Promotional posts
Promotional posts
Social media can be an effective way to raise your profile. In achieving that, you occasionally need to broadcast. Announcements, new developments, research outputs, events – it’s often one-way communication, and you want people to either read the message, click the link, or register for the event.
It’s best to limit the amount of promotional broadcasting you do, and balance it out with conversational posts, replies and shares of other users’ posts.
When you do need to promote something, it helps to put the audience into the story, so that it has context for them. Ask them a question about the content, or tell them how it affects or benefits them. This approach works particularly well when posting a link to a new blog or sharing some research findings. How does it affect the audience?
How do you do it?
- Start by asking yourself ‘what’s in it for them?’ and put yourself in your audience’s shoes.
- Put the content into context wherever possible. Show, don’t tell.
- Focus on the person or people at the heart of the story. Include photos of them doing the thing you’re talking about.
- Use videos, photos and info cards to illustrate the things you’re talking about.
- Think about when the best time to post is. Maybe you can post something two or three times over the course of a week – people are online at different times.
- Develop a content plan for all of your promotional posts.
Three tips: start with the audience, plan your content, show don’t tell.
Further reading: 71 Ways to Write a Social Media Update: Specific Tips to Engage Your Followers [Buffer], What 1 Million Tweets Taught Us About How People Tweet Successfully [Buffer]