Are you headed into the new year with a solid social media marketing strategy? You might be surprised by just how little effort it takes to shore up all of your online social channels.
Is your Twitter feed focused? Has your Instagram page been updated in the last month? Do you get any comments on your Facebook posts? You can get excellent returns for your business from social media if you just know where to spend your time.
7 Tips to Win at Social Media Marketing in 2017
Time
Since we just mentioned time, let’s start there. One of the biggest complaints about social media is that it’s a time suck and you can never be quite certain about the return on your investment. Blog posts, tweets, Facebook posts, and Pinterest pins all take time to craft, refine, and track to reach your target audience.
But what if you knew that most marketers only spend six hours per week on their social media strategy to see dramatic results? According to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report for 2015, 64% of marketers use social media for six hours or more weekly and 66% of those marketers see lead generation benefits with social media.
Observe the competition
You ever hear about how good artists copy, but the great ones steal? While no one condones plagiarism, you can look at what your competition is doing on social media and take inspiration from their tone, humor, photos, and frequency of posting.
YouTube and LinkedIn
Both of these platforms are gaining popularity among the B2B crowd. LinkedIn keeps the tone professional, but provides a platform for you to appear like an expert in your field. YouTube channels accommodate the exploding popularity of video content to get your point across.
Don’t have time to create a blog or video content? Consider handing off content creation to a lower-level employee or assistant who wants to show off some skills or hire a freelancer who will deliver posts on a regular basis.
Amplify with employees
Most workers are growing increasingly savvy on social media, and smart companies are using their staffers to amplify their messaging to a wider audience. While you can’t force your staff to participate, you can encourage it with workshops on best practices and incentives to push out your branded posts.
Optimization
Spending time on your social media channels doesn’t matter if no one can find it. Make sure you tailor your posts to fit the conventions of the platform. Twitter and Instagram posts require hashtags, while blog posts will surface in a Google search based on keywords in your headline and core keyword phrases. Include images and video in any post to increase visibility.
Advertising
Do you have a budget to spend on social media ads? If not, 2017 is year you should set aside a portion of your ad spend for each appropriate platform. Be prepared to track your ads to make sure you see results. Spend more on platforms that drive traffic to your business and lighten your spending on sites that offer little return on investment. Make sure to tweak your ad for each social media channel.
Know influencers? Use them!
You know all those business cards you collect at conferences and conventions? It’s likely that some of those people are highly influential in your field. Check out their social media feeds to see how many followers they have. Don’t just ask them to cross-post content out of the blue. Make sure to build up a relationship with the influencer, whether online or in real life. Then ask them if they wouldn’t mind giving a shoutout to your company.