Friends, the algorithms are always changing. But as sure as the sun rises tomorrow, the algorithms always prioritize and promote posts that are structured a certain way. I’ll tell you what’s working in Spring 2024 – no guarantees this will last forever.

The other guarantee: This won’t make you viral. But it will work to get engagement and engagement is where you build your brand.

Good, solid, business-based social posts have 3 things:

Pictures

These days the platforms value pictures posted as (1) videos or (2) a swipe-able carousel of several static images.

A point

Add text please! This isn’t like the olden days of Instagram where you literally just post a photo.

A call to action

Ask your followers to do something. If you’re being business-savvy, you’ll use this as an opportunity to get them to use your services in some way.

Let’s look at a few examples of successful static posts!

Nina’s Social Media Post

Check out this LinkedIn post from my friend Nina Sabarre. She runs Intention 2 Impact.

Nina’s post includes a swipeable set of images, including this cover image, that capture her 5 hot takes from a recent conference.

Each hot take is, of course, the point of the post.

And her call to action is to invite engagement by asking followers to reply with their memorable moments from the conference.

Nina also made the smart move of tagging several others to bring this post to their attention. 5 reposts – that’s pretty good. 47 likes – cool! This is a really solid post.

Nicole’s Social Media Post

Here’s another example, this time an Instagram post from a former mentee, Nicole Rankins.

Instagram can be so image-forward that people sometimes don’t even read the accompanying text. So Nicole’s image includes a note to see more in the captions.

The first line of her caption – which is all most will see until they tap See More – is a nice hook that makes you want to keep reading. Her caption is full of points. Real insights and help.

Her caption is so long you can’t even see the call to action in this one screenshot. It is:

“And if you’re looking for questions to help you decide if you’re with the right doctor, check out my FREE class on how to make your birth plan. Head to my profile to grab it now!”

She’s giving her followers next steps to take that get even more practical useful advice from her. 94 likes – awesome! When the call to action guides followers out of the post, you can bet the like count is inaccurate because rather than tapping the heart, people are tapping into Nicole’s bio and taking the action.

You can sub out the graphics for a video, too. Just you talking to the camera. It takes less time in Canva and a wee bit more courage. Even if you have video, you’d still want a caption with a point and a call to action.

This info changes day-to-day but at the time I’m writing this post (early Spring 2024) the data is saying that the best engagement comes from captions that are 30 words or less.

If you’re worried how your new social media posts will be received, send me the link to your post and I promise, I’ll drop a comment and a heart.