It’s estimated that nearly one in four people worldwide are active users of social media. Brands that fail to utilize this tool as part of their marketing strategy will get left in the dust by their competitors. So if you’re struggling to generate (or maintain) a presence on social media, we have some tips to help.
Use BuzzSumo
What in the world is BuzzSumo and why should you use it? BuzzSumo is an online tool that can be used to find the most popular articles shared on social media. Using this tool, you can uncover hot new topics to post on social media. You enter a keyword, and it will reveal a list of the webpages that have the most Facebook likes, Twitter tweets, Google +1s, etc. BuzzSumo offers both a free and paid membership, with free members restricted to 10 results per search.
Facebook Page, Not Profile
One of the most common social media mistakes made by business owners is using their personal Facebook profile for commercial and/or marketing purposes. Not only is this against Facebook’s terms and conditions, but users cannot like a Facebook profile, rendering it an effective marketing tool. Instead, set up a dedicated Facebook page for your brand, using it to promote your business.
Go Beyond Facebook
Sure, Facebook may hold the title as being the world’s most popular and widely used social media network, but there are other sites out there as well. To maximize your brand’s exposure, it’s recommended that you create profiles/accounts on all of the leading networks, including Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Sure Starbucks may be a huge organization, but even small businesses can pickup insight on how to sell to their community from the way Starbucks rocks Instagram. Social media presence can provide great user generated content and buzz about your brand.
Know Your Audience
You can’t expect to have a successful social media campaign without first understanding your target audience. In other words, who exactly is going to be looking at and following your social media accounts? You can use Facebook Insights (found on your page settings) to reveal audience demographic, such as gender, age, geographic region and more.
Content Matters
Of course, the single most important step in maintaining a presence on social media is to publish new content on a regular basis. There’s really no magic formula regarding the frequency of new posts, as it varies depending on a number of different factors. However, I recommend making at least one new post per day for each social media network. If you have trouble remembering to post daily, you can always use a third-party tool like HootSuite to schedule them in advance.
