Social media is playing a great role in many companies today. Whether you are in a small or large businesses, you need to get involved in the social media world. In fact, most businesses these days are utilizing social media as part of their marketing strategy. Entrepreneurs and business owners are now investing their time and effort in establishing their online presence through social media campaigns.
Another good thing about social media, apart from its obvious benefits which is to boost sales and brand awareness, is that it constantly changes. You have to stay active and educated about it for you to maximize its usefulness. You have to understand every platform and how you can use it to expand your audience reach and build your online influence.
To maximize the benefits you can get from it, applying the social media best practices of Guy Kawasaki, a chief evangelist, an in-demand speaker, entrepreneur, and famous writer, can help you build and manage your social media influence.
1. Start your social media campaign yesterday
A successful social media campaign doesn’t happen overnight. You have to start early or ahead of time in building your social media accounts in order to establish your online credibility and earn the trust of online users or your target audience.
If you what to see an immediate result, social media is not the right thing for you. This is a long-term project that requires continuing efforts, consistency, and persistence. There is no quick fix or short cut in a winning social media strategy. It takes time before you can reap the rewards of your social media efforts.
2. Pick the right social media platform that works for you
You don’t have to create profiles in all social networking sites because you cannot handle all of it. Choose only one or two platform that best cater your interest. Learn and understand the purpose of each social media service that will work for your content. If you want to connect with people you know and share personal things with them, Facebook is the right social media platform for you. If you are more into sharing your personal perceptions and reactions, use twitter. For sharing your passion, Google+ is the place to be and to reflect or express your interest, you can use pinterest. And for business development and job- search purposes, you should create a LinkedIn account.
3. Create a great social media profile
Social media profile is essential both in personal and business branding. You have to make a good first impression to your potential follower or visitor and you can only do that if you have a great profile. What makes a social media profile great? It should be likable, trustworthy, and looks competent. Choose a default photo of yourself which shows 90% of your face that people would like to engage with. Fill in your social media bio and let people know about your interest or your company’s goal, but don’t over share.
4. Seek out relevant contents and always credit your source
Sharing other people’s interesting posts can have an impact to your online reputation and audience reach. If you seek other relevant and high quality contents from credible sources this may serve a purpose on your networks. This expands your online influence and can add value to your branding.
5. Cheating is good when you’re in doubt
Yes, cheating is okay when you’re in doubt of what to update on your social media accounts. Checking on the hot topics on google+ or what’s trending in twitter is a best way to get involved and be part into the hype of social media. Retweeting and resharing topics and stories that has viral potential that people want to share can drive more traffic to your website. Cheating is normal and it creates an impression how active you are in engaging with other users.
6 Earn the right to promote yourself
Excessive self-promotion and advertising is a big no-no in social media marketing. If you want to gain more followers and subscribers, you have to prove them you’re worth following. Share not only promotional contents but rather informational and useful articles that benefits your audience. Kawasaki recommends to do a 20:1 ratio in posting information. 19 posts for compelling resources and 1 post for a promotional article. Do not use your profiles as direct sales platform, that’s not how social media marketing works.
7. The powerful effect of images and videos
There is truth in the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. In social media world, images, graphics, and videos matters in every post. Catching the audience attention is never easy. Words cannot do it on its own so you have to show some visuals to entice more followers. Finding creative images and videos is not hard to search anymore since there’s a lot of websites that offers extensive collection of images that suits all topics. To get more attention, use eye-catching photo and post it.
8. Be responsive to comments
It is a must to respond to your followers’ comments. A simple act of acknowledgement and appreciation to your readers for taking some time to read your post or visit your site has a positive effect on your online reputation. People will appreciate you and this can take your relationship with each other to the next level. Know how to appreciate whether they leave a positive or negative comment. Engage with your audience and the most effective way to do it is through having conversation on the comment section.
9. Keep calm and stay positive
Despite of how many trolls or attackers you meet in every content you post, ignore them. You can respond to their comment once but when they answer back, don’t respond anymore. If you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything at all. Think of it like you’re in a boxing match, if they hit you once (round 1) you can counterattack (round 2) but if they fight back again, never go beyond round 3.
10. Share post more than once
Reposting your contents in your social media can double your traffic and reach a wider audience. According to Guy Kawasaki, It’s not how much you post, it’s how good you post. People who took noticed of the repetitive posts don’t have a life. Don’t hesitate to repeat good contents multiple times because not all your followers have seen your first post. However, make sure not to overkill it. Set a specific schedule on when are you going to repeat your posts.
To catch up with Amber, follow her on twitter or visit her website edugeeksclub.com.
[Photo credit: flickr.com]
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