It doesn’t really matter what you’re selling or what niche you’re in, I believe your business would benefit from developing a social media strategy. Still Skeptical? That’s why I decided to create this post listing some of the most FAQ’s about implementing a social media strategy into your business’s marketing mix:
What is the best social media platform?
The “best” social media platform is going to be different for different people, depending on your niche and business model.
That’s why you’ll need to do research on platform demographics in order to pick the platforms that are right for you. You’ll want to check Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. Be sure to also look at networking sites that are specific to your niche.
What sort of content should I post?
You can start by researching your competitors’ social media pages to see what they’re posting and what their audience responds to. However, you’ll want to post a variety of content in order to get a feel for what your audience responds to the best.
Here’s a few examples:
- Videos (how to videos, announcements, short sales videos, etc.).
- Helpful Tips.
- Longer instructional content (how to articles).
- Memes.
- Comics.
- Infographics.
- Quotes.
- Photos/illustrations.
- Charts/tables.
- Tools (such as printable resources like worksheets and templates).
And similar content. You could also check out BuzzSumo.com, Answersocrates.com, & trends.google.com to see what’s popular in your niche.
Expert Tip
If you haven’t already thought of this, when conducting your niche research, make sure to sign up for a few Google alerts. Create a few alerts related to your niche and set your frequency and good ole big G will “alert” you by sending you an email when it crawls new content in your niche.
A Bonus Tip: Use this tool to help you come up with content ideas. Check out google.ca/alerts
How do I make it faster and easier to use social media?
Social media can be a huge time-suck for a lot of businesses. Fortunately, there are tools to make it easier. You may pick an “all in one tool” such as HootSuite.com, which will help you publish across multiple platforms, find topics, and keep track of your results.
What social media mistakes should I avoid?
Mistake 1: Not being social
Some marketers make the mistake of getting on social media and treating it like an advertising board. You need to interact with your audience, share useful content, and generally use it in a social way rather than promoting all day every day on it.
Mistake 2: Not using hashtags.
Not only should you find out what content your audience wants, you should also find out what hashtags they’re using so that your content can get discovered. A tool like All-hashtags.com can help you uncover these hashtags.
How do I get more people to share my content?
Social media is all about sharing content, but you need to be sure your content is shareworthy.
Follow these tips:
- Create high-quality. Give people something they haven’t seen before or offer a fresh perspective, and they’ll share.
- Install social media badges on your blog. You can use a social media plugin to make it easier for people to share your content from your blog.
- Offer content that generates good feelings. For example, share an inspirational video.
- Encourage people to share. E.G., “Your friends will love this – and they’ll love you for sharing it. Share now to spread the love…”
- Keep it short. People have short attention spans, so make sure your content is easy to consume (from a few seconds for text to a couple minutes for videos).
Your audience is already on social media, so be sure to put this information to work to make the most of these platforms in your business.