Do you have a guaranteed formula for brand engagement and conversions on your social media channels? Most people and businesses will answer no, and that’s ok.

To make your life a little easier as a social marketer, try one (or all) of these hacks to change up your social media strategy:

1) Share videos to increase impressions

There’s a reason you’re seeing more and more video content on social media. People are more likely to watch and engage with video than any other content and Facebook users now watch over 100 million hours of video content every single day.

2) Tag contributors or people you’ve quoted

Are you sharing a blog by a guest author or Tweeting a quote by an influential personality from your industry? Tag them. They may retweet or share the post and it will boost impressions.

3) Write emotional headlines to increase CTR

Having a good headline can be the deciding factor for people clicking on a link or CTA. Posts with a higher emotional value (that tap into people's emotions) get more shares.

4) Share user-generated content

On average, businesses see a 26% increase in twitter engagement and a 6% increase in Facebook engagement after sharing user-generated content.

5) Choose the right hashtags

Using hashtags on Twitter can double your rates of engagement. And using the right ones (relevant to your content) on Pinterest and Instagram can help more people find your content.

Besides these three social platforms and Facebook, hashtags don’t seem to make much difference, so focus on the ones that count.

6) Use memes of GIFs to increase shares

Tweets with animated GIFs get 167% more click-throughs than tweets with images. While memes bring humour to your newsfeed, and nearly half of social media users share entertaining content.

7) Recycle evergreen content

It’s ok to share the same content more than once. If it’s performed well in the past, or it’s an outstanding and timeless blog article, then try sharing it again on different platforms and with fresh creative.

8) Get your posting frequency right for organic growth

Getting your posting frequency right for different social platform can be difficult. Use the guide below to shape your posting schedule.

9) Host social contests

Everyone loves a giveaway. Social competitions are a great way to boost shares and reach a new audience. 35% of Facebook fans like a page so they can participate in contests.

10) Focus on a single call to action

Don’t confuse your social message. If you want your followers to take action, keep it simple. Shorter posts get 23% more interaction.

11) Engage through current events/social issues

Riding the wave of viral current affairs in your social marketing can help boost impressions. Consumers relate more with companies that take a stance on important social issues, just make sure it’s in keeping with your brand voice and not too controversial.

12) Use emoticons

No only do social posts with emoticons get 33% more comments, they also get shared 33% more often. Even better: they get liked 57% more often than posts without emoticons.

13) Find and connect with new followers

Sometimes the best way to grow your follower base is with some manual research. Look at your competitors social accounts and see who is following them. Discover people that will value your business by searching hashtags or keywords relevant to industry questions and offer a solution.

14) Respond quickly to comments and messages

If you don’t respond to comments or queries quickly, people will think you’re not very active on your own social media pages - or you simply don’t care.

15) Conduct Twitter polls and surveys

Twitter polls are a quick and easy way for people to engage with you and show that you care about their opinions, which in turn helps to build trust and brand loyalty.

16) Promote your best content

Trying to grow your following and engagement organically can sometimes hit a wall, so don’t be afraid to spend a bit of money to promote your best content. What is already doing well, but you think could reach more people? Boost it, even with a modest budget, and track the results.

17) Share infographics on Pinterest

Infographics are the most shared content on Pinterest, by a lot. The 2:3 aspect ratio for images - and specifically 735 pixels wide x 1,102 pixels tall - are the most shareable size, the most popular format for infographics.