Are you ready to supercharge your social media marketing efforts, but don’t know how?
Do you find the creation of valuable content that activates and inspires a thriving community elusive?
The ideas below are designed with you in mind!
Peg Fitzpatrick, social media strategist and myself set out on a mission. To help you create social media magic within your business! (read part 2: 26 tips to create social media magic for your business)
How can you do it?
Believe it or not, you don’t have to spend hours per day formulating your perfect post.
You need a roadmap, a basic understanding of who your target market is and these first 26 tips! (part one of our two-part series)
Each one is ready for you to swipe and adopt into your business immediately!
How to Create Social Media Magic
1. Optimize Your Social Media Bio’s
Ready to connect and engage with the right people? Then complete your social media profiles, including an optimized and keyword-rich profile.
Make certain that who you are, what you do and how you can assist potential clients is prominent within your bio.
You also want to make it easy for anyone to connect with you. Include your links to your website and other social profiles.
2. Join Google Plus and Get Active
Want to get found? Then get on Google Plus! There is a direct correlation between Google Plus engagement and your search results. This means that it isn’t enough to simply join the social network. You must get involved.
Begin by seeking out business professionals within your industry and adding them to circles. Circles are similar to Facebook or Twitter lists. They will allow you to keep up with a select group of individuals based on the circle (think category) you have placed them in.
2. Join Google Plus Communities
Google Plus communities are another great way to make valuable connections and share your content with a group eager to consume it. Check out the “communities” tab and search based on keywords for communities you would find interesting. Then begin to +1, comment and share other members content.
The best rule of thumb in any community is to get involved, create a conversation and interact consistently before you start marketing or pushing your agenda. Allow people to get to know and appreciate you first.
3. Connect via Google Plus Hangouts
Google Plus hangouts are an excellent way to get face-to-face with those individuals you have connected with and are eager to learn more about. Similar to Skype or Facetime, hangouts are easy to use and simple to access via your Google Plus account.
Take the time to reach out and go deeper with those within your industry. I guarantee it will be time well spent!
4. Use Twitter Lists
A quick way to join the conversation and stay connected with a specific group is to add them to a list. Use Twitter lists to group together people you want to engage with on a daily basis. Then add this list to your favorite third-party management tool and review it daily.
What you will see is a quick snapshot of what each person on that list is talking about. Rather than trying to track each one down, make it easy to stay on top of what is being said. Then comment or retweet their content to begin building relationships.
5. Pin Custom Images to Pinterest
Creating a custom graphic for your original content and pinning it to Pinterest is an excellent way to get your business in front of a whole new audience.
Pin your image, share it to Twitter and then use that same image on Google Plus. Want to learn more? Read Peg’s awesome post, “How Google+ and Pinterest Go Together Like Peanut Butter and Jelly.”
6. Use LinkedIn to Connect with Industry Experts
You spend time on Facebook, but have you made your mark on the social network built for business professionals?
Use LinkedIn to establish rapport with experts within your industry. Make sure to send a custom message including who you are and why you are interested in connecting. Grab this great tip from Viveka Von Rosen, Founder of Linked to Business on how to pump up your LinkedIn marketing efforts!
7. Join LinkedIn Groups
There are many LinkedIn groups to choose from, so it is important to be picky when identifying where to spend your time.
Do a quick search based on keyword or industry and determine which group might be a good source of leads, referrals or recruits. Then get into the conversation!
8. Start (or Join) a Facebook Group
If your niche is hot, invite past clients, prospects and other industry professionals to join your Facebook Group.
Explain the benefits and why the group was created. Set expectations and ensure everyone that joins that the group is a safe space, free from any hard sales tactics. You want to be a resource, not an annoying marketer with only your best intentions in mind.
9. Promote via Instagram
Use Instagram to support all of your marketing efforts.
Have a blog? Post an image with a call-to-action directing followers to your website, share a quote or tip from your post, or simply notify followers that you have a new post up and direct them to your blog.
10. Talk to Your Niche
Stumped when it comes to content creation? Ask people within your niche!
Creating meaningful relationships with other influencers actively creating an online presence is a great way to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s hot within your niche or industry.
11. Stumbleupon
Though not as popular as it was before, Stumbleupon can still drive a lot of traffic to a website or blog. See one of my posts below; a good reminder to Stumble all of your new content.
Likewise, it is also a great way to find fresh content within your niche. Check out their categories and find content that is timely and relevant for your audience.
12. Keep a Virtual Notebook of Ideas
I might love technology, but I’m an old school girl in a lot of ways. A notebook is one of them.
Keep a notepad handy to quickly jot down ideas that can be turned into social media posts down the road. Want to take it one step further? Expand upon your notes and turn that single idea into a short blog post, video tip or list on Listly.
13. Comment on Blogs
Commenting on blogs is a strategy used by many active bloggers to gain visibility, boost awareness and create strategic relationships. It also drives those interested back to your social networks, allowing for further interaction and engagement.
Begin by creating a short list of your favorite bloggers and add commenting as a weekly to-do to your calendar.
14. Use a Management Tool
Want to create social media magic? Stay consistent! A third-party management tool like Hootsuite can help you use automation in a thoughtful and strategic way.
As you come across content you want to share, add it to Hootsuite and schedule a time to tweet or post your content throughout the day.
15. Commun.it
Commun.it, has quickly become one of my go-to social media management tools. With it, you can dig deeper into your followers and create more meaningful social media relationships. With you can keep up with what matters most to you and your business.
16. Think Visually
Use mind-mapping software to flesh out a particular topic, creating multiple posts designed with your target audience in mind.
Brainstorm ideas connected with that topic along with subtopics that can easily be turned into posts or tweets.
17. Add Social Share Buttons to Your Website
Using share buttons on blog posts and websites will allow visitors to easily share the information with their friends and business associates.
Make them easily accessible and simple to use!
18. YouTube
No one can deny the power of video!
Share videos or create your own based on customer questions, blog comments or even conversations via social media. Better yet, use Google Hangouts to create your own TV show or interviews.
18. SlideShare
Did you recently present on a topic relevant to your niche? Upload that presentation to SlideShare!
Easy to use, SlideShare gives your presentation social media juice as others within your niche are actively researching your particular subject and sharing it across their social networks.
19. Tumblr Blogs
As one of Yahoo’s big assets, Tumblr can be a perfect resource for inspiration.
Here you can find articles, pictures, and fun gifs surrounding any (and all) topics. I don’t even want to know what is going on here:
20. Use Twitter to Research Target Market
Twitter is a powerful tool when used to research and stay on top of your name, business and competitors. Set up Twitter alerts, research keywords and identify opportunities using Twitter Advanced search.
Want to learn more? Check out Susan Gilbert’s excellent post on how to put Twitter to work for you!
21. Use a Social Media Calendar
A social media calendar is one of the best ways to stop wasting your time and stay consistent.
The good news? Creating a social media calendar doesn’t have to be hard. You can use something as basic as an excel spreadsheet or more detailed program like Divvy HQ.
22. Set Up Google Alerts
Using relevant keywords for your niche and set the delivery option to feed instead of by email, then click create!
Do one for each keyword, keyword phrase, your business name and any unique phrasing that you use on your websites and blogs.
23. Use an RSS Reader
Use an RSS aggregator like Feedly to subscribe to your favorite blogs or news source. Then log in to your account and spend five minutes each day sharing articles to your social networks.
24. Share Other People’s Content
A key ingredient to social media success is sharing other people’s content, not just your own. Take time to not only share others content, but tag them whenever you share.
Not only does this bring awareness to their personal brand, it is a great way to build rapport.
25. Cross-Promote Social Channels
Support all of your marketing efforts by cross-promoting your social media networks. Post a great article on Google Plus? Share that along with your Google Plus link to Twitter.
Not everyone follows you on the same social network. Make sure they know where you are and how easy it is to engage with you across multiple channels.
26. Share Quotes
When all else fails, never forget the power of a shared quote. Social media fans and followers of all kinds love a good quote.
Spend a few minutes researching quotes relevant to your niche. Pick the best one and build a short post around it. (Tip: Write a bunch of evergreen, quote-based posts and keep them on tap for days when you’re really stuck for time or topic ideas.)
Read Part 2 from Peg Fitzpatrick: 26 tips to create social media magic for your business
Need more inspiration? Check out these awesome articles:
Magic Tips for Social Media Tools and Technology – 101 fantastic social media technology tool tips from Ian Cleary that you can use to promote your business on social media.
The 50+ Best Ways to Curate and Share Your Favorite Social Media and News Content – How to quickly find and share the best content on the web.
Awesome article to remind people just how much goes into just staying active in the social world. A lot of people thing they can just set these things up and let the sit there unused.
Thanks!
Hello Rebekah,
First I want to say thank you to share this awesome article 🙂
We know that social media is a great source to get instant traffic and build good connections with our audience.
Learned lot from your article .
Regards
Priya Singh.
Nice post,
Your blogs are very useful here and especially to this blog, which provide this point information, I have received lots of help to read this blog post, please continue to share this kind of information.
Thank you.
Nice Post
This is the most effective way, thanks for sharing helpful info on your blog
Thanks
Leave a comment on a frequented blog, great idea?
*snare drum*
But really, great article. You always have such excellent advice!
Before reading this article my knowledge about social media optimization is very limited. But this article has provided me an immense info about to get traffic from social media. Thanks Rebeka.
Great ideas for an overall presence, Rebekah. Would you happen to know anything about using BuzzSumo?
Hello Rebekah! I was reading your article on how to generate massive exposure with G+ and am so happy I clicked over to check out this article WOW> I truly needed loved this one and I am going to implement your idea for the social media calender right now..
What a great way to keep track of what you have done as well as how to track the results. Love It Love it!! Of course there were many more tips here that I am going to implement as well..
Thanks for sharing.. Chery :))
I’m so glad I saw mention of this post in my Google+ Stream Rebekah. Having another SMM Pro recommend these 26 social media apps, tools and tactics to create SMM magic is perfect timing.
If its OK by you, I would love to include this article in my upcoming piece on how to manage your social media presence, especially since you reference many of the apps, tools and tactics I use in my SMM efforts. Like you, I’m a huge fan of Commun.it and Feedly is one of my best sources for finding awesome content like this article.
The only thing I would add to your awesome SMM compendium would be the Scoop.it platform. As you reference in Tip #25 Cross promote to your other social channels. This is where Scoop.it shines!
PS: Check your #18 YouTube and SlideShare 😉
Hi Rebekah,
First I want to say thank you to share this awesome article 🙂
We know that social media is a great source to get instant traffic and build good connections with our audience.
Learned lot from your article .
Regards
Jyoti Chauhan
Awesome list. Will definitely share this with our job seeker list!
GREAT ideas. Saved this one to Pocket to resort back to as it’s certainly going to take some time to implement. You could have used the 52 as gradually implementing one per week lol
That was a fantastic article, Rebekah. Both concise and comprehensive that somehow cleverly disguises how much work you put into it- great job & much appreciation to you. I am looking forward to reading more of your articles in 2014.
Social media is often overwhelming to newcomers (surprisingly, there are still newcomers to SM) so I advise my clients to start slowly and do it properly rather than spreading themselves too thin everywhere, or worse abandoning their platforms. Your list is a great checklist for people to work through as their time allows.
My favourite time-saving advise to all my clients is to integrate their platforms so that they feed each other & hopefully pulls more followers.
Latest list for social contact to build. Thanks to Rebekahradice.
Hi Rebekah,
awesome tips!
This is such great information.
I knew some of the platforms you suggesting
Would you recommend using the Google calendar?
I like Listly and the way you can embed a list in a blog post and it even gets updated right there on the post when you add to the list.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!
Cheers,
Very useful, comprehensive list! I tried to subscribe to your blog on my iPad but got a message that the RSS feed does not support email. ?
Thanks for letting me know Robert. I haven’t had any trouble with it in the past, so I appreciate the heads up.
Seemed to work today. Stupid computer tricks!
Very nice article. I will share this with my readers.
Hi Rebekah,
A fantastic resource and collection!
Anyone looking for some ideas or tips from the pros will certainly be impressed and be able to accelerate their social media awesome-ness in no time!
Great job
ashley
Great list! Just bookmarked it.
Hey Rebekah,
Oh my, a well written one indeed! I like the social media calender. I really have not try yet but certainly looks promising. Oh yes, G+ community. Recently, it exploded my traffic and I am loving it!
Yes all it tooks was being active. Heh~
Thanks for sharing!
Hello Rebekah,
Wow! Such a comprehensive list. I know I am doing some of these already but Google+ communities is a place where I have not been very active so far. I think you have pushed me through this post and I am going to start paying attention to some of the items you have listed here.
Thank you for sharing and adding value. Not just sharing, I am going to put this in my list of things to refer to once in a while.
Regards,
Kumar
Real cool, easy to follow tips! some of them are basic but worth to keep in mind on our daily basis. Thanx. I will promote this article.
This article was amazeballs! I had no idea you could do so much on Google+. I’ve tried hangouts but that’s about it. I’m very haphazard with my social media so I’m really going to use this article as a guide to step up my game! Thank you so much for posting. 🙂
You epitomize social media magic, Rebekah! I love how generous you are with all your suggestions and how you write out all your tips in such an accessible way, which which makes them all seem do-able. I also love how you write all your articles in such a positive way, leaving the reader inspired to go out into the world and take your tips to heart, rather than more confused and even less likely to begin than they were before reading the article, as can often be the case with some authors who talk down to their readers and over-complicate things just to boost their own egos! I can’t wait to read Peg’s 26 upcoming magical tips 🙂 Happy Friday/weekend, Rebekah and, as always, excellent article!!!
Awesome article. You mentioned a lot of great tips. I pretty much have my social media platforms covered. I can always work on better optimizing my profiles though. I also need to look into some management tools too. Thank you for such a thorough list!
~ Jodene
Powerful list of tips. Many of them are already in my arsenal – some are not applicable. For instance Tumblr is for a very young audience and definitely not my target audience. Stumble – I agree it’s not quite the powerhouse it use to be, but I still get quite a bit of traffic from there. Looking forward to the rest of the list!
Hi Rebekah. You really have put it all together here! I don’t know what’s coming next, but one secret I’d add is native advertising. On Facebook, native ads in the News Feed generated 49-times higher click-through rates and a 54% lower cost-per-click than traditional placements. Before investing on native ads, marketers must identify where their audience is first. That goes for the choice of platform, as well as the choice of site where your ads will be shown! What are your thoughts on it?
Excellent point Adella. I have had huge success with native ads on Facebook. In fact, it was for a while the most substantial portion of my marketing budget due to their superior performance.
Hey Rebekah,
Commenting is perhaps my best and most favorite strategy. I do have many of these in my collection of strategies, but I don’t use them very well. I definitely need to finalize on my social media strategy, before launching the blog (Right now, I am in the process of finding communities to engage with, mostly G+ communities. I haven’t found any good ones yet. Hopefully, I will be able to find 1-2 in the coming days).
Anyways, I do appreciate you sharing this – thanks to Peg too 🙂 Have a wonderful weekend!
Hi Jeevan! G+ communities have been a big resource and traffic provider for me. Join me and Peg in our community I mentioned above – Closing the Google+ Gap.
Here’s the link: https://plus.google.com/communities/101709091817958049388?
Thank you so much for the link to the Closing the Gap Google+ community, Rebekah! I can’t believe I didn’t know about it 🙂 Just joined and am excited to read the posts!
Nice List!
These are the basics of social media and yet many of these ways are missed by users. Thank you for listing them down together, hope it creates the desired awareness. Waiting for the next list.
Thanks Dave! There’s a lot of to-do’s when it comes to social media. Lists are always my favorite way to take the overwhelm out of all of it.
Hi this is pretty much great article , hoosuite is amazing tool for me. I also use buffer for posting posts & other stuffs. Google alerts is also very good to get alerts about your specific needs. Feedly is one stop destination to read your content.
Google alerts are a great tool Jitendra. I use them to keep up with multiple keywords. It’s a great way to monitor your name and your business.
Thanks for the advice. I am at a point in my company where I must embrace Social media in order to reach our goals. We have been in the Gourmet Sauce and seasoning business for a little over 8 years now. We have built up somewhat of a name for ourselves but have stayed small. Now though we are faced with some choices do we really go all out or just stop all together.. So here we are going all out. Challenging yes on a shoestring budget so all the advice we can get is much appreciated.
Great advice on using social media. With practice and persistence we will be able to master social media.
Whew! That was a really comprehensive list. And a great tool to check what I’m doing and could be doing with my social media strategy.
Thanks for sharing!
Great article to remind people just how much goes into just staying active in the social world. A lot of people thing they can just set these things up and let the sit there unused.
Thank you Osco!