For business owners and entrepreneurs, keeping up is essential as an increasing number of consumers look to social media for answers to their most pressing questions.
With 97% of consumers now using the internet to research a business before making a decision to move forward, building a solid social media presence is more critical than ever before.
But where do you begin?
Managing, maintaining and growing a substantial multi-channel social presence can feel like an overwhelming challenge.
While social media sites such as Google+, Facebook and Twitter are excellent at facilitating conversation, knowing how to maximize time (and money) spent on each one can evade even the most well-versed marketer.
Below are eleven tips you can implement today!
Quick Tips to Boost Social Media Results
1. Stay Relevant
Post relevant, insightful, and informative content on a regular basis. What’s new in your industry?
Keep your finger on the pulse of what’s hot and share that along with your thoughts around the topic. Create a conversation through compelling content!
2. Be Valuable
Mаkе ѕurе that content we talked about above рrоvіdеѕ real vаluе tо уоur readers.
Understand their needs and share solutions, tips, advice and guidance that allows them to make educated decisions.
3. Build Credibility
Ensure that уоur information verifiable, reliable аnd a direct reflection of your products аnd services.
There is never a time when inaccurate or misleading marketing is acceptable.
4. Share Tweetables
Make your posts and tweets shareable. The more pertinent, insightful, and targeted your content, the more likely your followers and fans are to share it.
5. Listen Up
Create a simple way to listen to what is being said across your social media channels. No one wants to be talked “at.” They want to be talked “with.”
Listen and then engage in conversations important to those that follow you.
6. Get Social
Social media is a two-way conversation. If you are going to make the most of your time on social media, you must be interactive.
Ask questions, share your thoughts, and offer feedback that shows you are truly interested in the conversations happening around you or your business.
7. Build Relationships
Take your conversations one step further and begin to build relationships. It is poor social etiquette both offline and online to simply blast out a message.
Don’t put up a brick wall of content between you and your followers. Ensure that you are accessible and quick to respond.
8. Start Talking
Get out and engage! Visit Google+ profiles, Facebook pages and Twitter followers to begin to build awareness around your personal brand.
Disclaimer: This is not about being spammy. It is an opportunity to offer valuable insight and build a solid reputation in the online space.
9. Set Goals
Define what your goals are and then put them in writing. Determine who you are trying to reach, what makes you unique, and what results your are looking to achieve.
Do this now before you begin throwing content out there without a plan.
10. Strategy Wins
Identify a system or tool that will allow you to stay consistent.
Whether it is a third-party management tool like Sprout Social or a social media content calendar, put it in place to manage your time and content.
11. Embrace Success
While there are plenty of social media strategies or success tips that you can follow, I would encourage you to keep it simple. Simple is sustainable and a sustainable social media strategy creates consistency, visibility and credibility.
Let go of the “shoulda, woulda, gotta’s” when it comes to social media, and just focus on what works best for you. Focus and consistency will allow you to quickly embrace social media success!
I would say that these are the valuable tips to improve the social media results. I am part-time blogger and I used to stay active on social media sites. I know the value of getting social cues for the blog posts and so am doing it perfectly.
I use social bookmarking sites and formed a community for my blog to get social signals for my blog posts logically. Moreover, I am active in justretweet and triberr. As Google and other search engines consider social evidences as one of the ranking factor, it is good to stay active on social media.
Thanks for your tips, will follow them to advance my social presence 🙂
Good advice Rebekah – I like the punchy style of your guide too. Earlier this week we hosted some social media workshops for artisan traders from local street markets here in the UK, with advice which definitely overlaps with yours. I always advocate the 9/10 rule for Twitter; or 1/3 rule for Facebook – sharing:self promotion. Avoid being Mr Hard Sell, and instead be generous, sharing and engaging. Here’s the blog post, if useful: http://avalanchepr.co.uk/social-media-workshop-notes/
“Mr. Sell Hard” really gets in the way of creating real relationships for sure Jennie. It’s difficult to endear people to us when all we do is shove information down their throats and never bother to engage in conversation.
Valuable tips to follow. Especially liked number 9. Set your goals so that you know what path to follow. Thanks for the share.
Number 9 is so important Lynne. You need to know what you’re working towards and refer back often to ensure you’re staying on track.
Great post Rebekah, thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. It is obvious that you absolutely, hands down know social media in an out. I did not realize that the number of consumers who consult social media before they make a buying decision was so high.
I have seen the number of interactions on social grow by leaps and bounds the past few years, but that is truly an incredible statistic.
That is an amazing number, isn’t it Stephen? Definitely speaks to me as a marketer. Hard to believe that there are still some people who don’t believe in the power of social media to get the word out about their business.
Rebekah this points are so spot on.
As commenter said media without social is more or less nonsense.
Engagement is key and as you said one needs to sit back and device a strategy that works.
Rebekah, thanks for sharing.
Absolutely Peter! Engagement is critical is businesses want to truly be effective in using social media to build real relationships that translate into buying customers.
All excellent tips, especially #9. Setting goals is so important and I think, unfortunately, often times overlooked. Measuring KPIs each month is something that must be done. You can’t improve what you don’t measure, right?
I completely agree with the importance of #9 Adam. It’s incredibly important that we measure our KPI’s and continually adjust based on results. The beauty of social is how fluid it truly is.
Social media without true engagement is like pizza without cheese. Why bother? If you take the social out of media … it’s just media.
Great analogy Eli…especially since it’s about one of my favorite foods. 🙂
I second that notion. Pizza without cheese is …ahh, not pizza. Rebekah, this was a wonderful and very concise article. Thank you so much for sharing your insight. I look forward to more of your posts. I’ve tried to sign up for your newsetter but for some odd reason it’s not going through.
Spot on Rebekah!
These are tips that everyone should follow on social media. It is a two-way street like you mentioned.
We can start a conversation and we can join them. I just love Social Media and do have my time set that I’m on it. So I get to enjoy, learn, and make new friends.
Last week was so impressive for me on Facebook. As you know, I had to put my 20 years young dog down. It was traumatic and the worst possible choice to have to make emotionally, but logically it had to be done.
When I posted about it on Facebook I could not believe the support I got. There were over 65 people responding to me and tons that PM’d me. It made me realize that social media was the best support group I was ever in!
-Donna
It is incredible to see how our “friends” on Facebook or followers on Twitter can rally around us, isn’t it Donna? I saw the outpouring of love when you had to put your sweet dog to sleep. It was beautiful!
That just proves what an amazing job you’ve done connecting with people and allowing them to get to know the real you. You’re a testament to how social media should be done.
Hi Rebekah,
I enjoyed reading your post. You have given some great advice to help working with social media. It baffles me that some people still do not get the simple message and tips you give above. Thanks again.
Have a great day. Monna
It does me as well Monna, but sometimes it’s the simplest of things that trip people up. I see it everyday.
I love this post Rebekah and am going to send it out to all my clients and particularly I have a Facebook group and people still do the hit and run style of marketing, no engagement just look what I am selling… I am beginning to think it is lazy as this is not new – social media requires a strategy and engagement not just a post in a few groups and your page and profile and Twitter too benefits from engagement…thanks for continuing to inspire others and hold that energy for boosting social media!
Thank you Sarupa! It’s amazing to see that people still don’t get that social media is about engagement, not blasting out a message.
I’m so glad to hear you continue to raise the bar and hold those that take the “lazy” approach towards social media to a higher standard!
It’s essential to be social online, no matter what kind of business you’re building.
You’ve given a great synopsis of methods for implementing a social media strategy to be relevant while building important relationships with peers and prospects alike.
Thanks for the clear road map you’ve given us here, Rebekah.
Nice tips. I think for most people I know the challenge is investing the time to build relationships – especially on Twitter. But I certainly agree that it’s important to have goals and a plan, and equally important to review and update that plan based on what’s happening in your business.
Number 6 and 7 are important for me… it’s tough sometimes to connect online but building that relationship is as important as it is offline! Communication and service are key!!
I like number 6 best because I think it’s most important. It’s more challenging to have a conversation on social media because we don’t usually get an answer right away, like we do on the phone or in person. Therefore, it can be hard to keep the conversation going or to make it meaningful.
Very true Julieanne. It’s tough to get them started and keep them going. But once you do, that’s where it gets really exciting!
#9 Setting Goals is so VIP to help me stay motivated! I really enjoy the planning process and watching the progress as I work towards my goals… and helping and mentoring others to do the same. Thanks for the great tips!
As always, clear, direct, and to the point. Useful points made! Thanks again!