TLDR: The right content, at the right time, is gold.

This is a question that gets bounced around social media circles frequently. Timing is an element, but not the entire picture. Instead of thinking solely about the numbers on the clock, frame it this way: How and when can I get the most people to watch my stuff?

This is critical for two reasons. First, if you know when your followers are going to be on, they are more likely to se your posts. Second, even the best content will be buried if it’s not shared at peak traffic hours.

When you post, think of your content as having a “time value.” The time value of a post is 100 percent immediately after posting. Every minute that goes by, that value drops. The longer the post is out there, the less chance a post has to be seen as it gets buried by new information from other contributors.

The closer you are to posting when your viewers are online, the better.

There are plenty of site-specific and demo-specific articles on when to post. For you as a small business owner, local patterns are more useful than any national trend. Consider your goals when posting. Time frames that are great for a company like Nabisco or Macy’s may not sync well with what you need. Don’t forget to factor time zones, too!

Here are some tips to think about when choosing a time.

1. While seeing your post is helpful, interaction with your post is more important. Likes, shares and comments push your content out there more.
2. Aim for the right audience. Ask your customers to follow you. The type of content displayed will attract a certain type of follower. Be relevant.
3. Advertise traditionally on social media. Creating a custom audience and serving them display ads does drive traffic if your social profiles are stagnant. You can use phone or email lists on Facebook to reach out to your current customers and grow your base with customers like them. (See more about custom audiences here.)

4. Use your analytics tools. Most networks have sophisticated systems built in. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and more tell you when your audience is watching and what they are interacting with. Some will even tell you what percentage of your audience is watching in real time!
5. Think of it from your own perspective. Would you stop and look at that? When are you on? If you have employees, have them follow you. And follow yourself! Do you notice your own posts? If not, why?
6. Keep a list of posts and note when they were posted. Track how they performed historically. Find trends. Connect content with time. Play around with those trends. Experiment.
7. People can be easily distracted by major news events so be aware of what is happening in the local and national news. Notice if your followers seem to be distracted and see if the news is something you can talk about as well to stay in the conversation.

Whatever you do, don’t post marketing content during a tragedy! It’s ok to post during a major news event to acknowledge it or show support. To advertise is just tactless, to say the least.

One time, Macy’s posted an ad during a hurricane. The store offered victims a sizeable discount on clothes. Though well-intentioned, the online community ate them for breakfast because it came off as insensitive and exploitative.

Not a good plan. Err on the side of caution. Always.

A client of ours sells home security and did the opposite. The Friday before our major campaign was supposed to launch, the Sandy Hook school shooting occurred. We froze the project for a week, but even then it was too raw. Two weeks later we felt good about finally releasing their marketing.

A homerun ad by Nabisco stole the show at the Superbowl in 2013. The power went out for a few minutes during the game and live broadcast. Owning the Oreo brand in the US, the company’s agency put out a single tweet on Oreo’s account. It had a picture of an Oreo being dunked in a dim light, and said, “You can still dunk in the dark.”

It was one free tweet, but the press loved it and so did the fans. It was discussed nearly as much as the game the next day.

If an event doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit. If your brand isn’t oriented toward Christmas then perhaps a simple holiday greeting would suffice. If it’s not political, staying far away from those events or news stories is wise. As a general rule stay neutral in any kind of dispute.

By paying attention, listening, responding promptly and understanding who your customers are and what they love, you will find the right time to post.

Contests on social media are a great way to establish relationships with customers, improve the image of your brand and boost sales and lead generation. As with anything on social media, there are some best practices to keep in mind, and some pitfalls to avoid. This article will discuss both.

The broad purpose of a contest is to prompt customers to execute a desired action. If contests don’t motivate your followers to do something, you will get little out of it. Examples of useful actions include sharing content on their own sites or posting their own content and giving you information to generate leads.

The following are a few types of contests you can run:

1. User-generated content. The goal of this contest is to get your customers and their friends to create something related to your brand and post it on their personal social media accounts. For example, if you sell t-shirts, ask customers to post a picture of them wearing one of your t-shirts. This will put your product in an image that many of your customers’ friends will see when they scroll through a newsfeed. To keep up the incentive, give them more entries for each image they post. The winning prize can be something small or great. Just remember the better your prize is, the more people will sign up and the more leads and brand exposure you will get. Another example: 7-11 had a contest in the past with the hashtag #WhatsYourSlurpFace? They asked customers to post a picture of themselves drinking a Slurpee, which 7-11 later posted on their website. Not only was this fun for those taking the picture, but it generated plenty of goodwill for the brand.

2. Voting /popularity contests. This contest encourages entrants to encourage their followers to come vote for them. Whoever gets the most votes wins the prize. This kind of campaign generates more participation from the friends of customers and may give you better reach. It’s especially effective in getting new followers and likes for your social media pages. One of our clients had tremendous success running a voting contest. They are a roofing company, and they wanted to find more clients. They offered a free new roof – an $8,000 value – to the entry with the most votes. To be eligible, contestants had to post a photo of their roof and explain why they deserved a new free roof. This campaign drove 3,000 Page likes in five months. It gave the company nearly 30 new leads. Every entrant was given a discount on a new roof, many of whom ended up purchasing one. These were customers who had not heard of the company before. Enough voters and friends of the contestants remarked that the 2^nd place winner needed a new roof badly. The family had little resources and their roof was in bad shape. The followers of the contests started donating money to this family without being asked. The roofing company was touched and decided to give the 2^nd place winner a roof at cost. Three years later, this company is still getting business from people who were moved by their generosity.

Once you have decided to start a contest, be sure to keep these best practices in mind:

1. Define what the prize is carefully. Be specific and clear. Don’t surprise people! Anything considered deceptive or misleading could get you into legal trouble and bring you bad press.
2. Encourage people to share. Have them share your pages, content, website, etc. Social media is all about sharing!
3. Use the hashtags #sponsored or #ad if the content is user-generated. If you have people post on your behalf, without having them disclose they were given an incentive to do so, you can get in trouble with the FTC. See our video on how to avoid trouble with the FTC here.
4. Create written contest rules. It’s painful work, and may involve consulting a lawyer but hosting a contest without them is asking for trouble. Host the rules on a landing page with the contest so people can read them. The rules should outline what is happening, the start and end dates, the odds of winning, who can win, and include a clause that protects you from liability. If you are doing contest in good faith, it will almost always go smoothly. For those few times they don’t, written rules will save your skin.
5. Be purposeful about what you are doing. Without a clear objective, your content and interactions with your customers will come off as fake or contrived. On social media, that can be especially damaging.
6. Use 3^rd party apps to manage the contest if it becomes too much of a headache. Facebook Apps like Shortstack or contest-specific apps like Woobox can free up some of your time and help you get started on the right foot.
7. Think of all of the ways people can “game” your contest. Anticipate challenges in that arena. With voting contests, some people will vote multiple times or even setup computers to vote automatically for them. Use a landing page or an app that mitigates this kind of behavior.
8. Discover what your followers like, follow and talk about. Craft your brand’s story accordingly. The story you have is critical, and a contest that fits it will perform far better than one concocted just for the heck of it.

With these things in mind, you can get started! Don’t forget to ask your contestants and their friends to fill out forms and refer friends. Have customers promote and talk up your product as much as possible. It’s nearly-free advertising – take advantage of that!

If done well, a contest can give your company sales, brand awareness and leads. It’s easy to do once you get the hang of it, and it can be a lot of fun, too! If you find yourself stuck or need any help, feel free to contact us and we can help you get started.