Whether you\u2019re a startup, a creator, a big brand, or a nonprofit, social media best practices like the ones shared in this post can keep you on top of the social media game.<\/p>\n
Remember, social media best practices can change fast. So it\u2019s a wise idea to peep the to-do lists throughout the post even if you think your social strategy is already running like a well-oiled machine.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Bonus:<\/strong> Read the step-by-step social media strategy guide<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Your audience is the foundation of everything you do on social media. (Really, they\u2019re the foundation of everything you do in your business, period.)<\/p>\n That means you need to know who they are, what they want, and how they spend their time on social platforms. This information will guide all other best practices for social media marketing within your organization.<\/p>\n Every social marketing team should be able to answer the following basic questions:<\/p>\n So how do you find this information? We\u2019ve got a whole blog post dedicated to audience and target market research<\/a>. But some good places to start include your CRM, Google Analytics, and your social analytics.<\/p>\n To-do list: <\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.<\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFree 30-Day Trial<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The average social media user is on seven<\/a> social platforms. But does your brand need to be?<\/p>\n The simple answer is no. You absolutely don\u2019t need to connect with your target audience on every single platform they use. In fact, this could actually contribute to brand fatigue, since people tend to use social platforms for different purposes. They don\u2019t want to connect with brands (or at least the same brands) in every single place.<\/p>\n Of course, this loops back to the best practice we just covered \u2013 audience research. But from the brand perspective, you also need to consider:<\/p>\n If the platform is not a fit for your audience and your brand, you don\u2019t need to be active there. In fact, one of the top trends identified in the Hootsuite Social Media Trends Report for 2024<\/a> is for brands to adjust their platform use based on ROI.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Hootsuite Social Media Trends Report 2024<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Creating thoughtful content for fewer platforms will always serve you better than scrambling to try to be everywhere at once.<\/p>\n Heads up! You\u2019ll need to make these platform choices based on what\u2019s best for your brand, but in general we\u2019re predicting<\/a> that YouTube Shorts will likely be worth more attention this year, while BeReal probably will not. Keep your eye on Telegram and Mastodon, too.<\/p>\n To do list: <\/strong><\/p>\n Start free 30-day trial<\/a><\/p>\n Some social posts bring in great engagement rates, new followers, and website clicks. Some, well, don\u2019t. What\u2019s the difference? The only way to know for sure is to implement a consistent testing strategy that allows you to tinker with individual components of your social content to see what creates measurable change.<\/p>\n Of course, you can never sit on your laurels. Social media changes fast, and your testing strategy can help you identify performance changes as they happen so you can adjust your strategy in real time.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have a testing strategy set up at all, start by working through our post on how to get started with A\/B testing on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n To-do list:<\/strong><\/p>\n Start free 30-day trial<\/a><\/p>\n Clear brand guidelines form the basis of a consistent, recognizable (and safe) social media presence, even if you play with your style and voice across platforms.<\/p>\n There are two types of guidelines to consider here: Your brand style guide<\/a> and your social media policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n The former ensures your branding remains consistent and recognizable to your audience in everything from visuals to caption style, punctuation choices (#TeamOxfordComma), and overall tone and feel.<\/p>\n Brand guidelines cover things like:<\/p>\n Your social media policy, on the other hand, provides structure for your employees on what topics may be off limits to post about when representing your company \u2014 even on their personal accounts. This eliminates confusion, encourages employees to share positive content, and establishes clear consequences for violating terms, which can save you from legal and PR troubles down the road.<\/p>\n To-do list:<\/strong><\/p>\n Your social content can only bring real value to your brand if people actually see it. That means you need to understand the algorithms and search optimization strategies that drive discoverability.<\/p>\n The algorithms are complex and constantly changing. Fortunately, we\u2019ve got a round-up post with the highlights of every social media algorithm<\/a>, freshly updated to keep you on track.<\/p>\n Beyond the algorithms, dig deep into social SEO to bring your content to a whole new audience. People looking for information curated by humans rather than the behemoth Google are increasingly turning to social platforms for search. We\u2019ve got a post to walk you through how to optimize your post to appear in social search results<\/a>.<\/p>\n But you also need to look back into your audience research to understand what kind of content your audience is likely to search for. Then give them that! Lean into entertainment and, especially, edutainment. Evergreen educational content can live forever on the social platforms, bringing in views and engagement well after it\u2019s disappeared from algorithmic results.<\/p>\n For instance, search \u201chow to propagate pineapple\u201d on Instagram, and one of the very top results is from July 2022. That\u2019s 20 months ago! No wonder it\u2019s managed to get more than 45,000 views.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>@plantslover1990<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n To-do list:<\/strong><\/p>\n Planning your social media content in advance allows time to create high-quality content and logically put together campaigns (organic and paid<\/a>) developed with collaboration and feedback from your team.<\/p>\n While several of the social media platforms offer native scheduling features, Hootsuite Planner<\/a> is a great unified tool for cross-platform collaboration, campaign mapping, and scheduling.<\/p>\n Start free 30-day trial<\/a><\/p>\n While many social teams consist of just one person<\/a>, that doesn\u2019t mean that only one person needs to weigh in on social content before it goes live. Whether you\u2019re a team of one or 100, you need approval from the guardians of your brand.<\/p>\n This is especially important in regulated industries<\/a>, or in the case of a PR crisis<\/a>. But the truth is that you can help keep a PR crisis from happening in the first place if you put the right people in charge of approving content. A collaborative tool like Hootsuite includes approval workflows that safeguard your brand every step along the way.<\/p>\n18 social media best practices for 2024<\/h2>\n
Social media marketing best practices<\/span><\/h3>\n
1. Do audience research<\/h4>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t#1 Social Media Tool\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n2. Build a presence on the right networks<\/h4>\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n3. Use testing to refine your strategy<\/h4>\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n4. Develop clear brand guidelines<\/h4>\n
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5. Learn about the algorithms and social SEO<\/h4>\n
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6. Schedule your content in advance<\/h4>\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n7. Implement a clear content-approval process<\/h4>\n