With 2018 just around the corner, its time to look at your social media marketing with new eyes, to see the possibilities, take advantage of the opportunities and capitalize on popular and effective trends.
[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]The majority of social media marketing campaigns are primarily designed to help gain more social following, increase product/brand visibility and/or drive traffic to a website, leveraging just a few key strategies can accomplish at least one of those objectives .[/tweet_box]Here are quick must-know tips to consider when rolling out your next social media campaign.
1. Leverage the Popularity of Livestreaming
Companies and individuals have discovered the power of live streaming platforms as a way to increase interaction and engagement with their intended audience. YouTube, Facebook Live and Instagram Live have taken over as the number one visual source for finding and maintaining audience involvement. Video has always been popular and is even more effective, coupled with livestreaming, when done correctly, the combination can far exceed your goals and expectations.
2. Continue to Create Compelling, Entertaining, Informative Videos
As mentioned above, video is still a powerful tool which can have much better results than a simple article with a photo or graphic. Video can deliver compelling content that is visually appealing and can touch an audience in a way that other types of content cannot.
3. Optimize your Social Media Platforms
Focus on optimizing your profiles in order to get more followers. A few things to consider include using a real profile picture, write clear and comprehensive about pages for your profiles, and where applicable, include a link to your website.
4. Make Sure you Connect your social media accounts to your Website
Having all your active accounts connected to your websites helps to keep the conversation going. Visitors on your website can link to any of the listed accounts and your followers on social media can find out more about your offer. Add the links to your contact page to make it easy for your audience to find and follow you. Add graphic links to every page of your website/blog in the footer or header area. People are visual and seeing the links increases the likelihood they will follow you on “their favorite” social platforms.
5. Find and follow Influencers in your Niche.
Find the most influential people in your niche and follow or favorite them. Chances are they will share useful information about your niche or share their progress about a certain project; and you can look over their shoulders for inspiration, especially when you share their stuff. Get to know them. If you share valuable content these influencers may notice and share your content with their audience.
[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]Working with influencers will increase your visibility, improve your own credibility and recognition, help you tap into your intended audience and add to your bottom line.[/tweet_box]6. Publish, Publish, Publish
Your social strategy should include publishing content as often as possible on the platforms your audience uses. That may include publishing articles on LinkedIn, Facebook Instant Articles, Medium, Thrive Global and in niche blogs (including your own).
7. Hashtags are Still Important
Yes, it’s not just a pretty function to make your phrase turn into a link and look cool. Most people actually use hashtags to search for stuff on social media. And it’s a nice way to make your stuff (like you upcoming product launch) trend on Facebook. Just don’t overdo it. Adding 3 or 4 hastags to each post (think keyword targeting) can be more effective than adding 20 or 30. The more focused the content the less likelihood of overusing #hashtags.
8. Share Your Story on Social Media
Stories were made for social media. Instagram stories are a great example. Behind the scenes, how you got started, your staff and or volunteers, customers, events, milestones and celebrations all make great story ideas.
[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]Your audience wants to know what’s going on in your business, not just the next special or ad you are pushing. [/tweet_box]There are many creative ways you can share your story. The point is to start.
9. Make sure your content is Voice Friendly
With so many people turning to smart home devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home Voice to find internet content, your content must be voice friendly to ensure your content can show up as potential answers to questions when people use voice search to find information.
10. Stay Social and Follow the Rules
Whether you are running a personal profile or company/brand’s social media account, you need to actually stay social and interactive. Follow other users, send friend requests, comment on stuff, like other people’s stuff, update your status regularly, share interesting stuff, and so on. Each social media platform has its own sets of rules, and some rules cut across all the networks. For instance, Twitter has a limit on how many people you can follow per day, Facebook has restriction on friend-requesting people you don’t know and so on. Post as many times per day as necessary, but don’t overdo it. The number of times to post per day will depend on the network, the numbers of your followers and how interactive your audience is.
[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]Use tools wisely but don’t overuse. Tools like commun.it , postfity , missingltr , hootsuite, and others were designed to enhance your social media presence but not replace it. You still need to be present to engage in conversations, ask and answer questions, interact with others.[/tweet_box]If you need help with your social media for 2018, be sure and check out What’s New for our members. Women in Ecommerce has dozens of tutorials, resources and more to help you GROW your business in 2018 and beyond. Join us before January 6th and save 50% on any membership level! Use code 2018save50 to take advantage of this membership special.
