Creating Effective Social Media Posts That Drive Results
Creating social media posts is easy—creating engaging social media posts that actually accomplish something is the real challenge.
What Are You Doing?
This is the question I’ve started asking myself with every post created for our company or our clients. It provides fundamental guidance, and it’s helping us refine our approach to creating effective social media posts that are meaningful and actionable.
I also like to think of a post as a type of Mad Lib.
These Are My Questions:
I want to __________________ with this post?
- Share something interesting
- Share knowledge
- Share a fact
- Share a point of view
- Teach something
- Promote our company or services
I’m writing it for people _____________.
- Who already follow our company on social media
- Who already know of our company
- People looking for information related to the services we provide
- People who may be looking for knowledge we are sharing
- People who are trying to learn about a topic
When a person reads it, I hope they will ________________.
- Be glad they took the time to read it
- Learn something
- Laugh
- Find it interesting enough to share
- Remember it
If the goal is to get someone to complete an action, make it easy for them. Tell them what you’d like them to do:
- Encourage them to respond with a comment
- Give them a link to the intended destination
- Provide relevant details for planning
Platform-Specific Considerations
It’s important to remember the context of the platform when creating effective social media posts:
- Embedded links are always helpful.
- If you want to provide links on Instagram, use LinkTree or Later to offer multiple links instead of just one.
- Each platform should have its own social media marketing strategy—tailoring voice, tone, and purpose is key.
- Know your followers. Can you post the same content across platforms, or does each platform serve a unique purpose in your content plan?
Standalone Value
Most organizations publish multiple pieces of content on a topic, but a single post may be all one person sees. When creating effective social media posts, ask yourself:
- Does this post stand alone and provide enough value?
- Can someone understand the message without needing additional context?
Never assume that your audience will see an entire content series—make each post valuable on its own.
Success in social media isn’t just about posting frequently—it’s about impact. To evaluate whether your social media content strategy is working, start by tracking engagement metrics like likes, shares, comments, and click-through rates. If your goal is brand awareness, monitor reach and impressions. If you’re aiming for conversions, check how many people take action after seeing your post. Use tools like Agorapulse, Google Analytics, or built-in platform insights to analyze performance. Most importantly, stay flexible—if a type of post isn’t resonating, adjust your approach. The key is to experiment, analyze, and refine over time.
Refining Your Strategy with the Right Tools
We use Agora Pulse for social media management, which offers definite advantages. One of the biggest is that it integrates with Grammarly, allowing us to get two sets of eyes on every post. Whether you use Agora Pulse or not, always have someone else review your content before publishing.
These are my rules, and while they don’t have to be yours, it’s always helpful to establish guidelines that align with your organization’s social media marketing strategy.
Need Help?
If you’re a small business or non-profit and need advice, or if you just have questions, let us know. We’ll set up a call or video chat to walk through your questions and offer guidance—free of charge.
No sales, just honest answers. We’re all in this together.