For social media and blogging in general, content is always considered the king. Undoubtedly, in a way. This is what you bring before people, in which they begin to create ideas about the identity of your brand and then decide whether they follow you or not. The question is whether or not content is the only thing to focus on. Not that!
In fact, as a rule, I've put 'content creation' at the bottom of this post; I'm sure you'd understand why as you go along.
Doesn't it sound like a smart idea to learn how you can get the most out of your time on social media channels with over 2.5 billion social media users worldwide? Aside from brand recognition, enhanced followers & more potential customers, because your social media and SEO work together, having a robust social media presence also improves your Google SERP positioning.
Go through these 12 guidelines to build up your presence on social media.
1) The Beauty of Compounding
It beats most paid ads if the audience shares the content proactively.
Take for example Buzzfeed's Tasty video collection. Videos have
Accumulated 14 billion views
Buzzfeed estimates 1 in 4 Facebook users view a Tasty video monthly
Let's see why we post material online. The reasons are written in question format so you can refer to them as a guide while creating content:
Is it funny?
Was Jaw Droping?
Evokes deep emotions?
Will it mirror our general world view?
It makes you think and stop?
Has mainstream media broadcast it?
Is it fun?
Is it touchy?
If you have an affirmative answer to any of the questions below, go!
2) Make friends with Call-To-Action (CTA)
Did you know you can significantly increase your followers if you pair a Call-To - Action or CTA with your content?
Conversion consultant Jeremy Smith, Kissmetrics writes:
The minds of the viewers are primed for being called to act. They know it come. Their minds have already chosen to have a CTA
That's true!
Don't disguise just because you think it's going to your audience. They expect it, so send it but do it right.
Speaking of CTAs, here are a few examples of how various social media networks can use them:
Using entries
Ever seen those bubbles that pop up during the video asking you to subscribe or comment? Use it.
Use a Screen (usually at video end)
The screen is used to direct the viewer to another video or link to your website.
Suggestions
You can request some action from the viewer manually (like / share / subscribe / comment / go to site etc
Your lucrative content gets people to your business page. Make sure you get the most of this chance.
You can choose from a lot of call-to - action buttons.
Booking
Meet us
App use
Play ...
Buy Now
Enrol
Watch TV
Donate
Creating a call-to - action button:
Go to cover photo on your business page and click + Add button
Select your call-to - action button and feed the URL of your website
Click Run
It's it. Easy right?
Tweet
But perhaps the most underutilized platform, Twitter has huge potential. Twitter's issue is its 140 character limit. Here's a short but very powerful call to action statements:
Exercise
Related
Retweeted
Subscribe/ Buy
Launch
Pair all these short CTA statements with a shorter link to the page where you want to land.
There are many sites that shorten urls, like tinyurl, ow.ly, but I prefer Google URL shortener personally.
Another way is to put your tweet URL. If twitter gets your page, delete the URL.
Another weapon to keep in your arsenal is chat ads. They 're very good.
3) Connect with Influencers
Rubbing shoulders with giants, or so they say is a better tactic than relying on a single source of traffic to boost your social media presence. What I mean by that is there's so much to gain if you can put yourself in the big influencers loop. Here's Sujan Patel 's statement about the benefits of influencers:
Connecting with influencers has been key with increasing my personal and companies social media presence. The main tool I use for connecting with influencers is FindEmailAddress email finding tool. The chrome extension can find just about any influencers email you’re trying to connect with on social.”
Simple steps you can follow to connect with influencers are the following:
Create a spreadsheet
Start with whatever names you think of, and we can lay from there. Included details are ...
Noun
Address to email
Site / blog
Using Twitter
Last contacted
Where are entrepreneurs / bloggers / marketers one step ahead of you?
Reddit's
Local meets
Start-up lists
YouTube video tutorials
Google search (last but useful tool)
Include them while blogging
It's good to include some relevant content of the influencer while writing and mentioning a guest blog post. Let it know. It's nice to be in good books.
Comment on the content
Refrain from posting useless as "awesome update." Usually, when someone creates content, they put their heart and soul. Therefore, if you mention the part of the content you enjoyed the most, get into sensible comments section discussions etc.
Offering interest
Instead of pestering with endless tweets and messages, offer value. If you're a web designer, give a free consultation on the design of your website / blog. Facilitate valuable links among like-minded influencers. Introduce them to influencers you meet who can help.
4) Stop blowing your trumpet
David Ogilvy said it's not a moron. She's your mom.
Hand out digitally useful material to people, be it importance of entertainment, life lessons, grooming tips, a virtual course, everything.
Something kills a community of potential followers faster than just thinking about you or your company.
Open your garden gates to kids, don't just kidnap them.
5) Do not underestimate the power of Visuals
Larry Kim says “Visual content increases message association, brand awareness, and engagement.”
Also, Posts that include images produce 650 percent higher engagement than text-only posts (as per WebDAM).
As per a previous post of seo-hacker, posts that include pictures on Facebook get 104% more comments, 84% better click through rate, and 54% more likes
While creating content, make sure you use relevant images. Now you don’t have to be a graphic designer to do so. Simply use these online tools:
- Canva.com
- Picmonkey.com
These sites let you create amazing graphics extremely easily. I personally like Canva as its very easy to customize and download images there.
Make use of Facebook live to stream live events. I’ve seen huge audience engagement through this.
Pair your content with relevant video for an even higher rate of engagement. Periscope lets you go live with your mobile anytime.
6) Learn to listen
Listen to what your audience wants. Closely monitor their online discussions. Visit your competitor’s social media page and see what more the audience are asking from them, and improvise.
Ask your audience’s feedback on your content and generate new content keeping the feedback in mind.
Never ignore a dissatisfied follower. Acknowledge their searing comments before they garner negative publicity for you.
Also, respond promptly to a fan or a follower who proactively approaches you.
7) Leveraging user generated content
There is no better example to demonstrate this point than to cite GoPro’s success. Around 6000 user generated GoPro videos are posted every day. Making use of user generated content has made a small action camera manufacturer into a company raking in around 2 billion dollars worth of revenue.
Find a way to make the users of your product create content and share among their network.
This is similar to “crowd sourcing” but the only difference is that this is free and it’s a great way to boost engagement and visibility.
8) Do you know how powerful Twitter is?
I grabbed this screenshot from John Lennon’s twitter account. So why is this any “special”? John Lennon is a celebrated artist who passed away way before Twitter was founded – and yet, he has 250k followers. If he can do it, why can’t you? And look at the size of that reach! It’s amazing, really.
Most people miss out on this. Twitter is an extremely powerful tool not just to bring out your content, but to learn about your audience before starting a campaign, developing a product, designing content etc. Make use of twitter analytics to find out your potential followers’:
- Income, sex, marital status, education etc
- Occupation and behavior
- Past purchase behavior and buying style
- Mobile usage behavior
With such information, your guesswork reduces and the scope of success increases.
Points to take care of….
- Twitter is a very noisy platform. Millions of tweets every hour. Therefore it’s better to tweet multiple times a day. Just don’t repeat the same content over and over again. Have variety.
- You can repeat the same content every three days or so.
Leveraging the power of Twitter requires making use of some third-party applications.
Here are some apps you can make use of…
- Manageflitter lets you remove all inactive accounts
- Stormit enables you break the limit of 140 character by posting your long tweet as individual tweet.
- Tweroid analyses the time when most of your followers are in action and gives you the best time to tweet.
9) Delegate work
Handling social media is a 24/7 job. Your followers never sleep – and neither should your brand.
But actively being online all the time will eat up the lion’s share of your time, focus and effort. It is advisable to go the smart way by taking up the services of a Social Media Virtual Assistant. Most entrepreneurs are now doing exactly that anyway.
Spend your time and effort in the core activities of your venture like bringing in new accounts, mentoring the managers and designing growth strategies
A social media virtual assistant is an extension of you. At just a fraction of cost of what an in-house employee charges, a virtual assistant for your social media
- Takes care of all your social media platforms
- Researches and creates content
- Posts and interacts with the audience on your behalf adhering to the image of your brand
- Creates campaigns for you
- Monitors the growth and progress of your social media influence
There are more compelling reasons to work with a social media virtual assistant. But we will not discuss them here. In the post Your One-Stop Guide to working with Social Media Virtual Assistant, many critical issues associated with the subject are addressed.
10) Encircle your target audience
How are you going to create content unless you know who you are creating it for?
And even if you do, what impact would it make?
Take note of the following:
- Who are your biggest buyers?
- What age group do they fall in?
- What sort of occupations are they into?
- Their gender?
- Their ethnicity?
- Their political beliefs?
When it comes to encircling your audience, no detail is unimportant.
PayTm India lost a considerable chunk of users, when after the recent demonetization, they brought out an advertisement that was politically a bit right winged. They had to take down the ad and the CEO issued a public apology.
11) Schedule your content
Posting content arbitrarily wouldn’t yield as much as posting content when most of your users are online.
This is very important in case as because you wouldn’t want your content to get lost in an ocean of a million other posts, right?
The best times to post depending on your social media platform of choice, according to Hubspot are:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
12) Content Creation
Positive & Optimistic Content
Jonah Berger co-authored a research paper with Katy Milkman called “What Makes Online Content Go Viral?” writes that “Positive content is more viral than negative content.” Well, that much is obvious for sure – especially if it’s content for a marketing-centric blog or website.
Weaponize your content in a way that it benefits you while it benefits your users.
Are you trying to direct the people to your website through the content or do you simply want to increase your followers? It helps to create content while keeping your end goal in mind.
Be weirdly innovative
KFC is the number one restaurant brand on social media. The reason is simple. KFC acts on some of the best ideas, one of which was “currycature” where people could create and share cultural caricatures of their friends & even of themselves and it’s worth mentioning that it was a grand hit!
Savanna Cider also did a great job with “Lemon Love Letters” on Valentines day. People could write interesting lines for their loved ones and share with them. There are many other things that you can do for your brand, you just have to find the right fit and it has to be just the right amount of weird to be truly innovative. Have fun!
Follow these 12 rules to build a dominating presence on social media. Let me know how much they benefited you.
Author Bio:
Anupam Rajey is a seasoned marketer and sales expert. He is the CEO of Acelerar Tech, a leading KPO that offers virtual assistants for social media, Internet research, email & chat support, and more.
