Social media marketing can be very confusing. What to post and where? What social media accounts will work for your business? Finding the time? Creating a strategy? All on top of everything else you must do. However, there are some things you can do to make your efforts easier without compromising effectiveness. There are also some things you should not do. On the surface, they may make your efforts easier, but they will compromise your effectiveness. So here are some effective social media marketing tips for small owners and professionals.
1 Original Content – you want to be sure that most what you post it original content. Too often I see Facebook business pages and twitter accounts posting/sharing information from sources other than the business itself. People want to see and hear from you. Certainly, there are times you want to share other content and should share/post it. It should relate to your business, be interesting and informative. Your audience should find it to be something they want to share.
2 Don’t be over promotional – I know you have heard this a million times but yet I see pages on Facebook turning every post into a promotional post. They will post a nice quote and turn it into asking people to call to make an appointment or to come into their store or restaurant. I don’t know about you but do you find that shareable?
3 Don’t under promote – I have visited pages and have no clue what they are about because they have not posted anything about what they are about. I see this a lot on restaurant pages where they post their specials but have no recent posts of their food. Specials are great, when done right but don’t forget the new visitor who is checking your page out.
4 Capture Emails – Social Media is great for getting emails where people opt in to gain some information they are seeking. Landing pages/Squeeze pages are a great way to do this. If you do not have the resources for this, you can use a text to opt in. You want to build a quality list.
5 Videos – videos are very popular as people will watch a video they find interesting. Facebook live and Periscope are ways you can stream live. However, they must be interesting to your audience. If doing a slide show video, be sure it tells a story. Many videos are seen without the sound playing so these are a good way to get your message/story seen.
6 BE CONSISTENT – I really stress this because I see many posting/tweeting only when they think they have something to say. These same people tend to also post just promotional posts as well. This is not effective at all as you will not reach many people so the time you have invested is not gaining you any results.
7 Hashtags – On Facebook using #’s is not recommended at all and in fact are counterproductive. Facebook will decrease the reach of your post if you use them. I see people using them in groups and if it is a closed group, it has no impact at all as only members can see the posts. My recommendation is to avoid using them on Facebook. On Twitter limit them to 1 or 2 is the best practice. Try to avoid writing tweets that are so hashtag heavy that your message is lost. Use them if you want to start a conversation on a topic or join in a conversation. Instagram however they are very effective. Best practice is 5-10. It is best to use a mix of popular and less popular hashtags.
8 Auto Sharing – What I mean by this is having your posts on Facebook auto post to your Twitter account, your tweets posts to your Facebook account, sharing your Instagram posts on Facebook. Each platform has a different audience and you must write your posts/tweets for that audience. I have been on twitter, clicked on something I thought was interesting only to find it was a Facebook post and seeing I was not logged in to my Facebook could not see it. Instagram to Facebook, well you have all those hashtags which as I said before are not effective on Facebook.
9 Re-purpose your Content – Sometimes I see people take the same post/picture and post on all their platforms at the same time…they post it on Facebook, then go over to Twitter and post the same thing and then hop onto Instagram and post the same picture. Now if I am following you on 2 of those 3 then I am just seeing the same thing… why not post it a few days later or in the next week. With Facebook and Instagram, you should do different posts as most of those who follow you are also your friend on Facebook and more than likely have already liked your business page.
10 Schedule, Plan, Strategy – It would serve you well to plan your posts/tweets and schedule them ahead of time. It would be a good idea to have a strategy as to what you are posting and why. So know your target audience and set some goals. Listen to what they are interested in and create posts for them. Set aside time each week to work on your content and plan what you will post where and when.
So there ya have some effective social media marketing tips. Do not try to cut corners as it will not be effective. If you are doing social media marketing, then you want it to be effective and gain results. So be authentic, original, don’t over or under promote, capture emails, use videos, be consistent, do not auto share, re-purpose effectively, schedule, plan and have a strategy!
What to get more social media marketing tips? Then text WHATSUPSWFL to 22828 – We do not like spam so we don’t do it! Social Media Marketing Tips come out twice a month.
What to join the conversation? Then join our Social Media Bootcamp group on Facebook at Bootcamp In this group we share social media marketing tips and news but you are also able to ask questions and have conversations with other members.
