5 ways to be consistent on social media
Posting on social media can be a hard and arduous task, especially when you have a business to run. Often it gets moved to the bottom of the list and then a post is hastily conjured up on the day. The result - content that is neither strong nor consistent.
For many companies, social media is the primary method of communicating with their prospects and customers. Therefore, it is absolutely vital to get it right.
It is actually a lot easier than you think to create consistent social media content.
Here are my top 5 tips:
1. Take a step back and think about what you’re trying to achieve
When your head is in the day-to-day this can seem like a hard task. However, it is always worth remembering what your company’s objectives are and what impression you want people to form about your brand. If you’re a hotel and you really want to showcase your rooms, then why not create some content around the unique selling points of those rooms.
2. Plan your social media content in advance rather than deciding on the day
Take the time to think about what you want to tell your audience. Planning means you can also pace your content and ensure it is varied. It also helps you keep track of how often you are pushing your key messages. Planning posts in batches can make it less daunting and is also more time efficient. I find planning in two weeks blocks works well. Planning too far in advance often means you end up moving things around because things inevitably change. However, do what works best for you.
Using a planning tool can also be helpful for this, so you can see all your posts laid out on a calendar. It also prevents duplication of content. I use Metricool, which has a great free package offering up to 20 posts per month across most platforms (not LinkedIn or X).
You can also just create the post in the platform itself.
3. Post regularly and commit to it
Consistency is key to successful marketing. Your customers will come to know what to expect from you. Posting regularly on social media has several benefits:
Keeps you front of mind: Posting regularly keeps you in your followers’ feeds and prevents you from being forgotten about.
Builds trust and credibility and signifies reliability. An account that hasn’t posted for months can look abandoned or untrustworthy.
Audience growth: Every time you post, it creates an opportunity for someone to discover you.
Visibility and reach: Most platform algorithms favour accounts that post regularly and consistently. Content from these accounts will get shown to more people.
Helps build a community: Posting regularly creates a rhythm that your audience will get used to. This can prompt conversations and engagement as well as a sense of connection between your followers and your brand.
4. Utilise content from your blog and marketing emails
Don't double up on work, reuse your content across channels. Not only does it save you time, it also helps you communicate more cohesively.
Speaking about one topic in multiple places helps to reinforce the message to your audience as people tend to forget things and need reminding. You also can’t rely on every customer seeing everything that you put out. For example, a customer may be signed up to your email list and follow you on TikTok but not Instagram or Facebook.
Another point to consider is that if you are talking about totally different topics on your social media to what you are posting about on your blog, you may end up confusing or overloading your audience and they may not remember any message. Your customers aren’t as involved in your business as you are, so they need constant reminders of what you stand for.
5. Keep to the same look and feel
A uniform look and feel will help you look professional and help elevate your brand positioning and in turn, people's perceptions of your company. As I often say, people buy with their eyes. When they have no other experience of your product or service, all they can judge you on is what’s on the screen in front of them.
Using numerous different fonts and colours can look chaotic and present you as a less credible company. It is therefore important that your creative is uniform and truly reflects your brand. If you are not much of a designer, it might be worth investing in templates for your social media posts. Alternatively, I recommend using rich photography or videography and keeping text to a minimum. At the speed we scroll these days, text can help provide context to a post so it is still worth including some.
Social media can really feel like a mammoth task. It is easy to post in a hurry and not put much effort into it. However, if you are doing this, you could do more damage than good. Take the time to get the basics right at the very least and if you stay on top of it, it won’t feel such a hard task. Above all, remember consistency is key.
If you need any help with your social media strategy, content creation or templates, please get in touch.