Posting with purpose: Here are five quick social media wins that really work

The number one question you’re faced with as a social media marketer is “How can I go viral?”. This might seem like the ultimate goal, but lasting social media marketing success isn’t defined by one magic formula. Real results come from a carefully crafted strategy that considers your brand voice, understands your audience and aligns with your wider marketing goals.

While there isn’t a guaranteed path for going viral online, there are proven tips and tricks that can help to strengthen your content, drive engagement and help you get more from your existing social media strategy.

Here are five social media marketing tactics that work best.

Before anything else, consider the ‘so what?’ of each post you share. Your message and objective will help to influence which posting format is best. For example, carousel posts on Instagram are most effective when you’re looking to educate your audience as users are more likely to spend time scrolling through to discover new information.

Video posts are best if you’re trying to capture attention or entertain your audience. In recent years, TikTok has extended the maximum video length to support longer content, however the algorithm still rewards posts based on watch time and completion rate. So what does this mean for your video content? High-performing TikToks with the highest engagement often occurs with videos between 21 and 34 seconds, so consider keeping your videos short and sweet for maximum impact.

Think you can ignore SEO because you're posting on social media? Think again. As large language models (LLMs) continue to influence how people search online, search engines are increasingly referencing social media content. This gives your brand the opportunity to appear where your audience is already searching.

One simple SEO tactic to improve discoverability on TikTok and Instagram is to add relevant keywords as on-screen text during the video editing process, then move the text off-screen before publishing. Although viewers won't see it, the platforms can still recognise the text, helping your content rank for those keywords and increasing its visibility in search results.

You’ve created your post, optimised it with the right keywords and hit publish - now what? Proactive community management is essential for building a loyal and engaged following. Never underestimate the value of being active in the comments section, both on your own posts and on those of others. This type of outbound engagement keeps your brand visible beyond your posting schedule, helps strengthen your brand voice and fosters meaningful connections with your audience.

How many times a day do you instinctively open the Instagram app? The average Instagram users spends up to 33 minutes a day scrolling the platform, so while your audience is spending their time in the right place, are you capturing their attention effectively?

This is where the importance of Stories come into your strategy. Sharing regular Instagram Stories helps to keep your brand at the front of mind, as your profile picture will be one of the first things they see at the top of their feed when they open the app. This consistent visibility provides a simple yet effective way to strengthen brand recall.

The final tip for social media success is to make sure your profiles are fully optimised. Think of your social media channels as your digital shop window as they're often the first impression potential followers have of your business. Work through this checklist:

• Optimise your bio: Include relevant keywords that describe your business, products or services and make it clear what you offer
• Add onward links: Always include a link to your website. If you have multiple destinations to share, use a link-in-bio tool to direct users
• Pin your best content: Instagram, TikTok and Facebook all allow you to pin up to three posts to the top of your profile. Use these to showcase your top performing content, introduce your brand or highlight key products and services
• Update your Story Highlights: Keep your Highlights relevant and well organised. They can act as an extension of your website, housing useful information such as pricing, FAQs, meet the team or customer reviews

See how we put these tips into practice to deliver our most successful social strategy yet for Slick City.

In just one month, we:

• Grew its Instagram following from zero to more than 22,000
• Gained 12,000 new TikTok followers
• Generated 32,800 TikTok likes
• Achieved 1.2 million organic Instagram impressions
• Reached 366,000 people with a single TikTok, while videos regularly surpassed 20,000 views