Social Media Tips and Strategy for Business
Social Media tips for business success, used correctly, can help you rise above your competition.
Did you know that social media has surpassed porn as the top activity on the web? Did you also know that there are more than 15 million businesses on Facebook, or that over 90% of marketers use social media for business?
Social media tips and strategy: 5 ways to make your business stand out from the competition:
Social Media Tips and Strategy: #1
First and foremost, if you haven’t done so already, identify your target audience. What are their needs? What solutions can you provide them? Develop buyer persona profiles to segment your audience into groups with specific interests and needs. Once you have a deep understanding of your audience, their needs, and your solutions, you can then create content specific to each buyer persona. To thoroughly understand who your buyers are, do some research. Talk to your sales people, interview customers, look at the publications they read and the websites they frequent (Scott, 2011).
Social Media Tips and Content: #2
Now that you have an in-depth understanding of your customers and their problems, create content for them. Keep in mind that on the web, anyone can be a publisher. With that said, your content needs to stand out. Your content needs to be good enough that your audience will take notice of it and share it. Sharing is key. When people share your content, they spread your message! So, how can you create great content? Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Develop a content strategy to manage and implement your content creation. An editorial calendar is a great place to start.
- Keep it educational. Your content should solve a problem and help make your customers jobs/lives easier.
- Videos, blog articles, infographics, slideshare presentations, white papers, e-books, articles, case histories are all examples of content you can create.
- Not sure where to start? Take existing content and re-purpose it. Use an existing presentation and create a slideshare, infographic, and blog post from it. Take an article and create a white paper and a blog series from it.
Social Media Tips and Audience: #3
Research how your competition is using social media. Look at the social media platforms they are using, how often they are posting, whether or not they are they linking back to their own content, who they are following, their followers, lists, promotions and contests they are running. View their Facebook page and analyze what types of post gain the most comments and what readers like best. See how they are engaging with their fans. Look at what they are tweeting and how often. Determine what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong, and do it better.
Social Media Tips and SEO: #4
Great content is only great if people can find it. Optimize for search visibility. Start with your profile. Make sure it is complete and includes relevant keywords and links back to your blog or website. Always include internal links in your blog posts to other blog content and your website. Social posts and Tweets should include targeted keywords and links back to your blog, website, or other social channels. Likes, shares, and comments also affect search rank, so make sure your updates are engaging Twitter.
Social Media Tips and Engagement: #5
Engagement is critical! Respond to comments. Follow your top customers, partners, and industry influencers. Comment on and share their posts/tweets. It will get their attention, and they’re likely to reciprocate. Curate content and offer your opinion. Ask questions in your posts, offer polls, run contests, and recognize people who participate.
Can you offer additional ways to use Social Media Tips to crush the competition?
References:
Carlos, S. (2013, Jun 11). Is being found part of your social media strategy? Retrieved from http://searchengineland.com/is-being-found-part-of-your-social-media-strategy-158507
Comstock, R. (2013, Sept 23). Aligning SEO strategy & social media activity to build links. Retrieved from http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2207423/Aligning-SEO-Strategy-Social-Media-Activity-to-Build-Links
Cooper, C. (n.d.). 10 surprising social media statistics that will make you rethink your social strategy. Retrieved from http://www.fastcompany.com/3021749/work-smart/10-surprising-social-media-statistics-that-will-make-you-rethink-your-social-stra
Hupspot, Inc. (n.d.). How Hubspot does inbound: Creating a content machine [pdf]. Retrieved from http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/resources-create-killer-content-under-100-words-sr
Koetsier, J. (2013, Mar 5). Facebook: 15 million businesses, companies, and organizations now have a Facebook page. Retrieved from http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/05/facebook-15-million-businesses-companies-and-organizations-now-have-a-facebook-page/
Scott, D.M., (2011). You are what you publish: Building your marketing and PR plan. In The new rules of marketing & PR. (3rd ed., p. 137-168). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Street, C. (2013, Dec 4). How to beat your competitors at social media marketing. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com/chrisstreet/1966936/how-beat-your-competitors-social-media-marketing
Tarcomnicu, F. (n.d.). How to steal your competitors social media followers. Retrieved from http://blog.kissmetrics.com/steal-your-competitions-followers/
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Category: Advanced Tactics