As long as I’ve been online, the one tool that still overwhelms me at times is social media. I use Hootsuite and CoSchedule to help, but it’s still a lot to keep up on multiple networks for several blogs. So this week I asked WAH experts about their tricks and hacks to better manage social media. Their answers are presented below in no particular order.
Jay Denhart-Lillard, Yooniko
Only Connect. If you’re trying to build a following, the first step is to find out who’s already in the game, playing in the same topic areas as you want to be. Search out the profiles of people who are already interested in your kind of content, and start following them and asking to connect. If you’ve got enough in common, these people will form the nucleus of your social following and already be predisposed to like the content you’ll be bringing them.
Read A Ton. Don’t think that you have to launch into a bunch of content creation immediately. Instead, tap into the thinking and thought leaders that are already publishing, and read what they have to say. You’ll start to understand what the main hot topics are, and be better able to determine how you can stand out from the crowd later when you start publishing yourself. As a bonus, you’ll also be better positioned to spot who is a real mover and shaker in your field, and who’s a poser with nothing to add to the discussion!
Publish Or Perish. Eventually, you’ll want to start offering your own take on the topics of the day, and publish on LinkedIn, or Niume, or Facebook or some other platform where your audience is present. Be sure that when you start sharing your stuff that you’re still consuming and sharing other people’s content as well, though, since it can’t always be just about you.
Don’t Work Too Hard. You can schedule tweets and posts to all your social media accounts using tools like Buffer (Buffer.com) to space them out during the day, loading them up only once every week or so. And other tools like Edgar (meetedgar.com) can offer suggestions on what content to post, and scan past posts to find the best performing ones to reschedule and send out again.
Neha Gupta, Elite Private Tutors
Create Good Content: Whether you choose to regularly update your Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter accounts, make sure that what you are sharing is engaging, interesting or informative enough for followers and friends to share your content. We have found that posting our blogs to our sites is very useful and entertaining to our followers.
Update Posts Regularly: Try to update your Facebook status regularly, and connect your Facebook and Twitter posts to enable you to make the most of your time. We at EPT make use of Edgar to connect and schedule ahead of time all of our social media posts. We have found this to save our team lots of time!
Heather Heuman, Sweet Tea Social Marketing
Have an Outstanding Bio – The bio must not only be very well written but done so in a way that makes it laser-focused on how you help people in business. Always start the bio with exactly what you do and a call to action as to why people should click on the link in your bio. Perfect for Twitter and Instagram.
Create Blog posts spotlighting influencers in your market. Then, when promoting that blog post, do an @mention on Twitter and let them know they are included. For example if you create a blog called “10 Expert Financial Planners Offering Services Under $500” then you can promote 1 -2 of those people in each tweet until you have included them all. Great way to repurpose your tweet and change it up each time.
Use Smart and Relative Hashtags – If you want to have a targeted way for people to find you using hashtags, make sure you consistently use hashtags on social media postings that are popular keywords for the specific work you do. If you sell make-up, then using #skincare or #makeup on your posts will make it easier for potential customers to find you. A source like http://hashtagify..me/ is great for finding those specific hashtags you want.
Henry McIntosh, Twenty One Twelve
Create a Plan:I’ve asked this question to a lot of experts. Interestingly, an answer that kept cropping up was to create a plan. I think this is great advice, you need to ensure every post is evocative of your brand and stays true to the image and ethos you want to portray. You also want to keep it consistent. If one minute you’re bombarding people with posts and then you’re silent for weeks you will lose followers incredibly quickly. Stay consistent with how much and why you post. The easiest way to do this is by creating a plan. I tend to map out plans each week, as if it’s too long term things are subject to change. Obviously you don’t need to stick rigidly to it, but it helps.
Utilise Free Software: Being a solopreneur you need to bootleg as much as possible to keep costs down. I do everything in my power to keep costs down whilst making my social activities more efficient. There is a wealth of free software to help you accomplish this. A few I like are:
-Tweetdeck: manage multiple accounts and schedule tweets
-Latergram.me: schedule Instagram posts
-Canva: optimise images for social media and create cool graphics
If you’re running a business you’ve probably noticed that your posts aren’t reaching all of your fans on Facebook. This is due to Facebook’s algorithm, which only shows your posts to 16% of your fans who are online at the time you post. Given this it’s worth figuring out when the majority of your fans are online to determine the optimum time to post. You can do this by clicking on “Insights” at the top of the Business’ home page and visiting “Posts”. Of course, you may face more competition during peak times, so it’s worth testing the optimum times and days for posting- each business is different.
David D. Simons, Kingdom Social Media
Utilize your Facebook Cover on your business page to promote your lead magnet so people that visit your Facebook page immediately get plugged in to your email newsletter. Check out my page for example: Facebook.com/KingdomSocialMedia
On Twitter make sure your offer or lead magnet is pinned as the first thing so that people can once again get connected to your email newsletter.Here is my Twitter page for example.
Use “Facebook Professional Services” to network and connect with local business owners. Then one can reach out out to them personally through messenger because most Facebook pages are managed by the business owners themselves
David James, David James Studio
Post consistently and talk often. Because social media is meant to be a conversation, you will find little success by only engaging in it every once in a while. Post often. Contribute to the conversation. Then, reach out to others talking about similar subjects. I’ve met a lot of friends like that.
Be relevant. Develop your persona and stick to it. In television, they call it your perspective. I am an artist and author. I am inspired by art and the world around me. My worldview is simple and natural. I stick to what I’m best at. And I make whatever I say relatable to what’s happening today.
Wait for the right opportunity to sell. The first pitfall anyone makes when selling products online is selling on social media. Gary V put it in terms of a boxing match: before you land the right hook, you have to set it up. Only sell your product to someone when they’ve ready for it.
Leanna Johnson, Lost Lass
Find the social media channel that you are most comfortable with for marketing, don’t burn yourself out trying to be everywhere at once.
Scheduling social media with programs like Hootsuite, Klout, or Buffer will make creating that online presence not only easier, but much less stressful!
