Tips/Tricks for Social Media Marketing
How often should you post?
- Find a balance and stick to it – Normally if you post fewer than twice per week or more then twice per day y you will either not engage or over-engage your target audience. So what’s the magic number? In my opinion it’s somewhere between 5-10 posts per week. Be sure to maintain consistency, your audience will learn to anticipate and it will pay off big time! For instance if you only have time for 4 posts per week, that’s much better than 1o one week, 1 the next etc.
Tips/Tricks for posting on Facebook
- Post offers – Motivate your audience to visit your website or come back by providing an offer. Discounts and promotional offers will promote sharing, post commenting and is a great way to excite customers about your business.
- Tag people, locations & businesses – When you tag another entity in a post Facebook sends them a notification. This makes them feel included and want to join the conversation.
- Always be positive and uplifting – There are enough negative stories in the media, make a difference to people by offering positive and uplifting content. Not only will this make you feel better, it will also encourage your audience to read, comment and share your posts.
- Provide information – The more value you can provide your reader the better, but only offer a portion of that value or benefit in your short summary. This will get them interested enough to click on the post and read more.
- Track your links – If you provide a link in your post, use TInyURL or Bit.ly, these services also allow you to track how many people are clicking through.
- Always make time to engage on your own posts – Posts aren’t the only activities that grab attention; we all know we like to check out the comments section too. Make a plan to check up on your posts comments often to engage with your audience. Be helpful, answer questions and provide additional resources for information. The more value you can add to your audience the more trust & loyalty you will gain.
- Try to Include images whenever possible – Posts with images get the highest amount of audience engagement on Facebook, THE END.
Tips/Tricks for posting on Google+
- Post relevant content – Use a tool like google trends to find out what customers are in the mood for and post content around those subjects.
- Tag brands and people for more engagement – When brands and people are tagged, they receive notifications from Google+, and just like Facebook tagging this can lead to increased engagement with posts.
- Stay popular – Get involved with the latest “trends” to go where the eyes are. This will greatly improve visibility and show that your brand is in touch with current events.
- Use hashtags even though we all hate them – Increase your page’s reach by adding relevant hashtags to your posts.
- Find complimentary communities to find your perfect audience – Find communities complimenting your niche and contribute your expertise, your engagement will increase with an audience already interested in similar markets. For instance if you operate a web design business you could target communities such as small business owners. You could lend a hand with free website tips/tricks and gain a great reputation with a steady stream of long-term business.
- Use larger images – Whenever possible, use full-sized images (800×600) to make your posts stand out from the crowd.
Tips/Tricks for posting Pinterest
- Make sure search engines can find you – In your “account settings” locate “search privacy”, you will see you can hide your profile from search engines like Google, Bing etc. As a business you DO NOT want to be hidden. Make sure this setting indicates “no”.
- Play well with others – Don’t simply worry about your own account. Join lots of other boards with a lot of members such as funny pics etc. Pin to these boards as well as yours and do it as often as you can.
- Multiple colors – Images with bold colors such as red, pink and dark green are shared up to three times more.
- Use vertical images – Vertically images perform much better than do horizontal images.
- Be consistent to gain momentum – As with other mediums, develop a goal of how much time you’re going to devote per week and stick to it. I little time every week is better that a lot of time once in a while.
Tips/Tricks for posting on Twitter
- Target influencers – Use @ mentions to prompt influencers (you know, the people who have the most friends & engagement) to gain their attention and the attention of their large following.
- Don’t be shy – Change your profile picture to a real picture of yourself or business. This shows confidence, personalization and consequently builds trust.
- Punctuation – Don’t sacrifice grammar because you have limited characters. Always put your best foot forward when representing yourself and/or business.
- Retweet for retweets – Remember to give first, in order to get. Retweet relevant content from others to help others and increase the likelihood they will return the favor.
- Use keywords – Utilize the 160-character Twitter BIO limit including keywords your potential followers are searching for (use google adwords “keyword tool” for ideas).
- Promote “thought worthy” conversation – Use questions, facts, and figures to engage your audience and drive retweets.