So, you’re on Facebook; you’re Tweeting like mad; you’re Pinning everything the internet has to offer…what now?
The first thing – and I mean the VERY first thing – is to think about WHY. You know you want followers, what business doesn’t? So the big question is WHY you want followers.
Simple: you want to nurture a network of interested potential customers who will be receptive to your products and will share your information with other potential customers. Soooo…how do you do that?
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2 Underestimated Twitter Features That Generate Website Traffic
1) Move Slowly But Surely
If you get a hundred Likes in a day through your latest campaign – great. But are they valuable followers who will stick around?
Think of your network as ripples on a pond: first, spread the word of your new campaign to your closest contacts – friends, family, colleagues. They can then share with their close contacts, and so on. This might seem like a lengthy operation, but it ensures that your reach is wide but organic – in other words, it’s REAL.
2)Know Your Audience
Although it’s getting harder to pigeon-hole social media users, here’s a basic outline of how to target different audiences:
- Facebook: People browse Facebook when they’re bored, so you have their attention for a comparatively lengthy time. Make sure your posts don’t just look like everyone else’s though: we’ve all developed quite the spam filter!
- Twitter: Create punchy, memorable and attention-grabbing one-liners that link to something interesting. This doesn’t have to always be your products, or your blog; it could just be something incredible that you want to share. Entertain your audience and they’re likely to listen when you have something company-related to share.
- Pinterest: Use lovely imagery (linking back to your website or blog) to encourage people to share your Pins – these can go all over the world in minutes. The audience here is largely female and interested in fashion, home improvement and photography.
- LinkedIn: Publish industry-specific articles, blogs and company updates. This is a more serious platform on which to show off your professional values.
3) Have Something to Offer
We all want something for nothing…or at the very least something for nearly nothing. When considering what a worthy trade is, you need to see beyond just that one Like or Tweet. Through every new follower, you gain access to potentially hundreds of new people.
It’s definitely worth offering something pretty awesome and totally guaranteed rather than something lame and raffled, for example “Pin your 10 favourite products for 10% off your first order with us”. It’s fun and free stuff for them – and it’s another huge marketing pool for you.
4) Time It Right
When is your target audience at its most receptive? A little amateur psychology comes in handy here. Typically, people are bored and killing time on Friday afternoons. They’re browsing Twitter while they’re watching TV. They’re checking LinkedIn on a dreary Monday morning. Think about where your ideal customer is RIGHT NOW and target that place and that mood.
5) Think About Who Is in Charge
Who’s going to plan, initiate, manage and analyse your social media campaigns? Hopefully most businesses are past the idea that social media is ‘for the kids’, but are you taking it seriously enough?
Not only do you need someone to dedicate a large part of their working week to monitoring your social media, you also need that same person to be assessing the success of each initiative. If that’s not something you can handle, think about talking to a social media specialist.
The key to getting the most out of social media for your business is planning. It may be fun, it may be fleeting, but it’s also an extremely serious area of marketing.
There have been some AMAZING social media campaigns over the last few years – any favourites to share with the class?
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This is a great post. Thanks for sharing.
It is important to know exactly WHY you are utilization social media platforms to build your business. We must ask ourselves what we are trying to achieve with each update. Create a thorough plan with each campaign.
Best,
Stacie Walker
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Thank you Honor for this post.
Knowing when it is the best time to reach out potential leads on Facebook is something I thought about at least once. I think that it may require some testing to know when people who are interested in a niche are more likely to click.
Thank you for sharing those tips about Pinterest users and thank you for mentioning what they are interested in.
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Social media, indeed, is a great tool for branding. It gets the message to your niche ten times greater than traditional print and media marketing.