Social media is a massive industry and for bloggers, it’s a channel for them to market their content quickly. If you visit any company website, you’ll notice they have profiles on the biggest social channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. The niche doesn’t matter and it’s vital you have a social marketing channel to promote your business. This is why the growth of these networks has been enormous in recent years. However, just like SEO when targeting different keywords, writing content, and building links, you have to know what social strategy produces the best results. For example, different types of content will resonate with different people. You have to pay close attention to the format because, depending on the niche, images might perform better then text. Next, what social network is right for your business because you have a handful of options all offering something unique?
When utilizing social media in your marketing, it’s important to pay close attention to specific factors. These will help you choose the right strategy for you, increasing engagement, brand awareness, and overall growth.
Let’s jump right in and questions are welcome in the comment box below.
Who is Your Audience?
I know you’ve heard this before and I’ll reiterate it here because knowing your audience is important, no matter what your objective. For example, you can’t write content, build a marketing strategy, or build a social strategy without knowing who your readers are. This is why the importance of knowing your audience has been discussed by experts in the industry. If you want to develop the right social media strategy, then it’s important you know who you’re marketing to. By creating a simple outline, you’ll know what channels to use and content to “share” when published. How can you find out your audience?
Use the following:
- Research your competitors
- Track Google Analytic statistics
- If you’ve been blogging for years, then check your comments and/or social shares
- Check social profiles of competitors and read followers’ bio
Know Your Purpose
It’s important you know what you’re trying to achieve through social media marketing. I’m not saying your overall objective in your business, but strictly through social media. For example, many people use social media to build brand awareness, generate traffic, increase followers, or network with other influential bloggers. Write down your objective so you are clear of your objective once you start marketing. However, you need to be very detailed in your objective because it will help you make the right decisions. Here’s something I did:
When I first started blogging, I used social media to increase brand awareness. However, I narrowed this down even more by specifying what specifically about my brand. I wanted to increase brand awareness of my content and SEO tools I was promoting. By writing this down, I was able to create the right type of content for social media. I wrote product reviews and created attractive images to increase exposure.
When creating a social media objective, it’s important to be as precise as possible.
Know Optimal Format
Different social media networks attract different types of content and some perform better than others. For example, Pinterest is about attractive images and Twitter about headlines and images combined. It’s best to find out what works for you and this will depend on your niche. If you write lengthy content, then you might want to post images that compile everything into an illustration; however, you can also use engaging headlines. Here’s my point…
Social media marketing is about testing what works specifically for your niche. You should always test different content types and stick with the ones that work best. Here are some you might want to run an initial test with…
- How-to content
- Video tutorials
- Image and/or infographic
- Quotes
- Resource lists
Know #Hashtags
The right social media strategy should always be about getting your content in front of the right people. Once you know your audience, this won’t be too hard. For example, imagine getting your content in front of people with 20,000 followers, which can convert into enormous relevant traffic. Use #hashtags to organize your content so it’s seen on the right channels. I use hashtagify.me to find popular hashtags to embed into my “tweets” and suggest you do the same because it provides you all the information you need. Utilizing hashtagify.me is very easy and you start by searching with your “target” keyword. This tool will generate #hashtags that are relevant and trending, then you add them to your “tweets” before posting them. Using this tool is a great way to get your content in front of popular #hashtags that others are utilizing.
Start by testing a few keeping track of the click through’s by utilizing bitly.com. Once you have enough statistics, you can continue to use those that increase your brand and traffic flow.
Know Your Timing
Different niches will perform better during different times on social channels. It’s recommended you test different posting schedules to find the right day and time for you. This doesn’t have to be a long tedious process because you can automate your posting. For example, bufferapp.com is a great way to schedule “tweets” on different dates and times, but you need to have a clear tracking system in place. Because the objective is to find the right posting schedule, it’s important you use Bitly.com, bufferapp.com, and Google Analytics to keep track of the click throughs. After 30 days, you’ll have enough data to know what time and day is optimal for your social media campaigns.