Results from social media
Whether you are a social media newbie or someone who feels very comfortable on social media with a social media strategy in place, it is always good to spend time to think on and evaluate what your social media aims are. What results from social media activity and marketing would mean something to your business?
A good place to start is by looking at your social media profiles on each platform and to review them according to the aims that you have established for your social media marketing. Firstly, do they accurately reflect your company and brand? That will mean different things on different platforms. There are other things you can do to ensure your social media actions align with the outcome you want – when SmartPulse asked their readers “Do your believe your social media marketing efforts are more successful now than they were a year ago?”, here’s what they said:
- Yes 60.17%
- Not sure 20.34%
- No 19.49%
We do worry about the 20% who “don’t know” – but that’s another blog. For now, if you’d like to be part of the Yes team – those that believe they are achieving more success with social media now than a year ago, and you’d like to get more out of your social media, try a few of the following tips.
Share Interesting Articles
If you read an interesting article – share it! As long as your Twitter feed isn’t a constant stream of links or retweets, don’t be worried about sharing others’ content. Share Facebook wall posts and LinkedIn profile updates too. Giving credit and mentioning the original writer is not only good online etiquette, it also brings you to their attention. This could lead to further conversations between you, and also more mutual sharing of articles, which is all good in terms of raising your visibility in your target market, if you’re strategic.
Know where your audience hangs out
Knowing your audience will help you get your brand message out in the right place. If your buyers are mostly professionals who operate in the corporate space, you may spend more time on LinkedIn… for B2C businesses who see females as their target demographic and who offer visually interesting products, Pinterest may be the place to spend more time and effort. Knowing where your audience hangs out will save you time and effort in the long run. That can be established at the outset when you get started on your social media strategy
Quality of social media content
How enticing is your social media content? Saying the same thing over and again won’t lead to readers clicking on your links or wanting to learn more. By taking a bit more time thinking about your message and making each social media posting different and well crafted – whatever the platform – you are more likely to put over your personality, have an impact, and make your social media more interesting. Don’t fall into the trap of selling with every tweet or post. It doesn’t work and it’s over powering and boring.
Reviewing your social media
Taking 10 minutes every week and looking back over all your social media platforms will pay off. You’ll be able to see the posts that interest your readers, as well as keep an eye on the type of posts that generate conversation – you can do that by using social media monitoring tools, and by using analytics to measure the effect and reach of your social media content.
