1. CREATE A SCHEDULE
Keeping on top of your social media marketing is imperative. To do so effectively, you need to develop a schedule to manage it. This way, you’ll know what to do when, and how often to do it. Once you get started, things will run like clockwork, and you’ll be able to keep up with your social media marketing. Here are a few things you should do for your schedule:
- Create the schedule—This is a plan you will follow to post content to your social profiles. You know what your daily schedule is like, and how much time you have to dedicate to social media marketing. You need to determine how often you want to post. It could be once a day, twice a day, or whatever works for you.
- Take a look at your current schedule— Find an hour during your schedule that you can set aside each day. This time will be used to post and to respond to replies you get on your various social media sites.
- Post consistently—It is important that you post consistently to your different sites. Having followers is important, and if you’re unreliable or sporadic in your postings, you won’t have anyone who wants to follow you. Your followers will want predictability. They need to know when to look for something new from you so they will know when to look for it.
Sometimes, once your following grows, it may be rather difficult to manage your various sites, but it will always be worth the time you invest.
TYPES OF THINGS YOU CAN POST TO YOUR SOCIAL PROFILES
You’ve got all your sites set up, so what now? Knowing what you want to post is important to growing your following. Remember, your followers will want relative, up-to-date information. Here are a few things you can post to your social profiles:
- What you’re currently doing—Let your followers know about new things your company is doing and what they’re currently working on. This will keep them well-informed about your business with up-to-date information.
- Quotes—Find quotes you think your followers will like and post them to your social profiles. You can find many quotes online to choose from. Inspirational quotes will often inspire your followers and in turn, will get you a lot of “likes” or responses for your posts. There are other types of quote as well. Find what works best for your followers and post them regularly. You’ll find your followers will look forward to seeing them.
- Ask a question—This is a great way to involve your followers. Getting them engaged by asking them a question they can answer is always a good idea. It will help build your relationship with your followers, and in turn, help lead to more followers.
- Give a tip—Tips are always welcome, after all, everyone loves tips that will help them to learn something, perform a task easier, etc. Keep in mind, that your followers will want relevant tips, so by giving them advice and/or method that has helped you will also help them and probably make them want to share with new potential followers.
- Post links—As you become more and more familiar with your social media sites, you will come across links, other sites, videos, and/or tools that are useful to you. Posting links to these things that your followers can easily click on to find them will be appreciated. If they find them useful, they’ll want to share them with their friends, who will share them with their friends, and so on and so on…you get the picture.
2. HOW TO GROW YOUR FANS/FOLLOWING
Social media marketing is a great tool to get recognized. The bigger the following you have, the more people will see you and become familiar with you. There are several ways you can help to grow your fans/following:
- Blog—Create a blog that has a link to your site. On the blog you can provide your readers with quality content. This will help you gain readers. By doing so, you increase your following. There are many different blog ideas you can choose from. Blogging can become quite a chore if you let it, so make sure you find something you’re passionate about to blog. This way, you’ll enjoy sharing it with your readers.
- Place a Facebook “Like” box on your blog—If you have a blog, it’s a good idea to add a Facebook “Like” box on it. If you place it on the sidebar of your blog, your readers can “like” it. This will help to build your following and traffic to your site.
- Put social buttons on your blog—Adding social buttons for sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn will let your readers know how they can connect to you on your social media sites. It will also make it easier for them to do so. They will appreciate it, and it may lead to more “Likes” or “+1’s” for you pages.
- Promote via Facebook Ads—Begin a Facebook ad campaign for your page. To do this, click the “Advertising” button at the bottom of the Facebook page. Next, click your page in the “Destinations” menu. Type in the ad’s description. Choose the picture you want to go with your ad. Pick a target audience and location. You can decide how much you spend by selecting a maximum amount per day budget for the advertisement. When you’re finished, just click “Place Ad” and give your credit card or PayPal details for payment and the ad will be placed live on the site.
- Start a YouTube account—Posting videos on YouTube is a great way to increase your following and move traffic to your site. You can post videos about any number of things and then tell your viewers to follow you. Give them a call-to-action asking them to subscribe to your posts. They may also want to share your videos, which will bring in more traffic to your site.
