Advice about what works on social media is mostly about other people’s accounts. Yours may be different. A small, careful experiment is the cheapest way to find out, and it needs no special tools.
How to run one
- 1Ask one question: for example, do posts with a question in the first line get more replies?
- 2Change only that thing. Same time, same kind of picture, same length otherwise.
- 3Do it several times: at least three posts for each version, mixed over several weeks.
- 4Choose the one number that answers the question before you look.
- 5Write down what happened.
Things worth testing
- The first line: a question or a statement.
- A photograph or a graphic.
- A short caption or a long one.
- Morning or evening, on the days when you can do both.
How much a few posts can tell you
On a small account, a single post can do better or worse for reasons that have nothing to do with what you changed. One test proves nothing. Three or four results all pointing the same way are a reason to try it again, not a law. Our article on reading the numbers with two hundred followers explains why.
Let a tool do the alternating
When you post to more than one network, Postgust’s A/B first line option gives each network one of two openings and shows the reach of both afterwards. Two networks are the minimum for it, and the result is a hint, not proof.
Keep a log
A page with the date, what you changed and what happened. After a year it is the most useful document you own about your audience.
Test one thing this month. Choose the question now and write down what you expect, so that you can find out whether you were right.