If you are anything like us, you could probably afford to put more energy into your social media marketing. Here are 9 simple tasks we can all do to grow our audiences using social media. Just be sure to give proper credit to whomever created the content.
1. Post relevant and timely news and information often. Set up Google Alerts and get notified of industry related news. Curating related content is an easy way to stay active and interesting on social networks.
2. Post pictures. “A picture is worth a thousand words.” People love images. Services like Instagram and Pinterest are growing in numbers by leaps and bounds. Infographics and images can help us process a great deal of information.
3. Use hashtags. Nearly every commercial I see now has a hashtag (#) at the bottom. Hashtags allow users to see everything tagged with the same hashtags in one feed. Properly hashtagging pictures and micro posts on Twitter and Instagram can put you in front of a large audience, very quickly. Don’t abuse the hashtag.
4. Post questions that illicit a response. Engagement is key. Put two conflicting ideas out on the table and let people choose sides. “Mac or PC?”
5. Run surveys. Social networks are a great place to ask questions and get feedback. Crowdsourcing is going to continue rising and folks love expressing their opinion. Social Media can be great for gathering market data.
6. Run small “engagement” contests. “Share this photo and be automatically entered to win ______.”
7. Create and post informative videos. Short, 30 second – 2 minute videos can really grow your rankings.
8. Like and follow related pages.
9. Don’ts. Don’t spam. Don’t mass message. Don’t mass add to groups. Don’t be a troll. Don’t post messages before reading them.
What is your company doing to increase and engage your social audience?
Marc D. Horne
DailyDealBuilder.com
