13 Social Media Tips for Creatives
Corrina Kavanagh
1. Define your audience and who you’re targeting
Who is engaging with you already? Look at your social media insights, website analytics or your mailing list to be clear on who is currently engaging with you.
If you are new to social media and don’t have social media insights yet, look at your website analytics or your mailing list. Do a focus group with some of your audience to gain a better picture of who they are.
2. Understand your current and aspirational audience
Compile data on your audience
- What are their challenges, their pain points?
- What has brought them to your channel?
- What social media channels do your audience use? Prioritise the best/right channels where your audience is e.g., if you want to target Gen Z, Twitter may not be the channel to focus your energy on.
Compile data on your audience, including:
- age group
- gender
- location
- stage of life e.g., teens/parents
- how do they buy from you?
3. Create your buyer persona
This a fake identity based on the work you’ve done to understand your audience.
By keeping your buyer persona in mind, it’ll be easier for you to focus when creating content. E.g., your buyer persona might be… Maeve from Westmeath goes to college in Dublin. She’s 20, loves going out partying with her college friends when she’s not working on college assignments or working in her part-time job in the city centre. She’s LOVES dance music.
4. Check out your competition
- What content works well for them?
- What tone of voice are they using?
- What networks are they active on?
- What hashtags do they use?
5. Define your content pillars to support your brand
Ensure that together your content pillars authentically express who you are and are relevant to your audience. They should enable you to express why you’re unique.
E.g., 1. Skilled Musician 2. Humour 3. Passionate about community
Adhering to these pillars will help you plan content, and it will enable you to effectively position yourself to your target audience.
6. Does your content connect, entertain, or educate?
Always consider, is your content of value to your audience; to your buyer persona?
7. Keep content to the 80/20 rule
80% of your content should service your audience.
20% is strictly about you.
People get tired of promotion related posts; they want something focused on them and their needs.
8. Don’t be overwhelmed by content creation
Think outside the box with what you have available to you. From any one piece of content, you can derive multiple formats. E.g., while releasing new music you could publish…
- behind the scenes music video clips
- how-to tutorials
- TikTok remix videos
- celebration of milestones, i.e., first playlist on radio
Bank content where you can.
9. Carry out a social media audit
Look at every channel you have and make sure it’s all in line with your brand. Archive content that is no longer relevant.
10. Optimise your accounts for search
Clearly name who you are and what you do in your bio. Outline what you’re interested in. Use keywords that resonate with what you do to make you more searchable.
11. Use social media tools
Put together a social media content calendar to help you keep on top of your output. This will help you
- stick to your content pillars
- adhere the 80/20 rule
- speak directly to your target audience
Use scheduling tools for all pre-planned content to take the pressure off. Social media platforms have native tools for scheduling. Meta have great tutorials online + a suite of resources.
12. Be natural and authentic + clear and consistent
This will enable your content to resonate with people.
13. Experiment
Trial and test your content regularly. Experiment with social media advertising if you have budget. Review content performance monthly to find out what’s driving your engagement.
Try applying a trend that may be popular among your target audience. E.g., Storytime on TikTok, i.e., video yourself telling a story… “Let me tell you about this time when…”.