peak your audience’s
interest. Bring in current events, highlight favorite authors, give facts about
the benefits of reading/writing, spotlight new up & coming fantasy books,
or make ‘top 10 fantasy books for your summer reading lists’. This will again
help build customer relationships, because their audience will begin to see
them as a source of quality information.
· Every Friday post a
challenge, contest, question that will get the audience interacting on social
media. This step right here will increase connectivity and transitivity. Post a
writing challenge, a poetry contest, a trivia quiz, a short story competition,
etc. that will get your audience doing and engaging. Creating original contents
and asking for original content will be beneficial for Westercon67 because that
is what they are all about, becoming the next hot fantasy writers. Make sure
with this step that the audience is compelled enough to want to participate.
Give them free tickets to the convention, getting a poem published in a local
journal, a free book signed by one of the authors attending or something of
that nature that will make them really excited about participating and coming
to the event.
Use the social media sites’
differences to your advantage.
The
last and final advice I would give to Westercon67 is to realize the power and
benefits of different social media sites. While many social media sites have
similar capabilities, there are also sites that exceed others success at some
functions. Learn the best places to target THE WESTERCON67 audience and do it
there. If the westercon67 audience is on multiple platforms, then leverage all
of those. Use Facebook for the things we mentioned above, news, contests,
information, pictures of past events. Also use Twitter for purposes that are
best on that platform. Incorporate hashtags, follow people how are promoting
similar events, retweet other’s statuses that would appeal to your audience, reach
out to fellow authors and invite them to tweet about your event. These actions
are received very well on Twitter, and so should be utilized on that platform. Posts
on Twitter are supposed to be kept short, make sure you do this because short
posts on twitter will increase engagement and participation.
Westercon67
has a huge audience out there, they just need to find them and use the right
platforms to reach them. If they can recognize their own Business Model and use
that in communication with their audience they will be much more powerful and
successful.
