In music, there are melodic tunes and harmonic tunes. Melodic tunes are sounds produced from striking individual notes on any musical instrument and harmonic tunes result from striking two or more chords at a time. Usually, opposing sounds make the perfect harmony. Two-part writing rests on treble and alto, while four-part writings include the treble, alto, tenor and bass. All these parts individually played produce melodies, but collectively produce harmonies – a symphonic blend. Let’s draw inspiration from the idea of harmonies for our social media content. Consider a social media post as a two-part music piece: the creative and the copy being the two elements. We should be striving for harmony. Each post, on any channel, should touch the audience exactly how you intended and evoke the expected emotional response with the message being clearly delivered. Wondering how?
- Copy First, Creative Next.
Would you visit your seamstress or tailor empty handed and tell her/him to make any event dress for you, not providing her with details like which event it is, what color theme is best suited, how long or short, which style catches your fancy? Would you hand your seamstress/tailor that carte blanche and expect an event appropriate outfit?
No? Exactly!
The same logic applies here when handling a business’ look online. The creative designer hopes to draw ideas from the copy to create a fitting artwork/video for balance. If you are handling your business page by yourself, write down your caption somewhere – bearing in mind that captions are a powerful tool that can be used to encourage likes, comments, and even visits to your website – then find the right image to fit. This way, you are guaranteed that your message has been conveyed just as you want it to and if your post gets enough engagement, it might even end up on the Explore Page!
2. Pay attention to Mis-en-scene.
When the creative accompaniment is submitted, take a closer look at the individual elements of the work. Be it an image or a video, there is the need to look out for the following; the amount of text in the creative (keeping in mind the 80/20 image-to-text rule), the choice of language, the tone, the positioning of text (if any), grammar (particularly tenses, punctuations and double spaces), look out for the color harmony of the image and the general look and feel of the content.
If you have a hunch that there is something wrong with the creative, there probably is.
Do not be in a hurry to just post, look and look again. At the end of the day, the page is for your business, but your judges are behind their phones, giving you no chance for explanations.
3. Nail your CTA game.
Usually, the call to action is the concluding part of a post. It puts the content in a perspective – a harmonious perspective. Like every piece of marketing material, the aim of any post on social media should be to attract a reaction or an action from the audience and your post should direct the user the action you will like them to take. Else, the post becomes mere information and you are likely to lose half the engagement you could have. Even if the post appears like an ordinary information post, for instance, a motivational quote, it should have a CTA. Like ‘Share this with a friend who needs to see this’, ‘tag someone who needs to hear this’ or ‘Drop a comment/Double tap if you agree’.
While some calls to action may be explicit and straightforward, (especially in sales posts) for example; Call xxxxxxx and order yours now, there are also some CTAs that appear subtle like ‘talk to our team today on xxxxx’. It’s all in the wording!
As a business, you may want to find that thin line between selling and being desperate and stay on the safe side. Constant calls to ‘buy now buy now’ on all posts reeks of a thirsty brand and that can reduce the rate at which your posts are engaged.
4. Keep it Clean & Simple.
Recently, individuals and some brands have taken time to post content in a way that creates a theme for the page. This is evidently seen on Instagram and some pages we found interesting include Future Females’ as well as the famous African Giant, Burnaboy’s page. Creating a theme or template helps to make your page visually appealing and makes your messages clear to read. Keep to a specific size/image frame (in cases when you have videos, upload a cover image that works with the theme), color combinations and a uniform text alignment. Having a theme brings visual harmony to your page.
Remember less is always more.
This 4-Step content strategy above is a surefire approach to make your social media pages sing in harmonious choruses while guaranteeing you a good return on your investment. Attempt to work them out on your social media channels and let us know the results. Should you hit a road block, you know where the magic happens, give us a call.
Esinam lives for the arts. She relishes the opportunity to present a killer concept on and off social media, and loves everything that demands employing her creative juices to make life better. With her degree in Directing and Scenic Design (Theatre Arts, UG-Legon), she presents the full package!