A lot of people are tweeting blind – are you?
It’s no secret that a huge percentage of people share content on social media without actually having read it. When you see that somebody has shared a link to an article on someone else’s site, there’s a pretty decent chance they never actually clicked it themselves.
So once again – are you tweeting blind?
Because if you are, you might be making mistakes without knowing it.
This is an especially big concern if you maintain a library of status updates that you share again and again over time. Whether your posts are automated (like ours) or you just have a spreadsheet of your greatest hits that you like to pull from every now and then, you can’t just assume that everything is in working order all the time.
When you do, you run a huge risk of making the kinds of mistakes that other people notice, but you don’t – like walking around with a piece of broccoli stuck in your teeth all day. Someone might point it out, but odds are, you’re just gonna keep on smiling none the wiser.
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Yeah, it’s good for you – but it can also embarrass you, if you’re not careful.
It’s not a good look.
Just like keeping your teeth clean, though, the solution is simple: look in the mirror every now and then.
And what are you checking for when you do?
Four questions to ask about your status updates
If you manage a library of social media updates, there are four questions you should ask about every link you post:
- Does this link still work?
This is one of the easiest things to check – and it’s also one of the easiest to take for granted.
Click every link you share on a regular basis. (Every link that you don’t control, anyway.)
Yes, it’s boring. No, you can’t skip it.
Links get taken down. URLs change without redirects. Articles get archived behind paywalls.
Bottom line? You might be sharing links that lead to nowhere – and if you do that a lot, the people who click them are going to learn not to bother.
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We periodically check the links we share on social to make sure they still work.
The process is simple enough – go through your library or spreadsheet, and open every link. Tedious as it sounds, this should only take a few minutes. (Feel free to switch on Spotify and switch off your brain.) If there are dead ones, update them, or chuck ‘em out.
That’s the easiest thing to check – now, though, it’s gonna take just a little more focus.
- Is the information still relevant?
Some posts and articles are evergreen – they stay relevant pretty much forever. (Our step-by-step guide to writing better blog posts is a good example.)
Some posts and articles only stay relevant for a very short moment, like the announcement of a new product, or other particularly timely news.
But some posts and articles fall somewhere in the middle – and this is where you have to be the most careful.
Because evergreen posts last forever, and timely posts probably never make it into your library at all. Some of the posts in your library, however, will stay relevant only for a while.
A perfect example would be this infographic about image sizes for different social networks. After this was posted in January 2014, it would have been relevant for a while, but by now, some of its information is outdated. It’s something you may have shared with your followers a few times back then, but not something you should keep in the rotation anymore.
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Info that was new in 2014 might not be so helpful today. Always know what you’re sharing!
Take a quick look at the links you’re sharing, keeping a close eye out for dated information. Once something is no longer relevant, take it out of your stash.
Knowing that everything still works and is relevant isn’t enough, though – there are a few more things you should ask yourself, like:
- Does your audience care about what you’re sharing?
On the one hand, it’s tempting to think that it doesn’t matter if people engage with your links to other people’s content (OPC).
On the other hand, you’d be wrong.
Because sure, it doesn’t directly matter if those links get a lot of comments or clickthroughs – after all, it doesn’t add up to more traffic for your site, right?
But indirectly, it makes a big difference. For one thing, Facebook’s algorithms take your engagement levels into consideration when factoring organic reach. If you’re posting OPC that nobody engages with, that’s bad.
For another thing, posting boring content is the kiss of death, and a major reason people unfollow brands on social media.
So take a look at the statistics for the OPC you share. You should be doing this anyway to make sure you’re posting at the right times, but pay special attention to the types of content you’re sharing, too.
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Download and sort your post stats, so you can easily see which links have been your most popular – and which ones are duds.
Find common ground among the types of content your fans respond and don’t respond to. For example, they may engage with posts about one subject, but not another. (It all depends on who you are and what you share, really.)
Don’t drive yourself crazy poring over these stats, but give yourself a general understanding of what topics resonate with your followers – and which updates should get the ax.
As for the updates you’re going to keep, there’s one final question you should ask:
- How can you tweak what you’re sharing?
It never hurts to experiment – especially if you’re experimenting with tactics proven to improve your performance.
For example, you might try adding images to tweets with links, which generally get more clicks. You can make sure that you’re creating your link previews properly on Facebook, so that they’re in the format preferred by the network’s algorithms.
Otherwise, you can experiment in smaller, more subjective ways. Take an update that’s in the form of a statement, and change it into a question – see how people respond. Add an @-mention for an author whose post you’re linking to, and see if they retweet you. A little freshening up every now and then can go a long way – so don’t let your library of updates just sit there.
You know the questions – now go ask them!
That’s it – your quick-reference checklist for a quick and easy audit of your social updates! Take a look at what you’re posting, ask yourself these questions, and never stop improving – it’s not the most fun part of your social media marketing routine, but it’s a whole lot better than tweeting blind.
The post The Only Four Questions That Actually Matter When You’re Auditing Your Content appeared first on Edgar.