STOP – Before you publish on social media – check the following

Whether you are publishing a blog, promoting an event or other marketing activity – be sure that you
make your communications count.  Check these 8 publishing basics before hitting the ‘send’ button.

1.  Spell Check. The quickest way to lose credibility is to share content peppered with typos. Check your spelling and grammar. There are apps such as Grammarly which can help if you struggle.
2.  Web Friendly Content. People read differently online to how they read offline text. It’s difficult to read bulky paragraphs of text online so be sure to keep your sentences short and include bullet points and links where possible to highlight key points and steer the reader to where you want them to go / what you want them to do.
3.  Call to Action. Have you told your audience what you want them to do? Make your intentions clear from the start. If you are inviting people to an event, or need them to do something – get the ‘action’ in right at the beginning of your content. This way they don’t have to read the whole page to understand what’s being offered and what you want them to do.
4.  Does your Headline / Subject Line explain the proposition?  Check that your Headline/Subject clearly explains what’s on offer. Often audiences don’t read beyond the headline – so be sure you capture attention and sell the proposition from the start.
5.  Is your content Keyword Optimised? Make sure you are leveraging keywords in your Headline/ Subject Line and where relevant throughout your content. (Work on a 4% content to keyword ratio).
6.  Are the Links / Processes Working?  If you have included links to other pages – then be sure to check that links are working and active. If you’re including a process, for example, if you are sending readers to a landing page to download a guide – then check that the download, data capture mechanisms work seamlessly. Remember that in Twitter and LinkedIn you are limited to the amount of characters that can be published – so be sure that any links aren’t going to get ‘cut off’ at the end.
7.  Are you sending communications to a relevant audience?  The most successful marketing activities are those which are targeted effectively. Be sure that you understand your audience and target your communications accordingly.
8.  Have you included contact details? Whilst the call to action for your audience may be clear – some may have questions. Be sure you provide a ‘contact us’ option – whether it’s an email address or telephone number – somewhere where those with questions can very simply get in touch.

Basic, but often missed. Happy publishing.

@Michelle Carvill is owner and Marketing Director at Carvill Creative – the online visibility experts. A digital marketing and design agency based in Maidenhead, Berkshire.  The agency covers all aspects of marketing strategy and online visibility – covering social media marketing and social media training, user focused website planning and conversion focused website design.

Want to talk to the team at Carvill Creative about your social media activity or training needs? We’re happy to chat, so simply ‘get in touch’.

Finally, why not download our useful Social Media Marketing Planner andMarketing Plan. They’re totally free to download and use.