Introduction
Have you ever been really stressed out about social media? Well if you have, you are not alone! This is a very common worry for anyone working in the social media industry. Our goal is to make this process easier on you and provide methods to take some stress off of social media posting. So make sure to check in weekly to read about detailed tips that will make your life easier!
1. Planning
Take a picture and post it to Facebook then your social media is done! Right? Wrong! From the outside looking in social media can look like play. However, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes analysis and time put into every single post. Now, if you ask someone who works in social media marketing they will tell you how challenging it is to create a robust social media content calendar. They will also say that the only way to stay afloat in the industry is to spend an abundant amount of time planning.
A survey by BrightLocal found that 83% of marketers believe that social media is necessary to support their business. So it is very important to spend time planning on how your business will utilize this cutting edge tool. Planning can mean a lot of different things! For example, planning can refer to creating a content calendar, analyzing plans that have worked in the past, or even spending time selecting images to help define what your company stands for.
Over the next 10 weeks we will be explaining these three ideas and many more to help you better understand the keys to success when promoting your business on social media.
Check in with us next week to learn about consistent style and branding!
2. Consistent Style and Branding
Make sure you are always updating across social media outlets to keep your followers happy and don’t let certain ones lag behind! Whether it is Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or another social media site, make sure that you have a consistent name for your business across all the platforms. Also, make sure to include other ways to get in contact with your business so customers know how to reach you! This could be a link to your website, customer service email/phone number, or your office phone number.
In addition, spend time establishing a brand for your social media pages by using the same colors and images throughout all your profiles. This will allow your followers to recognize your social media pages when they travel to different sites. It will also make your company appear more professional and organized!
With the number of local business pages on Facebook increasing above 65 million, it is important to be consistent on your social media outlets while also making sure your business stands out. A great company to follow is Apple because of their ability to establish a brand that everyone can identify. Every commercial and every ad is very simplistic which follows the guide they have created over the last 50 years.
So go check and see how you are establishing your brand and don’t forget to check in with us again next week for another tip!
3. Creating a Content Calendar
Creating a content calendar is critical to becoming an organized marketer on social media. Now, we are going to give you the steps on how to create a useful content calendar! Start by drafting the posts and then add the images you would like to use next to them. Then, you can start adding the dates and times you would like to post them. At this point, you can reorganize the posts to make them flow better and match up with significant events that are coming up. For example, you can schedule a post for December 25th that has to do with Christmas! While this helps keep your business on track for when you make social media posts, it also gets your followers on a schedule for when they are expecting your content.
Once you create a content calendar, it also allows you to use sites like Hootsuite to put all your posts together and schedule the times you would like them to be posted. Trust me this makes life a lot easier! This allows you to spend a few consecutive hours working on a schedule rather than constantly having to go in and make individual posts throughout the week.
But when setting them up to post, make sure you do not schedule them too often and annoy your followers! There are social norms that are important to know in order to satisfy your followers. For example, posting once or twice a day on facebook is ideal and posting around 2 or 3 times a day on Instagram will be the most effective. In the end, you should continue to post as long as you have the content and are consistent on how often you post.
Keep an eye out for another tip next week!
4. Increase Engagement
Want to increase engagement on social media and get feedback on a product or service? Who doesn’t? Try posting two images and have people like for the left image and comment for the right image. The “split post” technique is a great way to increase engagement and is also another way to collect valuable data from your followers!
If you have a new product coming out and want to hear your customers perspective on which version they like better, try this technique and analyze the results. This will also increase the likelihood of your post being shared on social media because your followers will be wondering what their friends prefer.
Another way to increase engagement is by posting an image that catches the eye of the user. With millions of people posting images every day, it is the marketers job to try and get the user to stop scrolling and spend time looking at their post. A great example of how this was implemented can be seen when analyzing the Fyre Festival marketing team.
While the Fyre festival turned out to be a huge scam, the social media marketing team was very successful with their promotions. One post they made was just a bright orange box that tagged fyrefestival in the middle of it. This was out of the ordinary and made the user stop scrolling and wonder what it meant. Now that they had the users’ attention, they could direct them to the desired destination which was a video showing previews of the “revolutionary” festival. This orange box spread like a wildfire and after a short while everyone heard about the festival. Remember that these marketing techniques are successful because they stand out in a sea full of posts on social media!
More PRxDigital Social Media tips coming soon!
5. Analytics
Have you ever wondered how far your social media posts are reaching? If so, you can easily find out by using analytics on social media platforms to help better understand what your followers want! For example, it is really easy to see how your page is doing by going to the “Insights” tab on Instagram. To find this, go to your profile and click the three bars in the upper right hand corner and look for “Insights”.
Note: You must make your profile a business account in order to access insights.
This page allows you to analyze a lot including:
How many times your post was seen
How many people have visited your profile
How many accounts your business has reached
Number of impressions (how many times your content was displayed on a screen)
The “Insights” page is also easy to find on Facebook:
Open your facebook page.
Click “Insights” at the top of your page, but if you don't see “Insights” then click more.
Click sections on the left for more information.
So make sure you check that page here and there to see how your account is doing! If you find that you aren’t doing as well as you hoped, then keep reading our tips over the coming weeks to strengthen your social media presence.
Another tip coming next week!
6. Monitoring Comments
When your customers have a problem with your product, where will they go to vent? Studies show that 45% of consumers go directly to social media if they have any questions or issues about a product or service.* If you have an unhappy customer on social media, it can quickly multiply. Keep your our followers on social media happy by responding to them when they have an issue and reassure them it will not happen again. This will build respect and trust between your business and your customers while also leading to more consistent visits to your profile. There will be more consistent visits to your profile because your followers will feel like their input is being considered whenever they comment. Also, in this case, social media is another channel to provide customer service or direct the consumer to the correct outlet to get their questions answered.
While 88%* of marketers find it important to provide customer service through social media, it is really easy to gloss over a comment and lose track of a possible customer. In order to prevent this, make sure that you turn on notifications for each social media app so that you know when someone comments on your post. This allows you to respond quickly and get your customer the information they are looking for.
When your followers feel heard they usually spread the word about your company.
Check in with us again next week for another social media tip!
7. Gain a Larger Presence
Did you know that over 100 million photos are uploaded to Instagram every day?
Using fun facts or “did you know” questions about your company are some of the many ways to hook your followers and grab their attention. There are many different ways to use a hook and grab someone’s attention but it will only work if you do so in a creative way. Once you do this, you have the viewers full attention and have the opportunity to tell them about something important. This can be a reminder about an important event or even a reminder about a deal that your business is offering.
In addition, a lot of marketers are misinformed when it comes to what their followers want. They are focused on posts that teach (61%), tell a story (58%), and inspire (53%), while consumers are looking for discounts and sales (73%), posts that showcase new products and services (60%), and posts that teach them something (59%)*. So, if you tailor a post towards what the customers are looking for, you will get better results and increase your social media presence.
Come back next week for another PRxDigital tip!
8. Selecting Visuals
The old saying goes that “a picture is worth a thousand words” so make sure you pick out the one that represents your post the best! A great way to do this goes back to our first tip and that has to do with planning. If you plan ahead of time and schedule out your future posts, you can gather images along the way. In fact, 58%* of consumers prefer visual-first content, with their main preferences being graphics, images and produced video. So, make sure your visuals really capture the meaning behind the text in your post.
For example, if your business hosted an event recently and are going to make a post to summarize how it went, you should definitely have someone designated to taking pictures of your members or customers having a great time.
Again it is very important to plan ahead of time when it comes to pictures so you are not scrambling to find a good picture and end up just picking one from an event five years ago!
Another social media tip coming to you next week!
9. Discounts and Sales
If your business sells a product or service, try to post deals and promotions to get people to visit your page and create a buzz around what you are selling. A great way to increase the number of customers you have is by having these offers solely on social media.
As stated in tip #7, 73%* of consumers on social media are looking for discounts and sales when following a business. Ike’s sandwiches realized that this was what their followers were searching for and had a very successful promotion by offering deals on social media.
Ike’s sandwiches offered a deal on St. Patrick’s Day and sold their sandwiches for $7 to anyone who had a copy of the coupon they posted on social media. Ike’s did a really good job here because they made the promotion feel exclusive since you would have to follow them on social media in order to know there was a deal. Also, by doing this, the word got out that they offer deals on social media and their number of followers instantly increased!
Another tip coming next week!
10. Paying for Promotions
If conventional posting is not as effective as you would like, consider paying for promotions through the different social media outlets. Prices range based on what the goals are for the company and what you want to achieve.
A way to do this using Instagram and Facebook is by paying for promotions or running an advertisement. Once you have made your account a business account, you can click the promotion tab on your profile page. These promotions and ads will reach a much larger audience and increase the number of followers on your business account.
Facebook is the most popular paid content promotion platform among marketers: 84%* of B2B marketers use it to regularly drive traffic to their content.
When setting up an ad on social media you can target an audience based on…
Demographics: location, age, gender, and language
Interests: specific interests important to users
Behavior: purchase behavior, intent, and usage
Connections: target those who are (or aren’t) connected with your Pages or apps
Now I’m sure all of you are thinking “how much do I have to pay in order to promote my business on Instagram?” The answer is that it will vary depending on the type of promotion you want. Since these social media sites are bidding platforms, you can specify how much you are willing to pay for a campaign. For example, on facebook you can bid on Cost Per Click, Impressions, Cost Per Action/Conversion and Cost Per Like. Then, the final price might fluctuate depending on the audience you are targeting, the quality of your ad, and the time of year you want to run your campaign.
That is all for the PRxDigital Social Media Tips series! We hope you enjoyed it and get ready for more series to come in the future.