Do You Need To Revamp Your Social Media Pet Posts?

Guest post by Blog Manager Robbi Hess

Creating great content for your social media pages and your blog posts isn’t always a walk in the park so when you’re sitting down you need to make certain you’re optimizing your time and your efforts.

Here are a few things I’ve discovered during my time as a pet blogger and social media manager and through some research, for maximizing your social media efforts:

What is the ideal length for your social media messages? On Twitter you are limited to the 140 characters so that’s that. On your Facebook and LinkedIn pages, try to keep your messages short and to the point. Can you deliver a message in fewer than 20 words? If so, kudos!

Do your questions get answered? Do you ever wonder whether asking a question garners you any favor? It’s been shown that on Twitter a message that asked a question received 50% fewer clicks! The reasons for this is that I’ve heard people come to your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages for answers, not questions. Something to ponder. If you want to ask a pet-related question, consider using Facebook’s survey option.

Are you excited! Using exclamation points is shown to turn readers off. Yes, you’re excited, but leave the exclamation points at home and make your point with words. Unless something is truly earth-shattering and exciting, your reader doesn’t want to see exclamation points.

Hashtag away. Using a hashtag to reach business to business clients is shown to be close to 200% more effective than not using one. Studies show that business clients appreciate hashtags but business to consumer subscribers are less enthralled as it was shown that Tweets with hashtags receive fewer clicks than do those without. Hhmmm not sure I agree with that. Do you?

Numbers count. People love Top Tens, Five Greatest Ways To…, etc. in our time-crunched world, knowing that you can discover Five Great Places to Vacation With Your Pet is a lure for readers.

Best times and days to post? Monday and Wednesdays show a higher rate of interaction and posts that go live between 10 am and noon are more likely to be read on Twitter and LinkedIn. For Facebook, engagement appears to be after lunch and late afternoon.

Do you agree with these findings? Can you, or will you, revamp your posting times and comments to see if they are correct? 

Comments

[Carol Bryant]

Good advice, Ms. Robbi!

[Colby]

I think the important thing to do is to test. Your readers may react differently to social media then what has been measured and tested by others.

For instance, I almost always ask questions on my Facebook page because it creates a discussion. The posts that have questions or fill in the blanks get a lot more comments then the updates that just have a statement. This is true on my Facebook page, but may not be the same for yours.

[caren gittleman]

I am mixed about the asking questions too. I have seen people do it with great success, for me it hasn't worked super well.
I am guilty of over using exclamation points so I think I better chill on that for awhile.
I am seeing a growing trend of using hashtags in titles of blog posts. I understand why it is being done but for me it is an enormous turn-off, I feel as if the post was purely written for "hits" and when I sense that, I move on.
For blog posts I prefer to post right after midnight ET...that way I am also hitting those in other countries who are into their day.

[Robbi]

I, too, see mixed response on questions and I hate to ask a question and it just sits there... lonely and unanswered!

[Glogirly and Katie]

I agree with Caren on post timing. I try to post every night at midnight EST. The night owls and my overseas friend often visit before I get up. When I've run into trouble with my schedule and don't post until the next morning, I never have as much traffic.

I haven't used hashtags in my posts or Facebook entries...just on Twitter. I don't do a lot of dedicated tweeting either.

Facebook has become more and more fun. I don't ask many questions...I find that compelling photos generate more activity. I'm also finding a number of people who are very engaged and comment a lot are reading my blog, but going to Facebook to comment. I think it's helped build that audience quite a bit. It used to be that only those that commented on the blog knew Katie (my cat and the voice of the blog) so well, like she was part of their family. Now there are facebookers too that know every little thing about her and her antics. I love that it's so easy for me to comment back to them.

: )Glogirly