10 Tricks to Stand Out on Social Media

Most arts organisations use social media, but the problem is most of the creative industries are using it because they feel like they have to. In a surprising number of cases it seems to be the: “Everyone else is doing it so maybe we should to” kind of attitude.

I interviewed for a company recently who promote themselves as a marketing organisation for poetry and spoken word performers. To prepare I checked out their social media presence. It is safe to say that it was not particularly inspiring. Take for example their YouTube channel. They had loads of videos up there with a good variety of the performers and some interesting content but one of these videos only had 20 views. 20 views! And that was the best one! When I was at college I made a joke video of my friend dancing in a kitchen… In a day I had 50 views just by sharing it with mates on MSN Messenger! For a company that sells itself on promotion, if anything, this is detrimental to their campaign. If you go on to an advert for a festival or event on YouTube which are you going to attend? The festival that has 10,000 views and positive comments or the one with 20 and no interaction.

Now don’t get me wrong, I commend the effort, but they were posting because they felt they had to, because everyone else was doing it. They clearly had no understanding of why they were doing it and how to get the best from it.

So here are 10 fool proof ways to get you started with successful social media campaigns!

1. Choose the social media that suits your business

Often, when first setting up, businesses feel obliged to set up pages on absolutely every platform there is out there. Not only is this incredibly difficult to maintain but it is entirely unnecessary. Are you a photographer? Then why not think about Instagram to begin with. The focus is on imagery and it comes with built in editing software and analytics. Images are after all what you produce and what you want your audience to see. Do you design knitwear? Think about Pinterest or Ravelry. Ravelry is a social media group specifically designed for lovers of crochet and knitting so it would be easier to find your target audience and like-minded folk. I saw a knitting cabaret show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2018 which could have done really well promoting through Ravelry!  Pinterest focuses on craft and images and has recently introduced a business platform from which you can sell your work. This opens business opportunity and currently has limited competition. Are you a museum or gallery looking to promote your conference centre? Go straight for LinkedIn! This way professionals can find you easily and learn what you have to offer over other providers.

Going straight on to Facebook is never a bad idea and may boost your SEO but be warned. You may think that surely this is where you will find your audience because of the number of users. Everyone’s on Facebook right? Well yes, but so is every business. There is a lot of competition and it can be difficult to get noticed. This and nowadays Facebook's algorithm favours ad content which makes it even more unlikely for you to get impressions.

2. Post relevant content

When you run out of ideas it can be tempting to Instagram that coffee and cake your having for an afternoon snack. But stop right there! Remember your audience! They are following you to learn more your company and your message. They really don’t care about your daily eating habits.

If you’re having content block, then never fear! This is when content curation comes in. Perhaps you’re an art gallery: your exhibition has been up and running for two weeks with two more weeks to go and you don’t want to keep bombarding your audience with more messages regurgitating information they have already read. How about some interviews with the visitors? Get some live responses for how they found the exhibition. Perhaps there are published reviews about your event you can link to. What about other galleries doing similar work to you? Or previous articles written about the artists in question? Think outside the box and link to these sites. If you let them know they might even link to you on their social media in reciprocation and beautiful working relationships can be formed.

Also, don't be afraid to use Chat GPT to create content ideas for you. Not all of them are gonna be golden but you can pick and choose what suits you, just make sure you explain your business to it first!

3. Post content consistently

I cannot stress how incredibly important this is: for your audience, your search engine optimisation (SEO) and your online reputation management (ORM).

Many companies, ever optimistically, begin the social media marathon with a sprint, posting on Facebook all day every day. After a while one of two things can happen, either there’s not enough time in the day or there’s not enough interesting, relevant content to keep generating posts at this pace. If you drop off dramatically this can affect your online presence in multiple ways. If you go on to businesses Facebook page and see that no one has posted any content for 3 weeks when before they were posting once every couple of hours what would you think? At worst, you may query if they even still exist, at best you think if they’re too lackadaisical to maintain their online presence what else are they too lazy to do? Google will also take this information into account. If all of a sudden, a site stops posting new content when it has been posting at full throttle you will be moved down the Search Engine List. It will damage your ability to be found through organic search and your online reputation.

What is important to note is that you don’t have to post this much!

Take for example accomplished arts blog PostSecret: if you have ever been a noughties emo kid, like me you will remember this fondly. Founded in 2005 by Frank Warren and still going strong today. It reached out to the community of America, and then the world, asking them to send in their personal secrets illustrated on a postcard. Not only did Frank Warren tap into one hell of a big community, after all we all have secrets, but since 2005 he posted a fresh blog post every Sunday. Although this has now been taken over by someone else it continues the same pattern. The audience don’t get frustrated when they check it out on a Wednesday there aren’t any new postcards because they know the drill, some checking back every Sunday religiously, but what if this suddenly stopped? The audience would trail off, some would never return. Over time google would recognise the lack of consistency its position in a search engine would also drop off.

So, remain consistent. If you’re a small arts organisation and feel you can only commit an hour a week or even a month to social media then fine. Start at that slow pace. Your audience will recognise the pattern and come back after the next time frame to check again. It is better to start slow and grow your online presence with your business than to start off all guns blazing and drop off abruptly, both for your community, your business and your SEO.

4. Link your social media platforms together

We see everywhere nowadays websites have links to TikTok or X built into their pages. This is important as it draws more followers to our Social Media. Not only does this increase the likelihood of likes and shares from our posts reaching new audience but it can also act as an easier method to keep our audience up to date with what’s new. So simple, so effective! There are a surprising amount of websites that STILL don't do this, and it completely baffles me. It is so easy people! Get on it!

This isn’t it though. You can also link your pages together. For example, on Instagram there are options to share whatever you’re posting on Facebook as well. You can take this to another level by using software like Hootsuite (where you get a 30 day free trial or can run 3 social media platforms for free) you can easily manage all of your business pages from one place. You can schedule to post at specific times, decide which sites to post on and easy engage with audience. The great thing about Hootsuite is that they offer free online courses in both how to best utilise their software and the fundamentals of Social Media Marketing so you can really get to grips with it and eventually become an expert. If you do decide on this option remember not to share all posts on every platform. Your community deserves unique content for their dedication to following you and some posts that are relevant for Facebook, a more casual platform, may not be suitable for LinkedIn, a professional social media. You don’t want people opening up your page in their office and seeing links to your after-show party with the Chippendales

5. Upload Headers, Profile Pictures, Photos, Videos and Logos.

This may seem obvious but there are plenty of people out there who don’t do it! Simply put, it looks inattentive and unprofessional. It discourages likes and follows which will basically lead to no conversions and lower engagement! And nowadays with high powered digital cameras on our mobile phones and tablets and editing software built in both to applications and social media sites it is simple to create quality, professional looking, unique images with limited effort. You don’t even need to be a good photographer. And remember, videos engage people more than pictures and pictures engage people more than text alone.

Branding is always important in marketing so ensuring your logo is easily found on your pages. This constantly reminds your visitors who you are and what you do. It’s a straightforward way to keep your business at the front of the viewers mind at all times and to ooze professionality. Consider using it as a watermark on posts and videos, that way whenever anyone sees your content they see your logo and immediately associate it with you and your brand.

6. Keep Up to Date with new platforms and features

Social Media is being updated all the time. With the pace of technological development almost every day we are confronted with new challenges and with these come new opportunities.

I cannot stress the importance of exploring new features!

Right now, short-form video still dominates (TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts), but new formats are emerging fast:

• AI-powered editing tools (like CapCut, Descript, and Canva AI) are making professional-quality content faster to create.

• LinkedIn native video + newsletters are being boosted in the feed, helping creatives reach professional audiences.

• Instagram broadcast channels and Threads are growing spaces for community-building and behind-the-scenes updates.

• Augmented reality filters and interactive stickers on TikTok and Instagram Stories are being prioritised by algorithms for engagement.

This matters because platforms reward users who adopt new features early — think Facebook Live’s boost when it first launched. The same pattern is happening now with TikTok’s photo carousels and Instagram’s Collab posts, both seeing higher reach.

So be on trend, be modern, be exciting, be now. Let your social media reflect your business.

7. Be Honest and Relatable.

I know that this seems obvious, but it is incredibly important to remember with every story, video or post! The best way to engage your audience is to find a way to relate to them: whether the situation demands finding a way to make your target audience laugh or cry try and discover that sweet spot. Speak to them the way you would like to be spoken to, give them content you would like to see, then sit back and watch your audience grow.

And, of course, always tell them the truth. I could go into detail on this but if I am being honest the perfect example of what not to do already exists: Fyre Festival. If you haven’t already seen it (then, quite frankly, where have you been) the Netflix documentary acts as a checklist for exactly how not to use Social Media. In brief: you can’t just use popular models to promote a bespoke, expensive festival that doesn’t really exist and expect in the world of the social media empire that the truth won’t out.

8. Do your keyword and hashtag research.

Organic Search traffic, believe it or not, is still a key method to get noticed. When promoting a show for the Edinburgh Fringe I would put out a posts using #edfringe or #MakeYourFringe.

Using existing popular hashtags helps you tap into a ready existing supply of your target audience. Additionally, creating your own hashtags for certain campaigns makes it easy for you to track the people who are interacting with you.

You also need to think about your keywords as these will seriously help to improve the SEO of your website. I know what you’re thinking, how can what I put on Social Media help to build the online reputation of my business page. The simple answer is that the google algorithms are very clever and take all accounts that are linked with your website into consideration when your determining your search engine ranking for certain search terms. For example, if you’re running a start up museum in Birmingham you probably want to be ranking for the search term ‘Birmingham Museum’ so start using this in your posts. It takes some time, months and sometimes years, but it really is that simple. Don’t try and abuse the system though. You can’t just post ‘BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM’ over and over again all day every day. As I said, Google is very clever: they will read this as spam and rank you lower!

9. Use Analytics.

I find it remarkable the number of companies who don’t use their built-in analytics. Think about it, if 20 years ago you turned to say a touring theatre company and said: “Publish an advert in our newspaper and in return we will tell you everyone who has seen that advert, gone out of their way to learn more about it and continued on to make a ticket purchase because of it. In addition, we will also be able to provide you with certain demographic information about your audience for no extra charge.” It basically would have been impossible. But think about what it could have done to help your marketing campaigns! If you knew that for example a national paper with touring listings had sold you 10 tickets and local papers with local listings had sold 100 tickets, then wouldn’t you change your strategy into putting more time and money into local papers?

This is the information that social media platforms offer businesses for free! It answers all your questions and loads you didn’t even have so you can know exactly which posts and ads work and which don’t. Questions like:

• What time will my posts get the most views?

• What kind of content works best on my posts?

• How do I maximise post interaction?

• How many people clicked through the link on my post?

There are countless queries but you get the idea. Use analytics to figure out the overall and most constructive use of your time.

10. REMEMBER: It’s all about community!

Fundamentally, this is the reason social networks were set up in the first place. They act as community groups in the digital age: a way for us to keep in touch with one another and businesses online. It is your opportunity to reach your exact target audience and with patience and consistency its possible to build this for free.

With most of the world being on a social media platform of some kind it means you can delve into specific niches really, really easily as there are already so many existing Community Groups out there, especially on Facebook. I have found ‘advertising’ or posting on pre-existing community groups can be very useful whether your targeting people from a specific location or with certain interests or both these groups are often already out there! I once worked for a circus skills company in Birmingham for a while and a lot more traction for their festival was made by posting on groups about: circus skills across the UK and internationally; the Birmingham Arts scene; the Birmingham festivals network; European circus artists. The possibilities are endless! So think about the group you’re looking for and search for it on Facebook! Chances are there is already one you can join and campaign to.

These 10 tips will be enough to get you started on social media! So enjoy! And get moving!

If you have any queries or suggestions for future posts about social then contact us or put it in the comments below and I will endeavour to get back you!

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