Are you tired of putting in hours of work with your social media posts to get no reactions or engagement? Don’t worry – we’ve all been there! It takes time to find your voice and determine what works and what doesn’t, so don’t give up!

However, in saying that, maybe your posts are just missing the mark a little, which is what this blog is here to help you with! After posting THOUSANDS of social media posts for my business as well as our clients every year, I guess I would be a little concerned if we didn’t have this down pat yet!

So let’s get down to business and work out exactly what you need to be ‘checking off’ before you hit publish on your post!

STAND OUT VISUALS

A Facebook post without creativity is like a shop front without a window! I’m talking about photos and videos! Think about when you’re scrolling your own feed, is it the caption or the image that stops your scrolling first?

Nothing has the power to stop people from scrolling their thumb like an eye-catching visual does! Remember your Facebook post is competing with everything else on your customer’s feed, so what’s going to be attention grabbing enough to stop them in their tracks?

Tips:

• Invest in a photographer who can take photos of you and your business/team. We have been doing this for over 12 months now, and it makes it so much easier having a bunch of photos readily available to add to our posts.
• If you can’t afford a photographer right now, no worries! Put a few hours aside to perhaps snap some of your own, or use stock images. Both Pexels and Upsplash are great programs for sourcing free high quality images!
• Our data tells us, as much as we hate it, that our customers and audience love seeing our faces, so they will love seeing yours too! Honestly, they are always our top performing posts!

ENGAGING TEXT

Alright, you’ve got their attention with an eye-catching visual, now you have to keep their attention! You want your caption to be easy to read, simple, clear and to the point! Don’t use any business or industry jargon… it just goes over their head. Avoid promotional language that’s going to turn them off as well. Let’s break the caption down a little! We break the text into three different sections to make it more simple…

ONE: Headline

The first part of your caption needs to grab the reader’s attention, let them know what the post is about, who it’s for, or what they will get from it.

Keep it short – think newspaper headlines – something to ‘reel’ them in!

Ideas:

• Highlight who the post is directed at. E.g. ‘Hey Business Owners’ or ‘Calling All Foodies’
• Let them know who’s writing. E.g. ‘Hey 👋 Maddie from The Island Creative here’
• Ask an engaging question. E.g. ‘What’s your biggest priority on your to-do list this week, business owners?’
• Make it too intriguing not to read on. E.g. ‘Have you heard the news?’ or ‘We bet you didn’t know this’
• Highlight the post. E.g. ‘New Recipe On The Blog!’ Or ‘New Menu Now Available’

TWO: The Main Content

Once you’ve got their attention with visuals and a scroll-stopping headline, you want to get to the point quite quickly. Keep the post engaging, don’t let it be too long, break it up into small paragraphs and make the content valuable to the reader.

Keep asking yourself, ‘What do I want my reader to get from this post?’

Tips:

• Use paragraphs to break up almost all sentences.
• Provide valuable information that’s useful to your reader.
• Keep it short and get to the point.
• Keep your ‘voice’ and brand in mind, who are you writing ‘from’? Aiming for consistency across all your posts.
• Use emojis to break it up, add more visuals, direct their attention and keep it fun.
• Include links to information you’re referring to, or a ‘read more’.
• Use the geo-tagging option to let the audience know where this post is about or where you’re ‘tuning’ in from.
• Tag relevant people, businesses, other organisations or pages that are related to the post.

THREE: Call to Action

What do you want your reader to do now? The most important part of any high-converting Facebook post is the call-to-action!

If you don’t know what you want your audience to do once they’ve seen your post – they certainly won’t know what you want them to do! Your readers might be reading your post, but they’re not mind readers! Make it SUPER obvious and clear as to what you want them to do now.

Whether you’re looking for website traffic, a lead to message you, more page followers, a comment, or even some type of engagement, you’re not going to get it if you don’t invite it. Use phrases like Sign up, Download, Subscribe, Comment, Like, and Click, these will put Facebook users into action after seeing your post.

Ideas:

• Include a link for them to follow: ‘Click on the link below to keep reading’ or ‘Click on the link to Book Now’.
• Encourage engagement: ‘Let us know in the comments below’ or ‘Share this post with your Tassie Friends’ or ‘Like this post if you agree on X’.
• Other actions: ‘Subscribe via the link to get regular updates’ or ‘Download our menu by clicking on the button below’.
• Ask a question: ‘What would you like to see more of on our menu?’ or ‘What’s your favourite Tasmanian wine to enjoy with an Italian meal?’

Now it’s your turn!!

We know as a business owner you’re short for time, so we want to keep this blog short, simple and straight to the point! Now you’ve got our caption secrets… why not have a go at writing one yourself? Download our free checklist here to make sure you’re not forgetting anything we covered above!

If you’re a business owner or manager in Tasmania who is looking for a group of like-minded people to connect with, share marketing ideas/tips, and have access to our team for your marketing questions, join our free Facebook Group now: Tasmanian Online Marketing Support.

Of course, we are always sharing snippets of our wisdom on our Facebook & Instagram as well, so remember to like them too!