The Countdown To Better Social Media Practices

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#1: Social Media Marketing is a Game of Hide and Seek

One of the greatest pieces of advice I was ever given about social media marketing, is that it’s a game of hide and seek. We are programmed to think that if we do our content strategies correctly, we will be rewarded with lots of fans and interactions. That’s just not true. As content competition grows, only 2 things will save you.

The 2 things are – competitor content analysis and consistent content publication. Your competitors are publishing all the time, effectively ‘hiding’ your content so that no-one can find it. To stop this from happening you need to ‘seek’ out their strategies and outdo them! Social media marketing only works well when you publish often. Very often.

#2: It’s Not About Who You Know, But What They Know

Social media marketing experts are always telling people to connect with authorities in their niche. This is great advice – no doubt. What they leave out of course, is that once you have connected with an expert, you need to somehow access their knowledge and use it to further your own business goals. This is much harder than connecting with someone.

So, it’s not who you know, but what they know – that’s what really helps you. Can you get them to write guest posts for your blog? Can you make them an actionable part of your marketing campaigns? If not, then they are useless. The only way to turn an expert into a friend is to give them great content. Share their posts. Become an advocate.

Courtesy of blog.greenhousesocialmedia.com

#3: Patience and Platform is Key to Everything

In social media marketing, there are two stumbling blocks that can make or break a new campaign. They are patience, and platform
choice. The social internet moves likes lightening, except when you need it too! That’s why being patient is an essential trait of a successful social media strategist. Wait and see – that should be your testing motto.

As for platform – don’t be put off an idea, just because it didn’t work on your chosen platform. Many small business owners fail to run a successful Facebook competition for example, so they never run another online competition again. What about Twitter? Pinterest? Vine? The madness can be in the platform and not the method, you know.

#4: Choose One Social Platform, and Master It

Bad advice tends to stick to small businesses, which is why you’ll often find empty social pages all over the place. Social media marketing is about building a quality presence on a single platform. Then mastering that platform. Then combining your efforts – and stringing together a few great pages to make an impressive social profile.

It’s not about being on a thousand networks – even the ones you haven’t heard of, in Russia. If you only have time to work properly on one platform, then pick one. Social media is about ROI, not owning empty social real estate. It’s nice that you’re there, but if you can’t convert your social media marketing fans into buyers, there is no point.

#5: Automation Does Not Give You Automated Results

Let’s get something straight – it’s good to automate some of your social media marketing processes. But so many people think that ‘automation’ means ‘leaving your pages alone, to run independently of you.’ This isn’t the case. You still need to check in every day, and respond to people. You can’t automate conversation, you’re not Skynet!

Automation used properly allows you to publish tips and tricks at your leisure, but it is no substitute for quality interaction. Social media marketing has way too many pages and feeds that are automated. This is a two-way conversation, not a microphone.

#6: Content Curation Saves You Time and Money

Social media marketing us all about content. You need to supply your social media pages with high quality content that engages your audience. But how do you do this when you’re a small business owner with limited time and money? By curating content along with your original content. Don’t only be an authority be the most rounded, current news in your niche.

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#7: Sometimes It’s Okay To Try Something Spontaneous

You have probably read somewhere that planning always comes before success. We become so obsessed with plans, that we forget that sometimes it’s alright to just try new things. Innovation comes from all sorts of places. It’s great to be a good planner, but don’t also forget to be that social media marketing person who isn’t afraid to take risks.

BONUS! One Piece of Advice You Always Get, and Should IGNORE!

Don’t let your employees use social media! This one single piece of advice has kept small business owners from rapid growth because of social media. Let your employees be advocates for your brand, just lay down some ground rules first. They will help you with the exposure that you need to drive traffic and increase sales.

My hope, is that these seven pieces of social media marketing advice have changed your perspective on certain parts of your own marketing campaigns. Maybe now you can re-evaluate your strategies and integrate something really powerful into your online business plan. After all, good advice is only good if you take it!

Is there a piece of social media marketing advice that you would like to share with the SMMU community?

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The 5 Pro Social Media Marketing Introduction

• Jeremiah Owyang – Altimeter Group and all round social media marketing expert
• Chris Brogan – Social media management champion and expert blogger
• Mari Smith – Facebook guru and social media fundi
• Michael Stelzner – Socialmediaexaminer.com founder and author of Launch
• Jason Falls – Socialmediaexplorer.com founder and author of No BS Social Media

Hour a Day Social Marketing Pros Advice

Jeremiah Owyang Says:

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Tip: Advertising should be part of your social media marketing strategy daily. It’s becoming more important, and can generate the most leads for your company. Look at creating innovative, interactive and creative ads that force people to interact with you on social media sites.

Chris Brogan Says:

Courtesy of chrisbrogan.com

Tip: Chris blogs at least once a week. He tweets or posts social updates at least 4X per day. He focuses on a private free newsletter to build a quality list for use in future marketing efforts. He provides audio podcasts to diversify his social media marketing delivery. Finally, he writes helpful books that people can read on planes. Follow his example!

Mari Smith Says:

Courtesy of Twitter.com

Tip: Mari is all about relationship marketing, she teaches her fans to spend more time ‘interacting’ than posting. An interaction is a direct prompt from someone to engage in conversation or an action. These must be part of your hour a day strategy!

Michael Stelzner Says:

Courtesy of socialmediaexaminer.com

Tip: Social media marketing done right, takes a team. Not everyone can afford a team, but everyone can afford to outsource. If your business isn’t outsourcing some of your social media efforts, then you’ll be left behind. Cut down your hour a day, into 20 minutes a day, by outsourcing parts of your content.

Jason Falls Says:

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Tip: The more you engage, the higher your rankings will be. Jason knows that social media marketing is about interaction. Without it, there is no point. Person-to-person interaction is all that matters. Make sure that yours counts for SEO, and that you use keywords!

Social Media Marketing Tips In Review:

• Use some of your hour a day to advertise in creative ways
• Break your strategy down into steps that can be managed daily
• Focus on a single platform and on connecting with people there
• Use outsourcing if you struggle to get your campaigns off the ground
• Engage, engage, engage! For better SEO and busier pages.

Use these 5 pro tips to assist you in your hour-a-day social media marketing strategies. In no time you’ll get all the exposure, rankings and sales that you need to grow and succeed!

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How much social media work can you fit into 1 hour a day?

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#1: Social Media Has Matured

Social media is no longer some wishy-washy fad concept that will blow by at any minute. It’s matured into what is the most important marketing route forward for your business. Executives that are still dabbling in or ignoring social media are going to find themselves coming last in the marketing race, in a few years’ time.

Social media is not only here to stay, it’s taking over. Sideline it at your own great peril.

#2: Facebook is a Sound Investment

Facebook continues to grow like crazy, thanks to a very clever expansion and development plan from this idea team. Your Facebook business page is essential to the success of your social media strategy. Some experts are even saying that as much as 30% of your social spend should be limited to Facebook. It’s where your clients are!

Spend more time this year developing your Facebook page, and investing in advertising.

#3: Pinterest is Poised For Mass Traffic

You’ve heard about the new site Pinterest, but haven’t bothered to test it out for your business. Well here are some sobering stats for you – Pinterest drives more traffic than Twitter and Google+, and it attracts more interaction than anything on Facebook. In other words, it’s highly valuable to your overall social marketing strategy.

Executives who focus on Pinterest early, will be rewarded with huge traffic streams.

#4: Social Media is Going Mobile

If your business has yet to jump on the mobile bandwagon – do. All social media in the future will be accessible, perhaps even exclusively, by mobile. With devices out there that keep people on the go, it’s unwise to not get involved in the changing online attitude. Your websites need to be mobile. You need mobile apps and infrastructure.

Prepare for the mobile onslaught by investing in mobile technology early on.

#5: Be The Interaction You Want To See

If your pages are dead and lifeless – you’re not out there making friends and supporting other people’s social campaigns. If you want lots of fans, followers and engagement, then you need to be highly interactive yourself. No one is going to do it for you. Get your staff involved – start a sharing movement in your business.

These five crucial points will keep executives working in the right areas, while improving their overall business. Best of all – they’ll be steps ahead of their competition, because they had the vision to see the social future. Get your business involved in these points, if you want to have large scale success later on in the life of your business.

Is there something else executives should know about social media? List your tip here for our community to see!