Getting clarity on your social media strategy can be daunting, I know. I am going to be honest and this may come as a surprise – I have a love-hate relationship with social media. There I said it.

 

As a Social Media Consultant, I love creating content for myself and clients and sharing it with our online audiences. There’s no better way, in my opinion, to reach a multitude of people from all corners of the globe. While this aspect of social media strategy brings joy to my life and business, it can be quite frustrating when social platforms change the rules.

 

Let’s set the scene: You have your goals laid out and a strategic path to accomplish them. You’re feeling good about yourself and your future success and then BAM! –  Facebook or Instagram makes some major changes that take you back to the drawing board.

These changes can seem overwhelming when you’re trying to achieve a presence online, however, there are still some sure-fire ways to ensure you skyrocket your social media strategy and your overall marketing efforts.

 

1. Choose the right social platforms

If any “social media expert” tells you that you need to be on every platform, run. Seriously, don’t stick around. There’s no need for you to have 5 social media accounts on different platforms and be overwhelmed with creating content for each. You do however need to be where your audience is. So how do you determine where they are? Well, that calls for a little bit of research.

 

To narrow it down, as of February 2018, Facebook has 2.13 billion active users. Yes, I said 2 BILLION. Chances are your audience is already there. Even though they’re largely a pay to play platform and the recent changes have made it even more so, their advertising system is the best, bar none.

 

Instagram as well [also owned by Facebook], has the best engagement rate of any of the social platforms around and is also a great place to start attracting and communicating with your audience. Keep in mind, that because they are owned by Facebook, that engagement may not last forever and they MAY adopt a similar pay to play model.

 

Then there’s Twitter [my personal favourite]. A lot of people abandon twitter because the engagement is not as great as the other social platforms but it’s one of the quickest ways to get your message out and drive traffic to your website. It’s a magic playground to stay on top of industry news specific to you and one of the best networking tools I’ve found. As I’ve said before I love a Twitter Chat. Find one in your industry, participate, connect with your peers and learn.

 

2. Define Your Strategy

Social Media Marketing can seem overwhelming especially if you’re trying to do everything yourself. It’s no easy task but defining your strategy can make life a whole lot easier. Every action (from content creation to dissemination) should fit into your overall marketing plan and move you closer to your business goals – whether those are building brand awareness or increasing revenue.

 

Make sure you have defined objectives and ways to measure ROI (Return on Investment) to ensure you’re headed in the right direction.

 

3. Create Content With Purpose

Creating content with purpose is the key way to attract and convert your intended audience online.

 

Two ways you can do this is by having a complete profile of your buyer persona and the journey they go through to complete a purchase with you. By discovering their likes, dislikes and pain points, you are more apt to create content that attracts and offers solutions to their problems.

 

Attractive content can either entertain, educate or inspire and should always be created with your business’ purpose in mind. Also, don’t be afraid to add a little of your personality into your content creation. No one can do you better than you can!

 

4. Determine the Right Time to Post

Figuring out the right times to post, especially on Instagram, can be quite daunting. How do you get the best engagement, create content your audience loves and increase your follower count? Fortunately, or unfortunately, there is so no one-size-fits-all strategy but there is a way to figure out the best time to post for your audience.

 

Posting at the right time can also make or break your engagement. Last year I performed an experiment to determine my best posting time and was surprised at the results. It turns out that my best time is anywhere between 11:30 PM and 12:30 PM (I’m a night owl so I’m up at that time anyway). Was this a shocker? Slightly. I had been using Instagram’s analytics to determine when most of my audience was online (which was usually around 6:00 PM) but posting at that time seemed to crash my engagement.

 

So I decided to change my posting time so that I could cut through the noise on the platform and ensure that more people saw my posts.

 

I believe this experiment will also be beneficial in helping you determine your best posting time, so I created my FREE Posting Times Decoded Workbook to walk you through the process. You can download it by clicking on the image below.

 

5. Include A Call to Action

As we all know, mobilising your audience on social media is not an easy feat. However, one way that you can start encouraging your audience to engage is including a call to action within your copy.

 

A call to action is simply a piece of content that coaxes your audience to take action – whether that is clicking on a link, purchasing a product or simply commenting or sharing a post.

 

Best practices suggest that you should include your calls to action early in your copy, especially on social media.

 

6. Repurpose Content

If you’re using social media to market your business, you’ll know that consistently creating new content can be a challenge. It’s difficult to always come up with something new that’s never been seen before by your audience. That’s where repurposing content comes in to save the day.

 

Repurposing content extends the longevity of what you’ve created and with so much noise on social media, it gives your audience another opportunity to view that awesome creation.

 

There are many ways to repurpose content such and turning a blog post into a slideshow, video or audio piece. You can also pull out important quotes from your blog posts and post them on social media for additional emphasis.

 

I recently also summarised a blog post using Instagram’s carousel feature (which you can see below) and that’s also another option you can use.

As an example, this entire blog post has been repurposed from social media tips posted on my Instagram. Ta Da!

[SWIPE LEFT]: On the blog last week I talked about struggling to come up with content ideas and gave 9 examples that I came across in my research and some that I’ve also been using myself. If you didn't get a chance to read it, swipe left for those 9 examples. Full post can be found via the link in my bio. Happy creating + G’night, folks ✌🏽❥

A post shared by M Λ R I S S E ∞ D O W N I E 🇧🇧 (@mndempire) on Nov 7, 2017 at 6:17pm PST

7. Utilize Hashtags

Did you know the hashtag first started on Twitter? Chris Messina, a social technology expert was the first to use one back in 2007 and the rest is now history.

 

Hashtags have since taken on a life of their own and become the known way to index or categorise content especially on Twitter and Instagram.

 

Instagram itself allows users to place 30 hashtags on each post as a way to ensure that the maximum amount of persons can see and interact with your content. It’s important if you’re using Instagram for business to utilize these hashtags. There is varying advice on how many hashtags should be used but I’d recommend using all 30 if you’re now starting out and playing around with that number until you find your sweet spot. The same goes for deciding the individual hashtags to use. You can research them through Instagram itself OR take a look at what other entrepreneurs in your industry are using.

 

 

8. Use Social Media to Build Your Email List

I’ve got a question for you…are you relying solely on your social media followings to communicate your message?

 

Well, here’s something else for you to consider – using your social profiles to build your email list. Why should you have an email list? Primarily because it’s your own community that you can nurture and connect with on your own terms. You are assured that those who sign up for your email list, definitely want to hear what you have to say and offer.

 

So, how can you build an email list using your following? You can achieve this in a number of ways but I’ve listed 3 below to get you started.

 

1. Create a free offering and corresponding content that drives your followers to a landing page that encourages sign-ups in order to download.

2. Create fun interactive quizzes that prompt participants for their email address to complete the quiz  (Read my blog post on how to do just that).

3. Promote a giveaway to your audience that encourages your audience to sign up for a chance to enter and win.

 

9. Get Creative With Your Captions

Use your captions as a way to attract your audience.

 

Be creative and decide from which angle you will share your story. You can do it from the first person angle by using the word “I” and showing your experiences. You can use the second-person or “you” which I’m doing right now in this caption (This also has the first person – switched on ya lol) as it can imitate a personal conversation with your audience OR you can use a third person – “he, she or it” by showcasing what someone else has said about a specific industry topic.

 

There’s no right or wrong way to share, it all depends on how what story you wish to tell.

 

10. Number Your Goals

As 2018 is in full swing, have you thought about what you want to accomplish in the next 12 months? If you have, it’s important to give yourself a target to aim for.

 

I’ve found that putting a number on my goals somehow makes them more concrete. For example, instead of saying something vague like “I want to grow my social media following”, I give it a specific number and say, “I want to grow my Instagram page to 5,000 in the next 3 months”.

 

Having a concrete target to aim at can focus your mind and help you achieve that elusive goal.

 

11. Host a Contest/ Giveaway

One of the best ways to spearhead engagement on your social profiles is to host a contest/giveaway. It not only builds an authentic connection with your audience but fosters a community spirit that can help your business thrive.

 

If you are a product based business, consider a giveaway of a product for that special winner to try. This encourages brand loyalty and can influence peer to peer recommendations – one of the leading ways that people are influenced to purchase. If you are service based you can also do a giveaway of a free consultation of your services or collaborate with another entrepreneur to create an enticing package.

 

12. Consider Using Live Video

The thought of live video can be terrifying – I know it terrifies me.🙈 However, if you’re brave + bold, consider adding it as part of your social media strategy.

 

Incorporating live video into your social content has been proven to increase engagement levels on both Facebook and Instagram and could be the push your brand is looking for. According to Facebook, live video gets 6x the engagement as non-live videos.

 

13. Poll Your Audience

If you’re struggling to figure out what to post or what types of products to create, there’s a sure-fire way to figure out what your audience wants — Ask them!

 

Instagram, Facebook + Twitter all have polling options where you can ask questions of your audience and figure out what their problems are and develop solutions to best fit their needs.

 

 

14. Use IG/FB Stories

Brands are currently investing in creating content for Instagram stories and it’s a great way to increase your reach on the platform. One way to ensure maximum reach is to always include a hashtag and location tag on all of your stories.

 

Try to post at least once a day on IG stories and bonus, you can link it to your Facebook stories so that is automatically posted there as well. Facebook also allows pages to post stories so I also make sure to re-post mine on my Facebook page, especially when I know it’s information that needs to be shared.

 

 

15. Cross Promote Content

Cross promoting content to other social networks is one of those fundamental strategies that should be practised. My one piece of advice is to stagger the posting and not repost every single thing. Give your audience a reason to follow you on all platforms. Re-share content but do so strategically.

 

 

Thinking about implementing all of these tips can seem overwhelming so my advice would be to just pick two to three strategies and try implementing them and see how they work for you. Once you keep trying and testing mixed with a little patience, you’ll find your sweet spot for social media marketing growth and success.

 

With love from Barbados,

 

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