While it would nearly be impossible to cover the whole of social media management and marketing in 5 tips, our goal with this blog is to provide you valuable information on how you can quickly and affordably step your social media game to compete in a industry that is changing daily.
Social Media has been around for awhile. In the 2000s it quickly began to gain popularity. There were flash in the pan products such as MySpace and other services that began to build online communities. In 2002, LinkedIn was created. This is one of the longer sustained social media channels. It found a niche market by connecting business people together. This is valuable and, when done right, can lead to job opportunities, sales opportunities and more. Soon after, Facebook came around in 2004. This was soon followed by Youtube in 2005. Then, in 2006, Twitter decided to join the game and there were have our players in the current social media roundup. There were a couple of late players that came to the game. In 2010, Instagram made its debut soon followed by Snapchat in 2011.
With all these channels vying for people’s time, how do you effectively reach your target audience? This is not easily done. As stated, in this blog we hope to bring you 5 steps closer to taking your social media game to the next level.
1. Consistency.
This is a rule that is taught to you throughout life. Don’t think that you can forgo it on the social media level. You want engagement on your social media channels. How do you get it? Through consistency. Take Youtube for example, there are some people that I will watch on occasion that are vloggers. One of the people that I find semi interesting is a daily vlogger. He has made himself famous by saying he is going to blog everday and then doing it. Of course, his content has to be “lit” and personality intriguing. But if he stops vlogging for a couple of days, I am going to lose interest, trust that he probably quit, and then stop following him. The other advantage that he has is that he may reach the wanderer that is vegging out. The same is true for your social media. Use a tool such as buffer or hootsuite to post consistently, whatever that is for your business, on your channels. A suggestion is that you should post at least once a day. On some channels it is suggested that you post at an even higher rate. But yeah, post…consistently.
2. The One in seven rule or 80/20 rule
One thing I find funny yet frustrating is when I am working with a client who wants a lead from their social media. They think that if they post a post on whatever channel that is focused on selling their product that it has a higher opportunity of getting that coveted lead. WRONG! There is a rule that should always be followed when posting your social media. One 1 to 2 posts a week should be hard sells. The rest of the posts, though they may contain things about your products, should not be focused on selling your products. It should be focused on providing something to your follower that they want. Some of your followers may not be in the market for what you have to offer, but if you are able to provide them valuable information then down the line they may turn into a lead. This is the perfect segue (I just love the spelling of that word) into my next point…
3. Post with Engagement in Mind
DON’T POST WITH SELLING IN MIND! Have you ever talked with someone and your whole goal of the conversation is to manipulate them to do something for you? I hate it when people do this to me, sometimes a say no out of spite or distance myself from them when I realize I am just a resource to that person, not really a friend. With that being said, I will provide value to my friends and they will provide value to me at some point. Same goes for social media. If you are always trying to manipulate your audience into buying your product then you will lose your audience. Rather, you should make posts with engagement in mind. If you are a realtor and you just sold a client a home. They were extremely happy with the experience, they like you on Facebook and end up leaving you a nice review. GREAT! So, now you post about listing a home. And then you do that again. And then again. That person could care less. They are happy for probably at least 5 years! But what about you post that perfect picture of a sunset or whatever else it may be. They just love it. They like the picture and comment. CHA-CHING!!! ENGAGEMENT! Now you just reached people in their feed. What about they like that post too? Your name and branding is getting in front of other people. Then you have that one person, the stalker. They decide they are going to find out what or who their friend like. Maybe in the end you gain a new follower. You gain someone that might be in need of your services, whereas the happy client was not currently. You did this by posting about stuff people care about, not just about selling your product.
4. Get Curated Content
You want to post with engagement on your mind, but you struggle to find content. One thing that really helps is curated content. Curated content is stuff that has to do with your industry whether indirectly or directly. This kind of content can be very helpful to your followers. Maybe you are a insurance agent. Your curated content might be stuff about how to save money on your insurance by having a new roof. This would be “national” content that you would link to on your social media channel. This is very effective, common, and suggested to do. One source of curated content is Feedly. Here you can choose which topics you want content for. It will get you daily updates so that you will always have fresh content for your feed.
5. Hire a Social Media Manager
Lastly, all this probably does seem like a lot of work. Further, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to social media. You do not have to go about it alone. It is a great idea to hire someone to help with social media management and/or marketing. At StarrWebVision, this is one of the areas that we help in at great, low rates while providing a high level of integrity filled service. Not something that is common everywhere. If you would like to find out more about what we have to offer. Please feel free to reach out to us.
