SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES

It is undeniable: the power of social media in our world is revolutionary. Yet social media hasn't been in our world for very long, and we are still discovering what strategies work most effectively in virtual reality. Here are three ironclad principles that will help generate traffic for your social media page every time you make a new post:

• The human brain is said to be made up of two hemispheres, the right and the left. The left processes rational, logical information, such as in mathematics, and the right processes emotional information, such as in music and images. If your post doesn't come with a visual, it simply fails to engage the right side of the human brain! And it doesn't matter how great your content is if you can't attract your audience's attention. The visual could be a photograph, a video, a GIF, or other graphically designed work, such as an ad. However, GIFs and videos work better due to the simple fact that moving images are more eye-catching than stationary ones. I can think of only one social media platform - Instagram - where users have no option but to post with visuals. In others, like Facebook and twitter, this doesn't apply. Therefore this is probably the most important principle to abide by. Besides, a clever GIF or a memorable video conveys personality, conveys individuality, and tells your audience exactly what makes you stand apart from the crowd. Social media is a purely visual medium: maximize the influence you can wield over your audience's eyes!
  

• The reason that most people have made the split-second decision to like or follow your page is because they care about, or are at least somehow invested in the topic that your page addresses. When you post material there that is irrelevant to that topic, you leave these people feeling scammed. After all, that's not what they signed up for. And it is not a good idea to alienate your grassroots. You can and will lose followers for this. So every time you post something, double-check to see that it is congruous with your page. This will also help prevent you from posting too much, which is a major cause behind the loss of 'likes' and followers.
  

• Timing is everything. The time you choose to post something has a huge bearing on how many people will view it. Of course there is no universally ideal time to post your content. But you can figure out this time as it applies to your potential viewers in various ways, such as via the insights tab on Facebook. Once you know what the optimal time is, you'll know when to launch your next post.
  

And there you have it: three simple principles on how to not just survive, but thrive on the social media scene. Of course that's not all that there is to it. But these should give you a solid foundation to build on.