The Ultimate Social Media Cheat Sheet to Improve Your Social Media Strategy in 2024
Quite possibly, right before you ended up on this page, you were scrolling Facebook, LinkedIn, or checking your Instagram notifications and wondering. This is the power of social media and it has slowly become an integral part of our day-to-day lives. Having a social media cheat sheet handy can help you quickly check the image sizes and number of characters allowed on various social media platforms.
Through this blog, we aim to create the one-stop source of information for all your social media queries, or a social media cheat sheet if you will, when creating content – ideal image size, video ratio, which hashtags to use, what should the word count be, and so on.
Why this is a vital read is that before you start working on your content, you need to know how to mold it and present it on the different platforms to maximize its effectiveness. We’ll take you through the parameters that need to be kept in mind when making content for each social media platform.
Why is Social Media So Effective?
The two primary factors that make social media so good for engaging with your target audience are the ease of access as well as the content.
By this, we mean that firstly, you get to connect with your audience and they could be settled anywhere in the world. Since it provides such a direct means of communication, it becomes easier to create brand awareness, promote products, and generate more sales.
Secondly, the fact that the content published on these platforms is so easy to consume and even fun at times, is what makes it so good at increasing engagement. Storytelling has reached a whole new level with the advent of social media platforms.
Specifics
Certain parameters that need to be kept in mind when creating content for Facebook:
| Username | 50 characters max |
| Page Description | 155 characters max |
| Posts | 63,206 characters max |
| Comments | 8,000 characters max |
| Video size | Up to 10 GB |
| Duration | 240 mins max |
| Format | MP4 is recommended, but any format can be used |
| Image Upload Size | 30 MB max |
Hashtags
On Facebook, you can incorporate hashtags anywhere in the written part of your post or even in the comments. They come in handy when segmenting Facebook groups by a specific theme or topic.
The ideal number of hashtags that should be used here are 1-2.
Specifics
| Status | 700 characters max |
| Articles | 120,000 characters max |
| Group Discussions | 2,000 characters max |
| Caption | 220 characters max |
| Bio | 150 characters max |
| Username | 30 characters max |
| Image Size | 30 MB max |
| Image Aspect Ratio | 1:91:1 to 16:9 |
| Video Upload | 4 GB max |
| Video Duration | 60 seconds max |
Hashtags
When it comes to LinkedIn, you can include hashtags anywhere in not just the written parts of your LinkedIn update but incorporate them in any LinkedIn article that you might have written. Further, since it is a professional platform, keep the hashtags
The ideal number of hashtags that should be used here are 1-2.
Specifics
| Caption | 2,20 characters max |
| Bio | 150 characters max |
| Username | 30 characters max |
| Image Size | 30 MB max |
| Image Aspect Ratio | 1:91:1 to 16:9 |
| Video Upload | 4 GB max |
| Video Duration | 60 seconds max |
Hashtags
For Instagram, you need to write hashtags after you have written the caption. Hashtags can also be used in the comments to increase engagement with your followers and even be included in the bio of your Instagram profile.
The ideal number of hashtags that should be used here are 5-10.
Specifics
| Tweets | 280 characters max |
| Direct Messages | 10,000 characters max |
| Image Upload Size | 5 MB max |
| Resolution | 1500 x 500 pixels |
Hashtags
Anywhere in your tweets, hashtags can be incorporated to emphasize your point, provided towards the end for content, and even in the middle to highlight certain keywords. They can even be added in the comments when you retweet, reply, and even in the bio.
The ideal number of hashtags that should be used here are 1-2.
YouTube
Specifics
| Video Title | 100 characters max |
| Description | 5,000 characters max |
| Video length | Up to 12 hours |
Hashtags
You can include them in your video’s title along with the description. That hyperlinked hashtag can be then clicked on to get more videos that are using the same hashtag.
However, do keep in mind not to overdo it and use more than 15 hashtags. YouTube might even flag your content for spam-like behavior.
The ideal number of hashtags that should be used here are 2-3.
Some other useful specifics to keep in mind when building your social media strategy are:
- When writing headlines, the ideal length is 6-10 words.
- Blog posts work best when they are 1600 words long (can be read in 7 minutes).
- The length of an email subject line should be around 28-39 characters.
- An ideal presentation should last 18 minutes.
- A domain name should consist of 8 characters ideally.
- Title tags should optimally contain 55 characters.
How to Find the Right Hashtags?
Finding the right hashtags for social media is an important task. You need to put a little time and effort into the research because it can really help in improving your visibility. Some steps you can follow to get them are:
1. See what social media influencers and your competitors are using
You can start off by conducting a competitive analysis and get information about your competitors and social media influencers that are relevant to your niche.
Go through their social media profiles to see which hashtags and keywords they are using and how they’re using them for engagement purposes.
2. Use hashtags that are trending
With the help of RiteTag, you can upload your social media caption along with the image you’re planning to accompany it and it will generate the relevant hashtags.
The platform also generates a listing of trending hashtags based on the content you have loaded and then you can choose the best ones.
3. Start using a social media listening tool
With the help of tools such as Hootsuite, you can make use of search streams that will help you in unearthing new hashtags that are the best for the different social networks.
4. Research for related keywords
Once you have a good understanding of the type of hashtags that work well for you, move on to finding related hashtags. These can be a bit more specific than the popular and common ones that you’ve been using.
They will help you in connecting better with your audience. You can find related hashtags in the Explore section of Instagram, right above the “Top” and “Recent” tabs.
5. Analyze your existing hashtags
You need to keep a check on your existing posts and determine which hashtags are working well for them. Check the posts that have been the most popular and see if there’s some trend you can figure out.
Once you’re able to do that, you’ll notice that certain hashtags are repeated and therefore, you can keep using those to get good results.
Tips for Creating Quality Content
While there is no fixed formula for creating ‘viral’ social media content, there are a few tips that you can follow to build quality content:
Smart Formatting
We all know how much content is published each day on social media. People are browsing through so much on a daily basis that you need to make sure that it is optimized in a way that makes it easier for people to go through.
This is where structured or smart formatting plays a part. You can’t just give them a whole lot of text and nothing else. Format your content in a way that makes it easier to read using things such as numbered lists, bullet points, and subheadings, and so on.
Informative Content
Through your content, your aim should be to enrich your readers. And when we say informative, we don’t mean that you should just put out content. Put it across in a way that will add value to the lives of your readers.
Create content that will help your users in solving problems, something they can actually benefit from. This will not just help in building brand loyalty but also ensure that they come back to you for more such content.
Use Infographics
Visuals really help in amping up any content since they are not just more aesthetic but more comprehensible as well. Since infographics are majorly made up of images, they become easier for people to share on social media.
With the help of platforms such as Canva, you can easily create infographics to elevate your content and you won’t even need to take the help of a graphic designer to make them. Just remember that at the end of the day, your readers should take away something valuable from your content.
Trigger Emotions
Do you know what never goes out of fashion and is evergreen? Our emotions. Endless marketing campaigns have been able to successfully channel these to create content that has gone viral and helped them in achieving their goals.
There are several studies that back this claim that emotions such as happiness, sorrow, grief, and so on, are immensely powerful and have a great ability to engage people since they can connect with the content. So do your research and study the different campaigns to learn how to use these emotions.
Keep in Mind the Old Times
Nostalgia is another strong sentiment and has powerful engaging potential. Whenever it comes to things that trigger old memories or ‘good old simpler days’, people all over the globe enjoy them a lot.
But in order to employ this in your strategy, you need to research your target audience and come up with content that will hit the mark. You need to dig up something that will really appeal to them, and was also very popular back in the day so that most of them can relate to it and understand where you’re coming from.
Something as common but as striking as that green and blue landscape wallpaper of Microsoft. The image forms itself in your mind, doesn’t it?
Make Optimal Use of Trendy Topics
Staying relevant, when it comes to social media, is key. Every marketer needs to be aware and equipped to incorporate the trending topics in their content to ensure that it reaches the audience. Keep a check on the industry news, and use them if relevant, to create content.
Now while creating content around trending topics is important, you can’t just keep doing that day in and day out. Because if you do this, what sets you apart from the others? You need to keep experimenting as well so that you can create something unique to you. So keep hustling and creating.
Keep it Light
This is social media. People could be running late in the morning or scrolling while lying in their beds late at night, doing everything in between, and going through your content. You need to keep it light and funny so that it makes their day a bit breezier.
Don’t take social media too seriously or try to sound too formal all the time. This is what this space is all about – a place for airing of voices with abandon. So just work on harnessing your creativity and building content that matters.
Include Videos
One of the most dominant forms of content online is videos. Reels, YouTube videos, and so on, are just a few examples of how much video content we consume in a day. Such is the power of videos that they have made YouTube the world’s second-largest search engine.
So to create holistic content that is covering all formats and putting out diverse content, you need to include videos in your content strategy. Work on good video content that is easy on the eyes and racks up your appeal.
Final Thoughts
This social media cheat sheet is for all those who are often confused about the many, many things that need to be kept in mind while creating content for social media. Do give it a proper read-through and save it for future reference. Happy creating!
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