The most recent data shows that around 70% of active internet users, or 2 billion people, are currently using at least one social media platform. That’s a huge amount of potential customers out there waiting to be reached by your company. Inbound marketing can help you reach them, but there are some rules to follow if you want to be as successful as possible.
Keep Tweets Shorter Than 140 Characters
Twitter already limits your tweets to 140 characters, but that’s only the beginning. If you’re including a link or a picture, which you should be pretty often, that takes characters away and leaves you with only 116. But some reports show that the best performing tweets are actually shorter than that. The ideal tweet length is 100 characters without a link; 120 characters with a link.
Again, it’s not necessarily the best practice to push your post to the character limit. While Instagram allows you 2,200 characters per caption, most people don’t want to read that much on their mobile phone. Instagram cuts off in users' feeds after three lines of text, so try to keep your caption within that limit so they can get the full message without clicking to read more.
Facebook Videos Shouldn’t Be Over a Minute Long
Video marketing is huge right now, and getting even bigger. Ryan wrote a fantastic blog breaking down how exactly it can be used, which you can read here. It can be incorporated several places, and Facebook is a great place to start out. Just make sure you aren’t posting videos that are too long for users on that platform. The ideal video length is between 30 and 45 seconds, but definitely not longer than a full minute.
Use One or Two Hashtags Per Tweet
Years ago, the rule of thumb was three hashtags, so this is an example of changing user preference. People are experiencing “hashtag fatigue” and don’t want to see posts oversaturated with them anymore. Keep each hashtag at 11 characters or less, with only one or two in each tweet.
All statistics come from Hubspot’s Detailed Guide to Character Count.
Through all stages of the inbound methodology, social media can be used to move potential clients from one stage to the next, and keep buyers returning to your brand. For more help on crafting your social media posts to their fullest potential, download our free eBook Mastering Social Media for Business.