Women’s Health, which publishes 28 editions in 51 countries,  is a part of Rodale’s International Conference every April, hosting Women’s Health and Men’s Health editors-in-chief and CEOs across the globe. To help these leaders take their social media practices to the next level, we put together a guide of the essential tips and tools all brands should know. 

Whether you’re hoping to grow brand engagement and interest, or want to drive more traffic back to your site, here are 7 must-know social media tips and techniques to help you along the way.

1. Each social media platform plays a different role in your overall brand strategy.

For instance, Facebook is a great traffic-driver; Instagram is enormous for brand building; and Google+ is essential for SEO.

Facebook

2. Different types of Facebook posts benefit your brand in different ways.

Not all “engagement” metrics are necessarily the ones that matter to you. The old rule you hear again and again is that Facebook posts with pictures in them perform the best and have the highest engagement. But what if your goal is to drive traffic?

Images: Great for engagement, terrible for traffic.

Link Posts: Great for traffic, not (always) as great for engagement.

Status Updates: Use them to solicit feedback from your readers.

3. If you’re promoting a story about a famous person, tag her in the post—her followers may see it in their newsfeeds.

Certainly can’t hurt, right?

4. When it comes to viral content, Feelings + Excitement = More Likely to Share.

Positive emotions are better than negative, and worked up is better than bummed or mellowed out. Ask yourself:  Would I share this? 

Twitter

5. Keep it short. Tweets with 81 characters or less get the most clicks, on average.

This is based on an analysis of our own tweets from August 2013.

6. The best tweets are intriguing, yet unsatisfying. They compel the reader to click.

Don’t give it all away in the tweet. Give the readers a reason to click through. 

7. Retweet people who are linking to your content.

They’ll appreciate the attention, and your followers will notice the new faces in their timelines more than the old—meaning they’ll be less likely to tune out your headlines, and more likely to click through. When we started retweeting the readers who were sharing our content, our traffic from Twitter increased 31 percent month over month.  

Carolyn Kylstra is site director for Women’s Health, overseeing the website, social media, and video for the brand.