Additional menu

Rebekah Radice

Entrepreneur. Keynote Marketing Speaker. Social Media Author..

10 Golden Rules to Successful Social Media Marketing
Rebekah Radice Home » Social Media » 10 Golden Rules to Successful Social Media Marketing

10 Golden Rules to Successful Social Media Marketing

By 33 Comments

The business world today is rapidly changing.

Long gone are the days of passive marketing. Today, it’s necessary to get social, and stay active, relevant, and connected.

While social media continues to evolve, many businesses struggle to keep up.

So how should you use social media to attract, engage and build rapport with your audience?

Below are 10 golden rules to social media you every business should follow.

Golden Rules to Successful Social Media Marketing

  1. Repurpose Your Top Content

Writing quality content and sharing it on social media isn’t a one-and-done situation.

If it’s evergreen – content relevant today and a year from now – get that into a system.

  • Refresh that content into new media
  • Update the context within the social media post
  • Add new statistics or supporting information

This keeps your content up-to-date while multiplying your impact without doubling your cost.

  2. Write High-Quality Content

Quality vs. quantity, the age-old question across social media. But what does that mean, and how does it impact your posts?

Quality social media content is:

  • Personalized
  • Value-based
  • Timely
  • Informational
  • Relevant

Don’t worry about the number of posts, instead, focus on writing for your reader.

  3. Update Your Content on a Regular Basis

It’s not enough to write high-quality content. You must write and post often and with purpose.

Your readers, audience, and community members are looking to you as a resource. Keep them coming back by baking consistency into your social media plan.

4. Be Patient

Patience is a virtue, especially when building a social media presence.

Anything worth doing takes time. Invest your time in the right activities:

  • Build relationships
  • Grow audience engagement
  • Write compelling content
  • Track progress
  • Benchmark outcome
  • Make each interaction meaningful

Over time, this one strategy alone will be the key to your social media success.

  5. Stay Focused on Your Purpose

It’s easy to get caught up in “shiny object syndrome.” There’s always the newest, latest, and greatest social media strategy.

Choose to say no to what isn’t tested, and stay focused on what you’re building. Work your strategy with diligence.

Track progress and iterate based on user behavior and results.

6. Listen and Observe

Social media is an excellent listening tool.

Pay attention to the needs of your audience. What solution can you offer?  Listen through:

  7. Tag, Interact, Get Social

Tagging, mentioning, and interacting on social media is the fuel behind your success.

Sharing someone else’s article, want to highlight someone in your industry? Tag them, mention their name or business, then add context.

Give a reason behind what you’re sharing and why you found it valuable enough to share.

Here’s an example of what that looks like:

  8. Connect, Collaborate, Explore

Social media is a great way to connect with potential customers. It’s also a place to identify thought leaders within your industry.

Reach out, engage and interact through questions and feedback. Establish trust through consistent communication.

When you show a sincere interest in others, they’ll take a real interest in you.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Tracee Ellis Ross (@traceeellisross)

  9. Cross-Promote

Are you posting content to various locations? For example, Instagram is only one spoke in your marketing wheel.

Instead of posting to one channel, share content across various social channels. But make sure it’s updated for that network.

What plays well on LinkedIn doesn’t elicit the same response on Facebook. Keep your message on point for the audience you’re speaking with.

Dr. Beth Frates tweet is a great example. This is a good usage of hashtags on Twitter, but on Facebook – let’s just say we never got the hang of them over there.

  10. Never Forget Your Call to Action

What is a “Call to Action” (CTA)? It’s a phrase that encourages action. It convinces people to click and learn more.

Here’s a few:

  • Visit your website
  • Sign up for your mailing list
  • Buy a product
  • Answer a question
  • Tag a friend
  • Use your branded hashtag
  • Swipe up

Without a clear call to action, your audience isn’t clear whether they want to like, click or comment. Don’t leave that next step to chance.

Be clear, bold, and direct.

Affiliate Links


Full disclosure: Links on this page may be affiliate links which means that if you decide to buy, I will earn a commission. 3 things you need to know: I only recommend products I use within my own business, am extremely happy with, and can confidently promote.

WANT MORE CUSTOMERS?
Like most businesses, you’re on social media to attract more customers. But to do that, you have to stand out. Here's the best ways to use social media to attract more customers and drive more sales.
I hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ashish Ajani says

    So many good and really helpful points mentioned here which are important in success of social media marketing. Another thing with prime importance is be you, be fresh and be simple.

    Reply

  2. Neil Ferree says

    All of these 10 “Golden Rules” play a key role in any successful social media marketing strategy, but patience seems to be one of the bigger challenges for most small business owners I work with. In the “old days” building a link profile was easier more rapid than building a social connection that leads to a social relationship that leads to a new client in today’s social environment. I’m going to have to add this to my Listly Epic Articles since its 100% on the mark and as evergreen as they come. Nice work Rebekah.

    Reply

  3. Dev says

    Excellent blogpost,
    Content is the king, its must be written for audience, recently google the largest search giant has gone one step further directing IT entrepreneurs and content developers aka bloggers to prefer reference style writing as well as serve audience useful content by offering freebies etc. The value of content is enormous, one good example to this is wikipedia which accept reference style writing and always stands on top of SERPs without spending single penny on SEO.

    Reply

  4. Patrick Kallie says

    Hi Rebekah,

    Thanks for posting this video! It’s very informative and I learned some additional things that I have been overlooking. Most people that have businesses tend to think that social media is something that they can do later on.

    The time is now to start doing a social media campaign. Now I will start putting more time into Google plus. I really like your comment about engaging followers then to just go for shear volume.

    Thank you Rebekah!

    Reply

  6. Cole Wiebe says

    Hi Rebekah,

    10 Rules worthy of being etched into stone. Items 4 and 5 are the ones we encounter most in coaching clients, both in social media and blogging, and they seem to go hand in hand.

    People become impatient, waiting for their readership and influence to build for their chosen topic and field of expertise. They therefore decide they must be on the wrong track and choose a new shiny object they believe will get faster results for them.

    – Cole

    Reply

  7. Donna Merrill says

    Hi Rebekah,

    Social media is one thing I know that works! I meet people all the time from different social networks.

    Some say it is too time consuming but if one has a DMO (Daily Method of Operation) for it, it is easy as pie. The essential part is being consistent. I really don’t spend all day on social media, but have a plan I stick to very well and keep it going every day.

    I don’t ever use automation. I like to engage with people and grow organically…I find it is the best way to engage with others.

    So what happens with all of this? They eventually come to my blog and I go to theirs. Our blog is our home base, but then they get more interested in what I’m up to and eventually a business relationship is born.

    For me, that’s how I love to do business. Let them come to me instead of me pouncing on them. It is easy, more fun and lasts a long time.

    -Donna

    Reply

  8. Jeevan Jacob John says

    Hey Rebekah,

    Since I don’t have an active blog right now, most of my blogging time is spent on commenting and social media (commenting comes first :D).

    I am having success with social media so far. I am hoping that this will help to kick start my blog, when I launch it in January.

    As for my past experiences, I have used events such as Twitter chats, Plus Hangouts and my own FB page chats (I had tremendous success with it. Only disadvantage was that participants needed to refresh the page every min, since the real time comments wasn’t fast enough to reload all our comments). I am hoping to host something similar in the future – perhaps on Google Plus?

    Anyways, thank you for sharing the tips, Rebekah 🙂 Appreciate it! Hope you are having a good week.

    Reply

  9. Kumar Gauraw says

    Hi Rebekah,

    Our of these 10 points, I think I’ve largely ignored the “Power of Local” and I need to correct that mistake. That is going to be my next new year resolution in the blogging aspect of my overall new year goal setting.

    Thank you for this awesome reminder and helping so many bloggers and entrepreneurs with your 10 tips in this post.

    Happy Thanksgiving to you!

    Regards,
    Kumar

    Reply

  10. Chery Schmidt says

    Hello Rebekah! What a Great Post! We all know that people d business with people they know like and trust so it just makes sense to build relationships Right? Love the tips! Thanks for sharing Chery :))

    Reply

  11. Bill says

    I have a lot of experience with some of the points you make but not all of them. I tend to post a lot of other peoples content (with attribution of course) I tend to network, I post quality content.

    But the trouble is I am so incredibly inconsistent. I have been trying to work on the systems so that things happen smoother, like posting with the Hootsuite Hootlet, and trying to get engaged t least once a day on my Twitter stream but it is the Facebook Page and the Google+ page that I have trouble with as there is not much engagement unless you already have a following on the page. Is there ways to comment and like as the page owner instead of just as a person?

    Reply

  12. DarkRedman says

    This article is very interesting, I would enjoyed more if the rules had been developped a bit more but it’s still interesting and efficient.
    I hope it will help me to get better at reaching a wider audience.

    I may need advices : I’m a very eclectic person and so I can cover many subjects, but it doesn’t me I go outer than who I am, and what I’m interested in. But it’s hard to keep coherent when I share posts on social networks, because people tend to think it’s random. Also when I share it to my social networks (I’ve much followers on G+, and really less on Twitter) but most of time 0%-1% of folllowers react to it. I don’t know how to better catch people for that.

    I’ve to focus on points 1-2-3-10

    Reply

  13. angela says

    I have a little feedback for restaurants building their brand. Connect with bloggers who write about you. I am amazed how well this can work or not work, since I do write blog posts about restaurants. When the restaurant responds with gratitude, I will share much more, because I’m reminded. Recently a restaurant “noticed” my positive review a whole 18 months later and started connecting. It’s funny. Now they will often retweet my recipe posts, so better late than never. They must have hired a new person who knows how to connect. It’s disappointing, though, when a restaurant never responds as if the review didn’t matter (it’s always a shout out, because I don’t do negative ones). I think it’s an opportunity missed. (especially small, local places.)

    Reply

  14. JAC's Tailgaters says

    I have been on social media for years now but over the past several weeks I realized that was the extent of it I was just on it and never really used it for what it was a tool for my business, Yes I posted things that could boost my business but never really understood how to make sure those post really worked for me. I called it my point and shoot method and hope for the best. So now I am faced with the reality that this takes a lot of work and with me on a shoestring budget for my small business I cant afford a professional. So can I do it on my own is the question I continually ask myself and make an impact.. Video’s and article like these make a huge difference in my quest to begin a presence in the social media world. But any suggestions passed my way would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

    Reply

    • Rebekah Radice says

      It is an enormous commitment Jac and it’s great to hear you’ve been active, even if you feel there’s more you could be doing. Many don’t understand how much time and energy it takes to get your name and business out there. Congrats on sticking with it!

      Reply

      • JAC's Tailgaters says

        Thanks Rebekah! One of my main issues I see I am having is that when I started social media I filled it up with friends and like business not really focusing on the customers that shared interest in the products I am selling.. Have I been doing it all wrong for so long now that I may never become social currency?

        Reply

  15. Wade Harman says

    I think businesses can’t grasp the idea of social media because they can’t see their brand connecting on a personal level with people. I actually talked to a client of mine that told me he didn’t think he would ever build relationships this way.

    That’s a problem. These are all great tips Rebekah, but I think you nailed the most important one down when you talked about building relationships.

    Reply

    • Rebekah Radice says

      That’s a great point Wade and an opportunity most brands are still missing.

      Social media gives brands the chance to connect on a personal level simply by putting a voice and face to the company. Unfortunately, they’re so worried about everything being “just right,” they don’t know how to get started and most of all, how to have fun and enjoy the interaction with fans and followers.

      Reply

  16. Ashley says

    Hi Rebekah
    Such a tough issue for many businesses these days.
    I was just having a similar Skype call with someone here in Switzerland last week, and we were discussing that here it is even worse.
    People don’t even know about blogging or social media, and the extent that it affects their business. We are further behind than you guys for sure.
    But the rules you have presented will certainly help point people in the right direction!
    have a great week
    ashley

    Reply

Trackbacks

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *