Fix this mistake and see your engagement, views and click-through rates increase dramatically.

I don’t care which platform you’re on. Social media has changed dramatically since it first took off. Back in the day, you could post something that looked and felt like an ad with a link to your website and expect folks who were interested to go back to the website and learn more. That’s not the case in 2024.

With the mass amounts of media created every second through social media, the shortening of attention spans, the app-ification of the internet, and brands competing with people’s friends and family for attention online, you can’t expect people to go back to your website for more information.

Every social media post you create needs to contain ALL the information needed for people to follow through. (I really want you to read this and to know it … so it’s getting its own line.)

The desired CTA should no longer be “visit our website to learn more.” You need to give every single detail about your product, your hours, your event … everything so that people don’t need to leave the app to find out the important stuff, because believe me, they won’t.

Let’s take a look with some examples.

Here, one of our favorite clothing brands gets it very, very wrong.

The caption isn’t helpful. It doesn’t say what the name of the top is, nor the jeans. It doesn’t say what size the model is so that people have an idea of what size they may need to purchase. It doesn’t talk about the discount of the sale mentioned, nor locations, hours, or pricing. It’s lame and out of touch. The response says it all. Express has 1.4 million followers. That post only had 424 likes within a day and all the comments were unanswered complaints from customers. In fact, go check out their Instagram, most of their posts get 600 or fewer likes and they hardly respond to comments. Maybe they don’t need to rely on social media … but on the other hand, haven’t there been reports of Express going out of business and many locations shutting down? Hmmm.

Let’s take a look at a brand doing it right.

This is a collab post between an influencer: We.Wander.West and Mad Dogs & Englishmen bike shop. We.Wander.West has just 15.9k followers. Mad Dogs has 51.3k. Neither comes close to the 1.4 million that Express has but just look at those engagement numbers! It has over 14k likes and great comments. The comments reflect the usefulness of the post. The caption is long, but it has EVERYTHING someone would want to know. It discusses how other people can benefit and experience what is portrayed in the reel. Both Mad Dogs and We.Wander respond to the comments with helpful information. It’s all a conversation!

So, for your next post, keep three things in mind. Put all the necessary information in your caption, make your CTA to leave a comment (not to visit your website), and actively engage with people in comments and DMs after the post is live.

Remember, not only will the app devalue your post and show it to fewer people if you have a link to a website contained within it, but your users don’t really want to leave the app either. They want to scroll, save your post or screenshot it, possibly leave you a comment, and reference that post again. No one is surfing the web.

Let’s talk DMs

The other bane of social media managers is the direct message (DM). I’m telling you now, you need to fall in love with direct messages. You want them. I know they are a pain. I know that it’s tempting to set up automatic replies, but the less human you are with your social media DMs, the less satisfied your customers and potential customers will be not only with your social media management but with your company itself.

But how do you manage DMs effectively? Most marketing managers are responsible for social media, website content development and updates, direct mail, newsletters, one-pagers, events … the list is almost endless.

Here’s the solution: Be brave. Be smart. Give your customer service/sales reps access to your social media accounts. Train them on responding to DMs and comments. Share the burden, share the opportunity. If you aren’t comfortable doing so, ask yourself: why do I trust that employee to talk to customers via email, in person, or over the phone? If you don’t trust them to answer DMs, then you probably shouldn’t have them as an employee.

One thing many businesses are still getting wrong is that they don’t actively engage in social conversation. Successful social media and online marketing is not just about posting new, interesting content regularly, it’s also about engaging with your potential customers and current customers in real time, where they are ( … which is on social).

I’ve talked about how your customer service reps should be your first audience as a marketer.  They should also have access to log into your social media accounts and help engage directly with others through answering comments, direct messages (DMs), and by commenting on other people’s social media posts.

You want to know why some brands go mega viral on social media? It’s because they engage in conversation that builds actual relationships with people directly on that app. Users support that behavior and so do the algorithms.

Make social media social and you’ll find success with increased engagement, higher reach, and better click-through rates (CTR).

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please give it a like or leave me a comment. I am always curious about what people are thinking about, so feel free to ask me questions and strike up a conversation with me!