By Cassy van Eeden

This is because it is not an exact science. Yes, social media can quite easily be about data, metrics and measurement, the kinds of things you should post and what your posts should include depends who you are or who your brand is and who your audience is.


What to consider

Before you begin creating a post of any nature on any social media platform, it is important that you consider what your content is about, who you are posting it for and what you hope people’s reaction will be.

Elicus Marais, managing director of iLead Online, says that creating the ideal social media update “all depends on what kind of information or message the client wishes to convey to their audience”. He adds that: “Only once you have established this, can you take it to the next level.”
Another important factor worth considering is that social media is already a heavily cluttered space.

According to Statistic Brain, the average person’s social media attention span is seven seconds long. This means that your post – regardless of the platform – needs to stand out in order to be effective. That’s a lot of pressure. There are, however, some basic guidelines that you can follow specifically for Facebook posts and tweets.

Titillating tweets

We all know that Twitter allows for a maximum of 140 characters per tweet. Add to that the fact that the average Twitter user spends around 2.8 seconds looking at your tweet, if you’re lucky. This doesn’t give you much space or much time to get a message across. That’s the thing with Twitter, you don’t need to get your entire message across in one post.

Never underestimate the power of intrigue,” says Marais. “Keep it short, descriptive, informative and, most importantly, relevant to this very instant, especially if it’s industry specific.”

“The perfect tweet is precise, straight to the point and ties back to what you want exposed to the masses,” says Muzi Nhlapo, social media specialist at 100 Degrees Online Marketing.

Marais adds: “Retweet related tweets, using relevant hashtags.”

Fantastic Facebook posts

Facebook allows you more freedom in the sense that the text you use can be longer and the pictures you add can be of a higher quality. It is important to take care not to abuse these capabilities though.

Nhlapo recommends “keeping your post clear, concise and using powerful visuals to accompany it”.

“Graphics are a great way to communicate and connect with people as they are more likely to look at an image than read a long description,” says Marias. “Just make sure the image is not too flashy.”

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when posting on Facebook is to keep it tidy. “Keep the post clean and relevant and ensure that there is synergy between text and graphics.” There is, after all, very little point in engaging with a post with a picture that is completely irrelevant to the text or link.

Is there such a thing as the perfect social media post? What works for you and your brand? Let us know in the comments below.