Trying to get more from your social media marketing? Check out these 10 tips to up your social media game!
Choose Your Platform(s) Wisely
It is best to get your content in front of your ideal audience so choose the platforms they are present on. Facebook is always the safest pick, with over 2 billion active users, though you may get more attention with slightly more niche platforms like Twitter, or Instagram. Here are some of the things that help stand out.
- Facebook – Facebook is always a safe bet and is becoming more popular among generation x.
- Twitter – Is your content news-based? Twitter is a great method for integrating your content with trending news to maximize impressions.
- LinkedIn – Professional (primarily B2B) content is ideal for LinkedIn, as you’ll be dealing with industry-related trends and people looking for jobs.
- Instagram – Showcase your brand with visuals to maximize impressions and overall engagement. Instagram is great for establish awareness and getting people involved in your brands messaging, rather than driving high volumes of traffic to your website.
- Pinterest – Niche products and crafts (mainly tailored for women) are exceptionally popular on Pinterest. This is a great platform for driving traffic to a blog or ecommerce site.
- Snapchat – Great for local campaigns and for reaching millennials and generation z.
- Quora – This is a great forum-based platform where questions from various topics can be asked and answered. Answering questions that pertain to your content can be a great way to gain influence and increase your following.
Supply Enough Content
You have to keep your audience interested enough to come back and consume more of your content. Keeping your audience waiting can lead to them losing interest in what you have to say. People are very impatient online (especially on social media) so you have to keep their interests in mind at all times.
Integrating blog posts, videos, infographics, polls, and other pieces of entertainment will not only help keep your audience coming back, but encourage more viewers over time. To ensure any possibility for success, the content has to be there. You have to be in it to win it!
Plan Ahead
Last-minute planning is not the way to execute your social media strategies. You should create a content calendar to help you see your plan visually, while keeping you organized. We already know to produce enough content, but you should also be sure to keep your content balanced and diverse to make sure your audience stays interested.
Manage Your Time
You only have so many hours to plan and execute your social media strategy, so you have to make each one count. Budget your time the same way you would an advertising budget, prioritizing for more important matters. What’s important to someone else’s campaign, might not be as important to your campaign, so take some time to really think about what’s best for your success.
Think from the User’s Perspective
Always think about what your ideal customer would want, or find interesting. For all content you post, consider if and why they would click and what the incentive would be. Becoming too occupied with your own preference can cloud your judgment and cause you to lose sight of your main goals with social media.
Curate News and Ideas
It’s best to add content from influencers in your industry to help diversify your posts, establish your credibility and help your strategy look less self-serving. Posting an array of different types of content (so long as it pertains to your industry) is important for keeping your audience interested and more alert for when they see your posts appearing in their news feeds. Always stick to the 80/20rule – meaning that 80% of your content should pertain to helpful/interesting tips for your audience, while the remaining 20% can work to further your brand.
Advertise!
Relying exclusively on news feeds can lead to overall disappointing results. News feed algorithms are constantly changing, leaving organic marketers with inconsistent results. Experimenting with advertising is a great way to generate leads, extend your reach and boost sales!
Use Public Relations
Public Relations practices are great methods for raising awareness for your cause! Popular sites like HARO connect journalists that need sources with experts, so you can pitch them to get mentioned in the news! This can help drive traffic to your website or social profiles, while providing additional content for your organic strategy. Be sure to collaborate with team members and other brands to maximize your reach and get the most out of your efforts.
Be Patient
Success doesn’t happen overnight, especially for social media marketing! It will take time to slowly grow your audience, which might be deterring, but should not be. Building a small (but quality) audience overtime should always be preferred to generating random followers. Quality followers are potential customers and people who will engage with your post to increase your news feed rankings.
It never looks right when you find a page with a lot of followers, who gets little to no engagement. This is a great way to appear more genuine for new users who are finding your page for the first time. The more authentic your brand and content appears, the more likely someone will be to follow you and want to learn more.
Watch Your Data
Your past social posts are only as valuable as what you can learn from them. Analyze KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to identify what parts of your posts need the most improvements. For example, getting enough clicks with a high bounce rate might indicate a discrepancy between your post and landing page, or simply poor page loading time. Not getting enough clicks at all might mean you have to have to adjust your copy because the message isn’t enticing users to click.
Wrap Up
Social Media Marketing isn’t fast or easy. Though you can certainly improve your performance by implementing the tips above to ensure you’re getting the results you want! So get out there and crush those goals!
