1. Develop a style guide

Look at your channels. Can you tell when different people in your team have posted, by a slight difference in tone, grammar or style?

If the answer is yes, you need a style guide.

Over the short term, it’s unlikely this will have a huge impact on your engagement.

But what it will do is add a level of professionalism to your accounts, by making each post look consistent.

In turn, strengthening your brand.

This can also give everyone in the team more confidence and understanding when it comes to posting out content.

That, alone, gives you a much better chance of striking social media gold.

(Want help doing this? The Social Media Strategist Course will do the trick.)

2. Use more emojis

Apparently, 10 billion emojis are sent every day.

When it comes to managing social media accounts, a recent study showed that using an emoji can increase engagement by 25 percent on Twitter, 48 percent on Instagram and 57 percent on Facebook.

There will be times when emoji use is inappropriate, and that’s fine.

Similarly, it’s important not to flood your posts with so many emojis that they become inaccessible.

But here’s the thing – if you’re on social media, then people in your audience are almost guaranteed to use emojis on a daily basis, and so should you.

They bring light to your content and express emotion more than words alone can.

3. Respond to comments

We call it social media yet, honestly, how social are we on our various channels?

We’re all guilty of posting something and then ignoring the wide array of comments that come back – until somebody says something really offensive about a senior leader.

Social media is meant to be interactive and, whether you’re a business looking to generate sales, or a local council looking to improve your reputation within your communities, interacting with people can only be a good thing.

Respond to comments.

Talk to people.

It’s called social media for a reason!

4. Look at what works

Whether you’re using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok, there is no shortage of organic data available to you as an account manager.

It’s easy to get bogged down in these numbers – looking at how many people you’ve reached over the space of a month, how many shares you’ve had, etc.

But possibly the most valuable thing you can do, if you want to improve your social media, is to look at the posts that have done well.

We know, it sounds simplistic, and obvious. But how much time do we spend looking at what has worked, and picking out what we feel are the key ingredients?

Look at the stuff that isn’t working, and do less of it. Look at what’s working well, and do more of it.

5. Take a gamble!

To quote an age old football (or soccer) adage – you miss every shot you don’t take.

There’s lots of fear in the industry around cocking up on social media.

Posting something that prompts a huge backlash from the public, or even the media.

We get it.

But each day, there are more and more businesses and agencies competing for your audience’s attention Facebook, Instagram and other channels.

To stand out from the crowd, and stop the scroll, sometimes you have to do something that grabs attention.

Sometimes you have to take a risk.

Don’t let the fear of a backlash, or criticism from others, stop you from taking risks and trying something new.

If you work in comms or marketing and you’d like support, inspiration, and BIG social media results every day, you’ve found your tribe.

Sign-up to the Comms Creatives Academy for a whole year of training and inspiration on how to be more creative and deliver great results where you work.