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Platform-Specific Considerations for Social Media Strategies

Platform-Specific Considerations for Social Media Strategies

The world has evolved to host everything digitally, personal lives or product marketing. 5.03 billion people use the internet today; of these, 4.62 billion are connected through Social Media. This digital connection has linked individuals and businesses, making social media the perfect platform to tap into. 

The opportunities that social media provides brands are innumerable, but we can only leverage them if brands have the correct strategies to begin with. From shelf lives to post designs, top social media sites for content have their way of operating, and businesses often do not realise this. 

If you have been making the same mistake, let us help you. In this article, we’ll take you through design and posting strategies that are specific to some of the most popular social media platforms:

Instagram

With shortening attention spans and less time, many prefer pictures and videos over reading lengthy texts. This is particularly prominent among college-going individuals and those working on kick-starting their careers, and for this reason, a staggering 59% of users between 18 and 29 use Instagram.

On Instagram, you have to look beyond individual posts: thumbnails matter. If you land a prospect on your page, their first action will be to go through Instagram’s classic three-column grid. As a result, you need a theme for your page. 

Your theme can include a tone (warm or cold), announcement templates, colour schemes, and preferred filters. Here, cohesion will serve your purpose the best. 

If, for instance, one of your pictures features an excellent neon blue background and the one after it is a stunning neon orange piece, zoom out and look at your profile as a whole: the result will hurt your eyes because neons don’t go well together. On Instagram, attention to detail matters as much as looking at the more extensive compilation. 

The 24-hour lifetime of Instagram stories also means you can share brief clips without having them stuck to your profile. You can include behind the scene videos, live sessions, clips of your work day, and show the face behind the brand to humanise your brand and improve customer engagement. 

Use the Highlights feature intelligently, as that draws significant attention as well. A common mistake in this regard is having dozens of highlights which audiences may have to tap through to find what they are looking for. Plan your highlights, and keep each category short and relevant. These can serve to pin recent announcements, customer reviews, brand values, and policies.

Instagram is immensely popular among influencers and creators, so make the most out of this opportunity and find micro-influencers with high engagement rates to work with. 

Facebook

Where Instagram focuses only on visuals, Facebook can allow you to talk about pictures in a way that audiences do not skip through. The classic text-above-media layout helps one achieve that. You can cater more to individual posts on Facebook without paying as much attention to the colour scheme as on Instagram. However, you do need to be consistent with your branding elements. 

Additionally, as Facebook can group photos posted in the same post, you can easily design product-specific photo bunches. 

For instance, if you sell bikes, making a post with a complete picture accompanied by zoomed-in photographs of the tires, screen, and handles will serve your purpose of familiarising your audiences with the product well. In contrast, Instagram requires people to swipe to see such posts, so the latter pictures are often forgotten. Facebook offers higher visibility and better grouping in this regard. 

You can also post Facebook stories, but note that they’re not as popular as the ones on Instagram. It’s best to design stories for Instagram and synchronise some relevant ones with Facebook.

It’s also essential to remember that the largest demographic of Facebook users lies between 25 and 34 years. Older individuals also find the platform easier to use because it’s familiar. Facebook is a favourite of the age group 35 and 44. For these reasons, your content should focus more on information and be more maturely written and executed than Instagram or Tiktok. 

Facebook’s interface is more friendly regarding community reviews and allows users to post on your page directly. Maintain good interaction with the reviewers and reach out to them swiftly if they face problems. Good reviews posted directly from your customers’ accounts will benefit you the most. 

TikTok

People aged 10 and 19 that form the most influential user group of TikTok won’t be on the lookout for your crisp, closeup, professional-looking videos on this platform. 

Individuals from no age group will appreciate monotonous or non-human content in their TikTok feeds. This is because TikTok has developed itself as a platform they use to enjoy and unleash their creativity. Sharing behind-the-scenes stories, unpacking/packing videos, influencer marketing, and real-life videos of customers can make you stay relevant to the platform and engage audiences. 

Keeping the age demographic of TikTok users in mind, you’ll also have to keep an eye on trends. Hop on to relevant ones to increase your visibility across the platform. This can help you if you own a smaller, newer business and are having trouble gaining audiences. Be yourself on TikTok, and you’ll amass loyal audiences.  

Twitter

You can exchange posts to some extent across media-centric platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, but Twitter is different. Unlike all the other platforms, Twitter users celebrate short tweets, even if no media accompanies them. Make Twitter the voice of your brand that depicts its personality and values. The platform is famous for its quips, so you can also use humour without appearing unprofessional here. 

Hashtags are more relevant here than on any other platform, but their high visibility also means you should stick to a small number. Choose up to three relevant ones to ensure your tweets appear more organic.

38.5% of Twitter users are between 25 and 34, followed by 35 and 49 at 20.7%. Like Facebook, you need to make your content more informational. Using pictures in the form of infographics and videos in the form of GIFs will also enable you to gain traction and let you surpass the word count. Use threads if you have more to say, but no one on Twitter appreciates lengthy monologues. 

Individuals scrolling through a platform known for its conciseness may not have a long enough attention span to read through long texts or watch lengthy videos. 

That being said, the platform works great for announcements, news, and releases. Engaging to and fro with users and brands publicly on Twitter can let you make the most out of your presence there as well. 

Platform-Specific Considerations and Practices to Ensure

Though we have established that all social media platforms require considerably different strategies to function, there are some rules you should follow across all of them:

High Quality of Media

No matter which platform you’re on, the quality of your visuals must remain up to the mark. Even though platforms like Twitter and Facebook allow you to post without media, users prefer to engage with pictures and videos. Make sure your brand’s photography and design are up to the mark. Hire professional photographers and designers if you have to, as compromising here can make you lose audiences. 

Typography and Colour Scheme

Consistency and repetition are keys to successful branding. If your typography, colour scheme, and fonts vary per post, your posts won’t act as cues that lead to your brand instantly — a quality that successful brand recognition demands. 

Having the correct design elements, to begin with, is crucial. For instance, cursive and italic fonts will hardly do you well if you want to depict power, speed, and fierceness in sports accessories. Similarly, using bold Arial against opaque backgrounds won’t be a good design strategy if you want a subtle, sleek, understated feel. Colours will have to vary per age group and brand themes as well. A professional agency handles your design and branding in your best interests. 

Legibility, Accessibility, and Understanding 

Your text must be legible, accessible, and understandable if you aim to reach out to the masses successfully. Use simple language, and short sentences, and leave impressive vocabulary and lengthy informational posts for your blogs and content strategy. Be concise and stay relevant. 

Similarly, if you’re using text on pictures, ensure it’s readable, and the colours aren’t clashing against the background to obscure the words. Whatever text you add in posts, copy it on the post descriptions and always use alt text so that individuals with vision or reading-related problems can understand it. You don’t want to discriminate against anyone inadvertently.

Respect, Inclusion, and Diversity

Design is a subtle yet powerful means to incorporate — or eliminate — diversity and inclusion. Ensure your pictures and videos cater to different age groups, races, and sexes and do not discriminate against anyone. There’s a thin and oft-trodden line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation. Do not cross it. Sharing real-life photographs of different kinds of users using your products and services can let you show that you celebrate all your audiences.

Endnote

If you have a business, you’ll soon realise that social media isn’t as easy to navigate through as you may have first thought. However, by carefully designing platform-specific strategies, you’ll be able to make the most out of it. It’s in your best interest to hire a whole team and assign different platforms to individuals, but make sure they all have access to all your branding elements. 

Remember to design organic content and engage with your audiences as much as you can. Third-party professional services can help you immensely with social media as well. Assess your budget and workforce carefully and go for the decision that suits you the most.  

The post Platform-Specific Considerations for Social Media Strategies is by Stuart and appeared first on Inkbot Design.



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