Cerebra

Here at Cerebra we have the pleasure of running the social platforms of some of South Africa’s most awesome brands. We also enjoy experimenting with our own social platforms, which means that we’ve learnt a lot about what content works and what doesn’t.

Whether you’re new to social media or looking to improve your brand’s content, here are a few of our top social content tips and tricks:

• Get the basics right – keep content short, simple and relevant. Good spelling and grammar are a must.

• Understanding the different social platforms and identifying where your target audience is will help you tailor your content to reach the right the people. Try to think like your audience and talk with them, not at them. Speak to them in a tone and personality that is relevant to them.

• Discuss things you’re interested in and want to debate. Don’t be scared to have an opinion, just be sure you have your facts straight. Also ask others for their opinions. Everyone wants to be heard, especially by a brand they like.

• Show your personality. Especially in the case of company accounts, people want to know they’re speaking to a person, not just a faceless brand. Users respond well to witty content, real life situations and a good sense of humour.

• Engage with your followers. If someone comments on something you’ve posted, acknowledge that they have, by interacting back.

• Use great images and rich media content where relevant. These are easy to consume and are much more engaging. Always be aware of copyright laws, and credit images to their original source.

• Never beg for follow backs or likes.

• Share original content. Don’t share content from sites that everyone reads and don’t retweet people who everyone follows. Always give credit where credit is due; never copy someone else’s update.

• Don’t be afraid to try new things and then create habits and routine so that you own bits of information or time periods that suit your community.

• Start conversations within updates; don’t wait for it to come to you. Use search terms relative to your brand and try stay on topics that are the talk of the day.

• Don’t be afraid to ask the community what they want. Tailored content is great content. Great content is shareable content. Shareable content gets you known.

• Mobile friendly updates are key as mobile penetration is a lot higher than web access in Africa.

• Unpredictable predictable content works well. Give your audience what they want in a way they don’t expect.

• Remember that we don’t all think alike, so tailor content for everyone to understand. Content is queen but context is king.

• Do what’s good for the people. Start thinking long-term about how your content can lead to a bigger effect in the future.

• As with our previous post on tips to an engaging twitter bio , honesty is key to successful content. Be genuine; don’t try to be something you’re not. If people meet you and you are not like your online persona, it will do more damage than good.