Attaching images & videos to your tweets is a great way of making your tweets stand out in your followers’ newsfeeds. This lesson shows you how it’s done.

The number one way to increase social media engagement on Twitter is to include graphics, videos, and other visual items in your tweets.

An image, even a simple one, can dramatically increase the amount of clicks you get on your tweets and help you attract more followers to your profile.

An easy way to incorporate images into your tweets is to use a tool called Pablo by Buffer.

With Pablo by Buffer, you can create eye-catching images and attach them to your tweets in a few simple steps.

You don’t need an account to use Pablo by Buffer. To get started, simply go to pablo.buffer.com. 

Once you’re on the site, you can upload your own image or select one from the collection of stock images on the platform.

There’s also an option to select the size and filter of your image and choose whether you want to add some text or a logo to the image.

The video below explains everything you need to know about using Pablo for Buffer.

You’ve probably used hashtags before, but do you know the right way to use them? In this lesson, you’ll discover the strategies and tools you can use to select the best hashtags for your tweets.

A hashtag—written with a # symbol—is used to index keywords or topics on Twitter.

People use the hashtag symbol (#) before a relevant keyword or phrase in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them show more easily in the Twitter search results.

When a user clicks or taps on a hashtagged word in any message, they will see other Tweets that include that same hashtag.

Hashtagged words that become very popular usually turn into Trending Topics.

Although Twitter doesn’t place a limit on the number of hashtags you can add to your tweets, we recommend that you don’t use more than two hashtags per Tweet.

Also, keep in mind that you can’t add spaces or punctuation in a hashtag. For example, instead of using “#marketing tips” as your hashtag, you would use “#marketingtips”.

The best tool for finding relevant and popular hashtags for your tweets is hashtagify.me.

To use it, type in hashtagify.me in your web browser and use the site’s search bar to find a relevant hashtag for your tweet.

For example, if you’re working with a brand in the health food niche, you would type in health food in the search bar to see a list of all related hashtags.

Once you’ve found your hashtags, all you need to do is go to your Twitter profile and click on the Tweet button on the top right corner of the screen.

You can then append two hashtags you picked from hashtagify.me to your tweet. For example “my first tweet #hashtag1 #hashtag2”

If you notice that certain hashtags create more engagement than others, you should use them regularly and include them on the majority of your posts. This will help you increase your follower count over time.

Twitter is a powerful platform for reaching audiences that are interested in topics related to your business’ niche. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to create an account from scratch.

Twitter is one of the most popular social media networks in the world and a powerful tool for getting more people interested in your brand.

The first thing you need to do is visit twitter.com and enter your name, email, and password in the Sign-Up box.

Make sure you select the “Tailor Twitter based on my recent website visits” option so that you get Tailored suggestions about who you might enjoy following based on your Twitter activity.

Once you click on the sign-up button, Twitter will ask you to choose a username and pick your interests. 

You can also import your existing email contacts and follow specific accounts to see what they share in your timeline.

After the setup process, you’ll be redirected to your Twitter feed and shown a brief tutorial about how the platform works.

We recommend that you always add a profile image of your company’s logo and a cover photo that shows customers using your products or services.

Research has found that accounts with profile images receive 10 times more followers than profiles without images.

Your profile image needs to be set to a resolution of 400×400 pixels and your header photo to a resolution of 1500×500 pixels.

You’ll also need to write a compelling bio describing your brand. Twitter only allows you to write a bio that’s 160 characters long, so make sure it’s concise and straight to the point.

Streamline your social media work processes by maximizing the features of Meta Business Suite

Meta Business Suite is the native tool that you will find within all business Facebook accounts. Business Suite lets you create, track, and manage posts across different Facebook pages and Instagram accounts.

While other applications let you do similar things, there are many benefits to using Meta Business Suite instead.

One key benefit of Meta Business Suite is the ability to conveniently manage several Facebook and Instagram accounts—all on one dashboard.

Meta Business Suite also lets you pre-schedule content without using a third-party application like Hootsuite or Buffer.

And unlike those applications, Meta Business Suite is completely free to use.

All you need to access it and use all its features is to have the role of administrator of the Facebook page(s) you wish to manage.

The second option is to point your browser to https://business.facebook.com/

The video below will walk you through how to make the most of Meta Business Suite.

Meta Business Suite is also where you will create and run ads. For more information about Facebook and Instagram ads, make sure to refer back to our Paid Ads Unit.

The best way to build a community on Facebook is to talk with your audience on a consistent basis. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to respond to all reviews on your business’ page.

Many Facebook page owners spend hours posting content, while neglecting other important aspects such as responding to comments.

Replying to people who comment on your Page updates can help fans feel appreciated, and increase their loyalty and the likelihood that they’ll follow your calls to action.

If a user asks you a question, respond to it. If you receive a compliment on your post, thank the user and create an exceptional customer experience. 

If you receive a negative comment, ask how you can improve the overall experience.

No matter what your user says, you should always make an effort to engage with them. 

Failing to reciprocate can potentially backfire or cause you to lose fans.

Here’s an example of a reply from a business. The response acknowledges the user’s positive remark, which in turn helps create a positive user experience.

Although you should respond to all comments within 24 hours, there are some rare cases where you may be better off not responding at all.

For example, if an irate person repeatedly posts negative comments to your page claiming that they’re not satisfied with what you offer, you may be better off doing nothing.

If someone leaves a negative comment about something that never actually took place or is based on incorrect facts, make an effort to correct them.

You should always be polite because people don’t often realize they’ve made an error and because your response is public. If you don’t respond or do so impolitely this misconception could spread and escalate.

If, however, you make a mistake and think you can put a positive spin on a bad experience or convince the customer to give you another chance, you should provide a response to correct the issue.

Here’s an example of how you can turn a negative comment into a positive experience.

A negative comment or review can have a devastating effect on a company’s online reputation, so make sure you act fast when you notice a negative comment from a user. Often in these situations, it’s better to take a passive role rather than getting emotional.

Instead of responding with a negative response, you can have someone else who is less emotional about the situation respond or wait until your emotions calm before replying.

As a social media marketer, automating content publication process will free up your time to work on other tasks. This lesson walks you through several tools you can consider for this task.

Posting your Facebook posts at the right time is just as important as finding the right content to share with your fans. 

Hootsuite is a popular tool that allows you to schedule your posts ahead of time and share your content across multiple social media accounts simultaneously.

With Hootsuite, you can ensure that your content reaches your audience when they’re most active.

It not only lets you manage multiple social media accounts in one place, but it also makes it easy to find and schedule compelling social content for your audience.

The video below shows you exactly how to create an account with Hootsuite.

Once you’ve logged in and gone through the basic setup process, paste the link you want to share in the compose message box and click on the calendar icon to open up the scheduling options.

You’ll need to Toggle the AutoSchedule option on under the scheduling options, and click on the AutoSchedule button so that Hootsuite can automatically find the best time to publish your post.

You can then check the time your post is scheduled by clicking on the Publisher option on the left panel of your Hootsuite dashboard.

The video below provides a few useful tips for scheduling Facebook posts with Hootsuite.

Another popularly used tool that you can check out is called Buffer. The two are very similar, and it often goes down to individual preferences.

While we are only covering Hootsuite in the Facebook course, keep in mind that you should use it for all your social accounts.

You don’t have to be a great writer to write captions for your Facebook posts. This lesson shares a few tips and strategies you can use to make your captions stand out.

Facebook captions give your fans a convenient means to understand and appreciate the content of your posts. 

They appear right above the preview image of your Facebook post and are usually the first thing people see before they decide to click on your post. 

They’re especially useful for providing a narrative and a call to action to your content. 

Furthermore, studies have shown that posts with compelling captions receive more likes, shares, and comments than non-captioned posts.

In this lesson, we’ll share a few tips you can use to write better captions.

Firstly, your captions should be between 50 – 100 characters long and use enticing language to get people to click on your link.

You should always use compelling yet concise language and avoid “click-bait” phrasing.

Click bait refers to using vague or misleading language such as “You’ll never believe the five things this guy said…” to generate clicks, without fulfilling the promise made by the statement.

Another way to increase engagement is to add a question in your caption that’s relevant to your product, your audience’s profession or their lifestyle. For example “Blue/black or white/gold?”

You can also write a fill-in-the-blank statement asking for a specific response (such as, “The one thing I can’t live without at work is ________.”)

Asking for a funny (or relevant) caption is also an excellent way to get user engagement when posting a photo (or video).

You can also append Hashtags such as (#captionthis #photocaption) to boost the performance of the posts.

When posting a photo, you should also consider writing a caption that asks the audience to decide which is the agreeable option.

For example, “If your coworker misses a deadline that affects your delivery, would you rather: A) pick up the slack B) call him out on it C) tell your mom.”

You’re allowed to ask people to share something, but you should never require them to post on someone else’s Wall or Timeline.

Sharing videos on your Facebook page will help you increase user engagement and the reach of your posts. In this lesson, you’ll learn more about video content for Facebook.

Videos are a great way for increasing your Facebook page engagement and boosting the number of repeat visitors to your profile.

Statistics show that posts with video generate 700% more shares than posts without video. 

To search for videos on Facebook, you’ll need to login to your account and enter your search term in the search bar.

For example: “cats”

On the results page, you’ll see an option that says “Videos.” Clicking on it will show you all the videos related to your search term.

When you see a video you like, you can copy-paste the hyperlink, you can bookmark it to share it later, and you can share it to a page.

Your video’s link should look like this: https://www.facebook.com/brightside/videos/883534588441952/

You should share videos to your Facebook page only if they contain something interesting and unique.

For example, if your niche is cooking, you can share “How to” recipe videos that present each recipe in a way that’s different from all other recipe videos on Facebook.

Facebook won’t count a video view until the video has played for at least 2 seconds, which means that you must hook your viewers with something amazing within the first 2 seconds.

If you capture your viewers’ attention within this time period, they will stick around to watch the rest of the video.

Digital Marketing experts estimate that most Americans are exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements each day.

Yes, this figure is crazy high. Please don’t start counting all the advertisements you see in a day unless you want to get a big headache!

Just make sure that you keep your videos short.

Videos between 1-2 minutes long tend to perform better than longer videos.

In addition to length, you also need to ensure that your video’s structure is optimized for different viewing settings.

Most people view Facebook from their mobile devices, so make sure that your content looks good across multiple platforms.

Video editing software such as Final Cut Pro typically set the video format defaults to a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

However, the problem with this format is that the viewer has to turn their phones sideways to watch the video.

You can easily fix this issue by setting your video’s resolution to 1080 x 1080 pixels instead.

Another thing you should consider when sharing a video is sound.

Most people watch Facebook videos without actually clicking on them. This means the sound doesn’t start to play.

If you have a video that requires sound, you can create a subtitled version of the video to make it accessible to people who prefer to watch without sound.

Before spending a ton of time creating content, it helps to have a good sense of what types of content are going to produce results and which aren’t. Learn more in this lesson.

Contrary to popular belief, Facebook doesn’t show all your posts to your audience. Instead, it uses its newsfeed algorithm to sift through thousands of potential posts every day and only shows the posts that your audience will likely be interested in.

On average, a brand page post is typically only served to 3-5% of its audience. However this percentage can increase if a particular post generates plenty of engagement.

This means that if you have 200 fans on Facebook, only about 10 of those fans will see your updates. 

A good way to determine what to share is by looking at the comments on your posts regularly and listening to feedback from your users.

For example, if you’re a golfing brand and you see several comments asking “How do I become better at golf?” it could suggest that your audience consists of beginners that would benefit from posts about golfing tips.

By looking at Facebook comments, you’ll be able to identify the pain points and interests of your audience to understand which types of content appeals to them.

If you don’t have comments on your posts, you can use a tool called Alltop to find trending content to share on your Facebook page.

Other tools to consider would be SocialMention or Twitter Search.

Alltop is a content aggregator where you can discover the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic.

For example, if your business’ niche is healthy food, you can search for all trending topics related to the niche by going to Alltop and clicking on Topics in the main menu.

After clicking on the Topics option, all you have to do is select the Health option and choose the subtopic that best describes your niche.

Just make sure you avoid sharing posts that endorse products or services by competitors, as this could have an adverse effect on your brand.

You should also check the credibility of each source you use to reduce the likelihood of posting content with false information.

Some examples of reputable sources include Forbes, TechCrunch, Inc, and Mashable.

Content pillars are the types of content you need to create for your social media channels. Let’s learn about what they are and how they work.

So now that you have your business page set up, it’s time to start posting! But what exactly should you be posting? That’s what we’ll be talking about in this lesson.

As a social media marketer, your goal is to grow your audience and generate revenue for your business.

To do that, you need to move your audience through the sales funnel.

The sales funnel are the stages that your customers go through to move from awareness to sales and finally retention.

In order to do that, you need to publish different types of content.

In general there are five different content pillars that you should focus on.

The first is educational content. Educational content helps your audience understand your services or your industry. 

Demonstrating your knowledge is a great way for your brand to be seen as trustworthy. A good example is a “how-to” video.

The second type of content you need to create is entertaining content. Keeping your audience entertained will keep them engaged and coming back for more. A great example would be a meme or a funny dance video.

The third type of content is aspirational content. Aspirational content gives your audience something to aspire to. Content in this category can include things like before-and-after photos, or a time-lapse video of a home renovation.

The fourth type of content is promotional content. This content includes posts about your lead magnets, an upcoming event, or products that you are selling.

The fifth type of content is connection content. This is arguably the most important type of content that you can publish. Connection content humanizes your brand and helps your audience get to know you better.

As the expression goes- customers don’t buy from companies they buy from people. Helping your audience get to know you and your team as people forms that connection and makes you memorable.

Good examples of connection content include staff spotlights, a video message from your CEO, or a live video.

When you start focusing on these 5 content pillars, you will be well on your way to growing an online audience of engaged followers!