Social media is a quick, easy and cost-effective way to spread your content out across a number of platforms and get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible. But no two social networks (and their user-bases) are alike, and each one should be approached differently.
Below is a breakdown of what works on different social networks.
On any given day, the average Facebook user is bombarded with so much content that it's nearly impossible to keep up with their Newsfeed. To combat this, your Facebook posts should stand out by always including an attention-grabbing image.
Engaging images = higher click-through-rates, more shares and lots of "Likes."
There are tons of options for sourcing images, some free and some subscription-based. A great free source is Stock Up. Its image library is robust and gorgeous. It's a great place to start.
Also, The Next Web compiled a list of 10 image editing tools that enable you to optimize tools for social sharing that are rated based on their functionality and ease-of-use.
Don't forget, images should be accompanied with a well written summary and a link!
Tip: Images containing quotes or statements, which can easily be pulled from a blog post, are popular and engaging in regards to user response. If your Photoshop skills aren't up to snuff, tools like Pinwords and Quozio make it extremely easy to generate images overlaid with text.
Grabbing your audience's attention in 140 characters can be difficult, but there is more than one way to tackle a tweet.
Simply tweeting a headline with a link is boring. Instead, tweet an interesting quote or excerpt along with a link. Or ask a question that the blog post answers. Appropriate trending hashtags can help boost the amount of users who see it, too.
As with Facebook, images can boost engagement and help a tweet standout from thousands of others.
Tip: Buck the 140 character limit and try to keep it under 100. This will leave users room to re-tweet and add their own commentary to promote your content for you.
LinkedIn is where professionals go to network, learn, and – essentially – advance their professional development. If your status updates touch on any of the above, LinkedIn users will eat it up.
Tip: It makes a huge difference to get your team to share content from their personal LinkedIn accounts. Tips on professional development, and the like, make more of an impact coming from an actual professional than it does coming from a brand.
Tumblr
Think of Tumblr as a baby version of your blog, a place to post summaries and accompanying images in a micro-blog format.
Tumblr also presents an opportunity to show a little personality by posting relevant GIFs and fun images that wouldn't make the cut on your blog.
Tip: BuzzFeed is a Tumblr pro. Look at the BuzzFeed Food Tumblr for inspiration. Its use of big Nutella imagery is enough to entice anyone to click a link back to the main site.
Much of the same goes for Pinterest as it goes for Facebook. Pinterest users love a good-looking photo with a warm and fuzzy (or at least interesting) quote or statement.
Where Pinterest differs from Facebook, is that it's even more visual and nonrestrictive in terms of creativity. Infographics look awesome on a Pinboard. Unlike Facebook, Pinterest doesn't push any limiting size restrictions. Any infographic that you post will be shown in its entirety across the network.
It's easy to turn a blog post into an infographic. Pick five points and make it flow. Use bright and engaging colors and don't try to stuff too much text into the graph. Don't forget to brand your infographic with your logo.
Tip: Photoshop skills aren't necessary to create a beautiful infographic. Tools like Easel.ly and Visualize provide an easy way to generate infographics.
