Epic Guide To Social Media Marketing
Throughout the last few years, more and more businesses have started to understand the value of social media. They have an understanding of the role it plays in their online presence, on their reputations, and how vital it is for thriving in an increasingly competitive business world. Indeed, this is a world where people can search the globe looking for the product that offers the best value for money without ever leaving the comfort of their armchair – and they’re doing it on social media.
Importantly, social media marketing – like traditional marketing – is an ever-evolving industry where we must constantly re-evaluate our strategies and take the time to make changes whenever necessary.
Frustratingly, many companies – and SMEs in particular – are too busy running their businesses to grow their businesses. When you’re dealing with short profit margins and constantly struggling to make every penny count, the thought of taking even more time out of your day to mess around on Facebook might seem like it won’t be worth your while.
However, ignoring social media and its tremendous reach and power can have terrible repercussions. Businesses today cannot thrive or even survive without a social media presence, and those that neglect theirs are doomed to watch the competition race ahead.
Why? Because in 2016 brand awareness is built online. Your rivals know this, and if you don’t play the game, then it will be their brands, their logos, their products, messages, tweets and quirky Facebook posts that your potential customers will remember, whilst your business fades away into obscurity.
We don’t want this to happen to you.
But we also know that not everyone can be experts in social media. We are because we have to be – that’s markITwrite’s whole raison d’être. But a big part of what we do here at markITwrite is lend our hard-earned wisdom out to other businesses who want to grow their social prowess and online presence.
And that’s why we’ve written this blog.
And so here it is – the markITwrite business guide to building your brand on social media.
Some of the tips below cover the bare essentials that you have to get right from the very start. Others are there for you to bookmark so you may return to them at a later date when you feel it’s time to boost or shake up your strategy.
Are you ready? Let’s go!!
Epic Guide To Social Media Marketing
1. Which Platform Is Right For You?
Before you delve straight in to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, take the time to do your homework on which platforms are most suited to your niche.
It may be that you have an e-store from which you are selling lots of different physical products. In this case, you’ll be wanting to focus heavily on the visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, where you can showcase your inventory in all its glory.
However, you might be selling a service, or advertising on a news site. In these circumstances you haven’t got anything particularly visual to showcase, and so your content strategy will be heavily focussed on your blogging efforts, in which case Twitter will most likely be your number one network, with Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ not far behind.
2. Don’t Spread Your Presence Too Thinly
The reality is you probably don’t need to use every social network available. So, before you go signing up to all that you can find, take a step back and consider your options.
The big five are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest – and in all honesty we think it’s wise that you establish a presence on each of these sites (though the order of priority will depend on your business).
However, there are hundreds of others – from Instagram to Vine to YouTube to Tumblr to Medium to Blab to ello. You won’t need them all, and by spreading yourself too thinly, you will eat up precious time that could be better spent focussing on your most valuable networks.
However….
3. Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Basket
There’s never a day goes by where we don’t read about the forthcoming demise of Google+ or Twitter. While you may not need to use ten social networks, you don’t want to be solely reliant on just one either.
We use the top five regularly (see tip #2 above), with Twitter being our most prominent. In fact, if we’re honest, we rely too heavily on Twitter – if it suddenly disappeared tomorrow we’d have an uphill battle to confront. And so we’re addressing this shortcoming of ours as you read this, and we urge you to also make sure that you don’t end up with all your eggs in one basket.
4. Matching Profiles
Another important point that too many companies miss is making sure your profiles match on each social account. Try and ensure that your company logo is the same across the board, and that your brand is consistent. If users see different images, slogans or taglines on different networks, they could easily become confused and assume it is a different company.
5. Original Images
Anyone who uses social media a lot will recognise the stock images that have been doing the rounds for years, and the last thing you want is to have a brand that’s using the same images as everyone else.
Granted, if you publish content every day, this may not be 100% feasible, so don’t panic if you can’t make your own images every time you post (check out our previous blog ‘5 Fantastic Sources For free Stock Images’ if you’re stuck). But when you can, take the time to get your images made so that you’re original.
Don’t have the money to employ a graphic designer? Then check-out sites such as Fiverr which are full of professionals with great feedback who can create original images for you for less than the price of lunch.
6. Vanity URLs
If you don’t already know, a vanity URL is a web address that is unique to you or your company that makes it easier for your web address to be found. It is essential for marketing purposes. If you don’t know how to create yours, here’s a link to help you get started.
7. Create A Catchy Username
You may find out that the username you wish to adopt on sites such as Twitter has already been taken. If that’s the case, don’t rush in to any old alternative. It’s essential that you create a username that is memorable, yet still absolutely in line with your brand. Do some brainstorming with your staff. The wrong username could make you indiscoverable on social media, so make sure you get it right.
8. Consider Keywords In Your Username
This is also very important. Many people type keywords in when searching on social to help find relevant accounts to follow. So, if you can use a popular keyword in your username, you may get a jump on the competition.
9. Social Share Buttons
It never ceases to amaze us just how many large websites there are that don’t have social sharing buttons anywhere to be seen.
If you have a blog or any content you want to put out there, add social sharing buttons so that people can share your content in the blink of an eye. Remember, most people won’t bother copying and pasting your URL just to share a blog, and that spells danger for your content marketing strategies.
10. Linking Profiles And Your Website
Most social networks now allow you to link to your other social profiles as well as your website, so make sure that you do this. Indeed, the whole name of the social game is to increase your presence and drive as much traffic to your website as possible, so don’t forget the basics.
11. Get Your Bio Right
Your social networks will have an area for information about you and your company – this is known as the bio(graphy) section.
It’s important to complete bios with as much relevant information as possible, as this will help the social networks’ search engines find your account when users are typing in keywords in efforts to find interesting people to follow.
Furthermore, as well as helping search engines, a complete and thorough bio will give users a great first impression of your professionalism, as well as confirming (or not) that your product/service is right for them. This blog from Neil Patel has some great tips for getting your bio right on social media.
12. Position Yourself As An Industry Authority
A great way to instil confidence in potential clients is to let them see that you know your industry inside and out. As such, it’s important to get the right balance between self-promotion and the sharing of industry news, views and reviews that can be trusted. Indeed, positioning yourself as an industry authority is also about striking a balance between content curation and content creation.
Look for sites that offer great content within your niche, but which are not direct competitors, and share what they have to say with your audience. Visitors to your Facebook page will become very bored very quickly if all they see is adverts for your products, so keep your output interesting with a variety of content that adds value to your brand.
And of course, you must also take the time to create thorough, thought-provoking articles (like this one!) that shows in no uncertain terms that you are an expert in your field, and not just a cowboy peddling pap.
13. Add Commentary
When sharing the knowledge of others, add your own thoughts. While you are often restricted somewhat with Twitter’s character count, you can still offer a little something original, and with other networks you can say a lot more.
14. Be Social!
Take the time to comment on discussion threads. Show you have knowledge whilst giving your brand a little free advertising. Don’t overdo it, though, and never go around offering banalities such as “nice post” just to get you name on their page. If you have something valuable to add then great. If you don’t, then best not to bother, as spammy comments are never welcome on blogs or social media.
15. Actively Participate In Online Communities
From Subreddits to LinkedIn groups, there’s a plethora of communities on practically every subject going.
Make the effort to join them and post under your brand name when possible. This can go a long way to increasing your online presence and showing others who have already expressed an interest in your niche that you have a lot of knowledge. Indeed, if you prove to the community that you’ve got valuable knowledge up your sleeve, it will increase the likelihood that its members will search for your social media profiles elsewhere.
It’s important to remember, though, that this is a two-way street. Some communities take umbrage to those who post their own content relentlessly while not engaging with the content of others. So, take the time to do this and you’re on the way to building up positive relationships.
16. Use Images
The advantages to utilising images correctly are many. For starters, on a platform like Twitter for example, it’s a great way to circumvent the character restrictions, as you can upload images or memes which contain as many words as you like (though be sensible here if using this tactic).
The other great thing in this instance is that Twitter will soon be discounting images in the 140-character limit, so you’ll have even more room to play with.
More generally, posts with images have a higher click through rate on all social networks, and, as such, it makes sense to include image posts wherever possible. Here’s some tips on image use in social media.
17. Ask For Shares
From Twitter to Facebook, asking your loyal following to share a few of your posts can’t do any harm. In fact, there’s plenty of evidence to show that putting ‘Please Retweet’, for example, at the end of a tweet can massively increase your engagement.
18. Don’t Be Afraid To Experiment (With Other People’s Ideas)
Coming up with something completely original isn’t easy – and in fact such a thing is probably impossible. But the good thing is that you don’t have to.
Digital marketing has been around now for an age. As such, there are plenty of tried and tested methods for success – all you’ve got to do is research into what some of the biggest players in your industry are doing, and see what works for you. Don’t be afraid to experiment with them all – and if you do come up with something that’s never been tried before, then great! So long as it works.
19. Publish A Regular Blog
A well written blog is essential if you want to have a strong online presence, and there are many reasons for this.
For starters, with each blog post you publish there is another page to your website that gets indexed by search engines. This means that as your website grows and grows, there are more chances that it is discovered by people searching the web for the sorts of things that you provide. Indeed, Google rewards websites that have regularly updated content (such as a blog) with higher search rankings.
Secondly, your blog is an opportunity to show your readers that you know your product, service and industry better than your competitors – and this will instil confidence in your business.
Third, blogs are opportunities to answer questions and queries that your target audience may be asking – such as why do I need to be using social media to promote my business? Hopefully, some future markITwrite clients will discover us through this very blog post that you’re reading right now – it might even be you.
(Blog readership statistics – note, these figures only cover those blogs that are supported by WordPress, there are hundreds of other content management systems (CMSs) out there supporting millions of other blogs.)
In addition, if you’re publishing blog posts that contain content that’s of huge value to people – perhaps you’re providing tips on how to save money, or how to use a piece of software more efficiently, or whatever it happens to be – then your social audience is much more likely to share your output amongst their own networks, thusly providing vital exposure that all businesses need for growth. Indeed, if you post regular content of high value, then you will soon find that your online reputation grows as you start to become a recognised authority in your field, which in turn builds trust amongst existing and potential customers alike.
If your content proves to be exceptionally valuable – perhaps you’ve conducted some statistical research which proves or exposes a market trend, or otherwise have written a well-thought-out piece that sheds new light and thoughts on an old subject – then you will find that not only will people share your writing amongst their network, but other bloggers and journalists will start linking to your blog. Google likes links even more than regular content, and of course links boost organic traffic to your site via click-throughs.
Simply put, a blog is all about adding value to your goods and services. You’re providing a free resource of valuable information that people can’t get elsewhere, and you will be rewarded for this as you bring on extra business as a direct result.
Of course, not every business has the time or the writing skills to create their own blogs. If this is the case, then you will need to outsource. We offer professional blogging services here at markITwrite, so please get in touch today for advice to find out how we can help grow your business’s online presence.
20. Create Clickable Blog Titles
If you decide to write your blogs in-house, then pay attention to your titles. After all, it is the title (and accompanying image) that will make people click on the link, not the actual writing itself. Indeed, check this research and suggestion out from Quicksprout:
Here at markITwrite we’ve got 5 super tips for crafting killer headlines. These are:
- Use numbers (‘10 Reasons To…’, ‘5 Top Tips For…’, etc.)
- Ask a question (‘Are You Making The Most Out Of…?’, ‘When Is The Best Time To…?’, etc.)
- Keep your adjectives interesting (fascinating, appealing, epic, killer, unique, original, etc.)
- Keep your titles short and sweet
- Use the CoSchedule Headline Analyser
For more info, read our article on headline writing.
21. Keep Your Titles Short
I realise that I’m repeating myself here, but I really do want to hammer this point home. There’s evidence to support that shorter blog titles perform better in terms of click-throughs than longer ones. So, if your headlines read like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, you’ve lost a whole load of readers before they’ve even checked out your article.
22. And Your URLs Shorter
When sharing links to your content across your social networks, you need to make use of URL shorteners such as Ow.ly, bitly, or the ones already built into your scheduling software (if using) such as Hootsuite.
Admittedly, the shortened link is just a short load of random characters, but, it nestles quietly at the end of your tweet and doesn’t eat into your character allowance (though please note, links are soon to be discounted in the 140-character limit – but, even so, long URLs are just too invasive on a tweet whether they’re permitted or not).
You should also note that when copying and pasting a URL to Facebook (and certain other social platforms), if you wait for just half a second after hitting paste, Facebook will automatically create a post for you, which includes the headline of your blog, the featured image and the meta description. Once this has been pulled through, you can delete the URL in the post description and just hit ‘Post’.
In the above example, as you can see, Facebook has created a pretty nifty little post to be shared – and so now I can delete the URL highlighted at the top, and replace it with a comment about the post. Simple.
23. Hashtagging
There is a wealth of information out there on hashtagging. From how to use hashtags to how many hashtags will gain the optimum engagement when posting. Firstly, hashtagging is important as it helps others find the relevant information they are looking for, and so by using hashtags, you stand a better chance of being spotted. This guide to hash tags is handy if you are using Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
24. Hashtag Hijacking
Also known as “newsjacking”, “trendjacking” and “reactive marketing”, hashtag hijacking can be an excellent way of increasing your online presence or getting your brand noticed.
It works like this – an important news story breaks or something interesting starts trending on social media. You realise that there is a genuine way to connect this trend it to your brand. Maybe it’s a royal wedding or a new bewildering statement by Kanye. Maybe your company sells cakes. And so all you do is post: “Why not enjoy our cakes when you sit down to watch the #RoyalWedding today?”
It’s as simple as that in theory.
But be careful – there are numerous examples of companies using trends insensitively, only to come under a lot of online abuse. It can be a minefield, so just watch yourself and be sensitive. Check out these examples of how not to do it, and tread carefully before proceeding.
25. Cross Promotion
Maybe your Twitter account is rising quicker than a hot air balloon, but you’re struggling to get any traction with Instagram. If that’s the case, then start tweeting links to your Instagram account. This is an easy way to get your follower count rising quickly on both networks.
26. Being Social Means Being Social
An area where a lot of companies get caught out is publishing content and never responding to questions, complaints and even missing enquiries.
An important factor in social media is taking the time to do all of the above. Not only does it show that you care, it shows that there is a human being behind the computer and not a bot. It makes people feel special and will do a lot to enhance your online presence in a positive way. While a little old, this article gives some great advice on commenting on social media which still holds true.
27. Don’t Delete Complaints
Deleting complaints that turn up on your social networks is a sure fire way to anger the people who left them even more. Indeed, the most likely response to having a complaint deleted is to bombard you with so much negative online press that you simply won’t be able to keep up with the backlash. It will be too late by then to block the user, as he/she will simply spread the word that your company is rude and dismissive of its paying customers, and you will find your online reputation ruined in a matter of days, if not hours.
Instead, address the complaint promptly, politely and publicly, offering an apology and a solution to the problem. The result will be that you turn the situation on its head, as you display to your following that you’re listening and are happy to address all issues – and of course, customer care and attention is important when people are deciding where to spend their money.
28. A Little Gratitude Goes A Long Way
When people take the time to share your content, make sure that you thank them.
If you’re getting a lot of engagement and you don’t always have the time, acknowledge this. A simple post of “Thanks for all the retweets this week! Sorry I couldn’t message you all personally, but you’re all appreciated!” can make all the difference.
29. When Possible, Thank By Name
I often see social media influencers thanking their fans by copy and pasting. Granted, when you are getting 2000 retweets per day you have to be realistic. That said, if you’re just starting out, take the time to be a little more personal. It will be worth the effort.
30. Pay Particular Attention To Your Special Fans
You may notice that some users will share your content every day. These users can be worth their weight in gold. As such, make a note of them and pay them some extra special attention. When thanking them, ask them about their day. A quick five-minute chat will keep them on board, whereas if you ignore them, you could lose them, and these guys are too valuable.
31. Check Your Messages
I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to engage with your following, however they reach out to you. Whilst most of your following or even existing clients will email you or give you a call, there will be some that send you a message on social media, and it can be too easy to forget these channels.
Make it a habit at the start of every morning and afternoon, and then once again before you finish your working day, to check your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn messages, and of course those of any other social network that you’re building a presence on.
32. She Who Responds First…
Further to the last point – sometimes you will get direct messages in the form of service enquiries from potential clients. You must always assume that you’re not the only business that they have reached out to. Whilst you forget to check your messages, this client is already in negotiations with your rival before you’ve even had a chance to respond. So, always respond as quickly as possible to direct messages and make sure you have notifications in place to alert you the very moment you receive one.
33. Consistency Is Key
Take the time to post regularly. Not at exact times, as this will give the impression you’re a bot. But, it doesn’t pay to post 4 times on Monday and then nothing on Tuesday. Users want to know when to come to your account for valuable information and they want reliability. If they don’t know when you will post, they are unlikely to come regularly.
34. Keep It Professional
If you share your personal views on religion, Trump vs Clinton, or anything else that is divisive, you’re in danger of alienating – and possibly enraging – a large percentage of your audience.
While I would never mention names, I have worked with companies that, despite investing a lot time, effort and money on marketing, shoot themselves in the foot because they insist on sharing their opinions on the most divisive issues across their social networks. Trust me, this can seriously harm your brand.
35. Be Friendly
Just because you need to always be professional, this doesn’t mean that you can’t be friendly and even slightly informal at times. Indeed, social media is all about being ‘social’ after all – and so don’t be too stuffy. Offer your personality in your posts and comments – you will present as being more approachable this way, which will encourage more engagement.
36. Never Be Rude
Never EVER be rude on social media. Ever, ever, ever. It doesn’t matter if you encounter the most obnoxious user who seems bent on trying to wind you up and solicit some kind of slip up from you – don’t give in to it. One misconstrued comment from a brand can spread like wildfire, and be just as devastating to your online image.
37. Offer An Opinion
Being friendly and professional doesn’t mean you can’t offer your opinion. Indeed, the only way that you will ever achieve the status of an industry expert is if you form your own views and arguments that others agree with.
However, when writing opinion pieces – be they blog posts, Facebook posts, tweets, or what have you – you must be open to the debates which are almost certain to rise. Such discussions can in fact be a great source of content marketing. Getting your followers to think and actively partake in a conversation will make them remember you – and that’s a good thing.
If you like this idea and think that you’ve got something worthy to say, then we highly recommend exploring Reddit, as the communities there (known as Subreddits) love nothing more than a heated intellectual debate. Weigh in, make yourself known to them, and show that you’re a serious player in your niche.
38. Ask Questions
Of course, you’re not the only one who has an opinion. Everyone’s got one – especially online, as I’m sure you’ll have noticed. So, encourage people to offer their opinions. Ask questions of your followers – even if it’s about your own content. ‘What did you all think about my last post? Was I on the money, or do you think that there’s a better approach to X, Y and Z?’ This is all part of positioning yourself as an active member of an engaged and enthralled online community – content marketing at some of its best.
But there are many other questions you can ask to get the ball rolling. Try some of these:
- Who’s read the latest book/blog/article by [insert name of respected industry author]?
- How long does it take you to…?
- Who wants a chance to win a prize?
- Have you heard the news about…?
- What’s the most/least valuable aspect of our service?
39. Run A Poll
Running an online poll is a great way to increase engagement on your social networks. Furthermore, provided you ask the right questions, you can gain some valuable insight either into your own output or wider industry.
Twitter makes a poll super easy to conduct – for your convenience I’ve screenshotted the instructions provided on their blog:
And here’s a great suggestion from Hootsuite of a really valuable question that you can ask your audience.
40. Run A Competition
Everyone loves a freebie, and competitions are highly shareable (which of course is the main point of running one). Check out our post on growth hacking your way to your first 1,000 likes on Facebook where we give you the full rundown on the ins and outs (including the rules) for Facebook competitions.
Competitions are also a great way to make your various audiences feel special and appreciated. So, when running competitions, always make them an ‘exclusive opportunity for my wonderful Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram/etc. fans to win a prize.’
41. Consult Your Analytics
Many of the social networks offer their own analytics – Twitter Analytics and Pinterest Analytics, for example – which help account holders trace which posts are the best performers, as well as things like illuminating trends on the best times of day to post, best days of the week etc.
Your content management system on your blog will also reveal how much traffic your posts generate, as well as other key trends.
But, to get an overall view, then you’re going to have to start getting to grips with third party analytics tools, such as Google Analytics. Now, by no means are such things particularly easy to use – especially for beginners – but they are worth the effort it will take to master them. Without the insights that your analytics reveal, you have no way of knowing which is your most valuable content, and therefore what you should be producing more of in your future campaigns.
Indeed, when you make special moves like running competitions or polls – collectively known as ‘events’ – your analytics tools will help you to make sense of the traffic that you generate. You will run these things, naturally, to obtain spikes in visits to your website or social network, and your analytics will help you decipher just how valuable a certain event is in comparison to others.
You must also be aware of the difference between actionable and vanity metrics. Indeed, I’ve spoken a lot about traffic here, but traffic is really a vanity metric. Indeed, I’m always reminded of the joke about the modern startup model when talking about vanity metrics. Have you heard it? It goes like this:
10,000 guys walk into a bar. Nobody buys anything.
The bar is declared a lavish success.
The point is that having 10,000 people visit your website or Twitter page every day means nothing if it doesn’t result in conversions – and your actionable metrics are what will help rectify this.
Actionable metrics are derived by things like running A/B tests, which is when you create two (or more) versions of the same thing – be it a headline, a Twitter post, an email newsletter, or whatever. You select, say, 20% of your following. Half of these you send the ‘A’ version, the other half you send the ‘B’ version, and use analytics software to measure the results in terms of click-throughs, opens, conversions or what have you. If version ‘A’ performs markedly better than version ‘B’, then you have actionable data that you can use – i.e. you will send out version ‘A’ of the post to the remaining 80% of your audience.
42. Connect With Influencers
Connecting with influencers is one of the best social growth hacks going. When you first start out trying to get noticed on social media, it will feel like you’ve got an uphill battle to fight. Your competitors who have already been in the game for some time might well already have followers amounting to thousands – so how can you catch them up?
The answer is to look for influencers and engage with them.
Influencers might be journalists or other experts within your niche, or possibly celebrities. They will be posting regular, informative blogs, tweets and articles that enjoy a lot of attention from a large following. They will also be sharing and retweeting other people’s output to their already sizeable audiences – and so the trick here is to get on their radar in the hope that they will start sharing your stuff, too.
The first thing to do, of course, is make sure you’re producing original content that’s worth them sharing – influencers take their reputations very seriously, and so they won’t just share any old nonsense.
Secondly, you need to reach out to them. Start sharing their content amongst your networks. Comment thoughtfully on their posts, and, if they’re asking questions, make sure that you answer them.
Eventually you hope to earn their respect, and they may even initiate a conversation with you, or, even better, write an article about your business or otherwise endorse what you’re doing.
There are tools out there that can help you identify the most important influencers in your niche. Check some of these out:
- Traackr
- Followerwonk
- Klout
43. Solve Your Followers’ Problems
Lots of people turn to social media when they’re experiencing difficulties or have a problem to solve.
Perhaps you’re in the gardening business. One of your follower turns to Twitter and asks – ‘What can I do about potato blight?’ Don’t ignore this user’s question – be the first to answer it as thoroughly and as helpfully as you can. If you’ve written a blog already on how to deal with the problem, then take the opportunity to share it right now with them. If you haven’t, then find an article online and send them the link – or write one that day yourself, and dedicate it to the follower using his/her name.
Needless to say you will make a friend – if not a new customer – by making this sort of effort, and by doing so on social media you’ll encourage other followers to engage in similar ways.
44. Avoid Too Much Repetition
By the time you’ve been blogging away two or three times a week for a whole year, you’re going to have well in excess of 100 posts that you can set on a regular social schedule and not have to worry too much about the same content being placed in front of the same followers time and time again – provided the content is ‘evergreen’ (see tip #45 below), of course. But, until then, you’re only going to have a relatively small amount of original posts in your repertoire – and posting these too regularly and nothing else will soon irritate your following.
So, until you’ve built up a good stock of evergreen blog content, then you’re going to have to take things slowly at first.
That being said, if you’re running an ecommerce store and have a big catalogue of products, then you won’t have to worry so much about repetition, as you will have many items to promote whilst you’re building up your blog bank.
Repetition, however, is inevitable – and of course what’s the point of creating evergreen content if it can’t be enjoyed in all its glory at different points of the year? And in actual fact, some of your platforms will allow you to get away with more repetition than others.
For example, tweets have recently earned the moniker of being the ‘mayflies of social media’. The mayfly, of course, has an exceptionally brief lifecycle – around 24 hours from birth to death – and it is in reference to this that the metaphor stems.
A Twitter account with 1,000 followers can expect a single tweet to survive on the platform for between 18 and 20 minutes. After this time, the tweet will be buried so far down the majority of your followers’ news feeds that it will simply go unnoticed. It is in this respect that on Twitter it is in fact in your interest to make regular repetitions of the same link to the same post. You must remember that your Twitter followers probably won’t be checking your profile every time they log on – they’ll simply be scrolling through their own newsfeeds looking for something interesting to read. And so, since the majority will miss your individual posts, you need to schedule them to tweet often.
How often? Well, on Twitter, if you’ve got 1,000 followers and, say, 20 blogs in the bank, you can feasibly post each blog two or three times a week for a fortnight, then taper each one down to once a week for the next 6 months – provided you’re tweeting other stuff in between. The bigger your following, the more often you can repeat your tweets, and the longer you can schedule them for.
Indeed, scheduling tools are what you need here. We use Hootsuite, Buffer, Tweet Jukebox and a number of others for scheduling our posts right across our social networks.
With your other networks – Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ – you will need to exercise much more restraint. Posts on these networks pack more punch and last longer than mayflies. So, really, you should only repost old blogs here either when they become specifically relevant again, or you might have to wait between three and six months before offering a repeated post – and again, you will need to be posting original material in between.
45. Create Evergreen Content
Evergreen content is the stuff that doesn’t depreciate in value over time, and therefore can be added to your repeated posting schedule (see tip #44 above).
Many of your tutorial blogs will fall into the evergreen category, as will your ‘6 Uses For This That And The Other’ types of blogs – you could post these blogs today or in a year’s time and they’d still be relevant to your audience.
However, you need to be careful that any content that you create that you think is evergreen doesn’t become outdated six or twelve (or more) months down the line, and yet you’ve still got it scheduled.
For example – breaking news is not evergreen. Once the moment has passed, it’s passed, and it’s not news any longer. Another example might be your ’10 Tips For Using A Certain Online Tool’. When you first write this post, you will of course be giving your following the most up to date advice on what’s best. But, in a year’s time, that advice may have become outdated as improvements have been made to the technology or what have you.
Indeed, whilst this very Epic Guide To Social Media that you’re reading now is relevant in 2016, we know that it has a shelf life. Some of the tips on this list won’t be relevant a couple of years down the road, and perhaps none of it will eventually. And so we will need to update this list in line with changes in the industry as they happen if we want to keep this post on our schedule.
46. Consider Your Profiles
There are a couple of points here.
First, it’s of utmost importance that you complete the profile section on all of your social networks in full. And this means that you need to include profile images, cover images when needed, full biography (on all except Twitter, where there’s a 160-character limit), work experience and history (on LinkedIn in particular), a working link to your website, and any other information you’re asked for.
This is the stuff that first impressions are made of. When new people discover your business profiles, they want to be able to check you out, find out more about what you do and what sorts of services, solutions or products you provide. If you’ve left a load of blanks, then you immediately give a bad impression of your professionalism, and will lose potential leads.
Second, you must also consider the fact that some people like to see a human face rather than a brand logo. This means that you will need at least two social profiles on each of your networks – one for your personal account, and another that is in your brand’s name.
You might think that this just creates extra work for yourself, but you’d be surprised. Here at markITwrite we have found that the personal profile of @KesButters – the late CEO of markITwrite – always receives much more engagement than our branded profile @markITwrite, despite the fact that we distribute similar (not the same – see tip #47 below) content on each account.
The reason seems to be that people like people more than they like brands on social media – perhaps that’s why it’s called social media. So, our advice is to create separate accounts to maximise your exposure.
However….
47. Never Duplicate Accounts
Twitter’s rules are quite clear on this issue, and so are the rules for the other main social networks.
Although above (tip #46) we have advocated that you set up two social profiles on each network – i.e. one that is personal, a second that is branded – you mustn’t allow one to essentially be a duplicate of the other, and is set up to post the exact same content and links to the exact same pages on your website.
This is considered a spam technique, as is clearly laid down by Twitter:
“You may not use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone. What constitutes ‘spamming’ will evolve as we respond to new tricks and tactics by spammers. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming are:
- If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account
There are plenty of other rules on Twitter’s spam list, and it will pay to follow them and the spirit of them across all of your accounts.
48. Know That You’re In This For The Long Haul
There’s no point in setting up social accounts if you’re only going to keep them up for a few weeks. Social media is an integral part of marketing in 2016 and if you’re not prepared to keep it up all year round, then there’s no point.
If you’re pressed for time, or otherwise worried about the commitment, just email us at [email protected] and we’ll help you along the way. Our packages start at under £3.50 per day. That’s less than the price of a beer in London!
49. Learn To Love Social Media!
For many people – especially, perhaps, those who have been in business for longer than Facebook has – getting your head around the importance of social media marketing in 2016 can be a bit of a sticking point.
For companies that have been using traditional advertising for decades, the whole concept can seem completely alien. And of course, not every fresh-faced young entrepreneur with a bright new idea is particularly keen on social media either.
However, social media marketing is not about you and what you like – it’s about your customers, what they like and where they can be found.
72% of adult internet users (which equates to 62% of the entire adult population) are on Facebook in the US as of 2015. That is a serious amount – and any business owner who thinks that their customers aren’t on Facebook are quite simply wrong. Any company which decides against social media marketing is simply handing business to the competition – and, as you know, your competitors will bite your hand off.
Play the game. For one thing, marketing on social media is largely free – all it costs is your time. You’ll soon see results – we can guarantee that. And, over time, you will build valuable relationships and learn to love the added insights and interactions from your customers that only social networks can provide.
50. Be Natural
Last, but not least, be yourself (unless you’re a grumpy git, in which case be someone else)! Social media is all about putting a human face on your business, so no matter if you’re blogging, vlogging, tweeting or Facebooking, put your personality on the page – you’ll be much better off for it.
Final Word
Phew! That was some list!
Start building these tips into your social media marketing plan today. Don’t worry if you can’t do them all straight away – so long as you start gradually strengthening your resources over time, you’ll soon see a vast improvement on your returns from social media.
Continue reading here: Business IT Security: Is Yours Good Enough?
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