ARE YOU PROMOTING RIGHT???

I know that if you are reading this blog you must be investing some time and effort in your social media marketing and you want some really meaningful insights to understand it better. Social Media is a buzz word today and whatever your business is, I am sure you must be doing some kind of engagement on different platforms so that you can create your presence or generate potential leads. But have you ever sat and discussed it with your social media manager or the agency that whether the platform it is using to promote your brand is right or not, whether the timing and the frequency of the post is apt or not?

“Not really” will be your answer. It happens, because for most of us, social media is not on our priority list, we simply assign it to someone from our team or an agency, without considering the fact that it is as much as a person’s responsibility as it is ours and we just cannot leave it stranded.

Social Media is a rigorous process and one need to meticulously plan its execution, a plan which is developed on paper has to be executed, no matter what. However, every social media manager and marketer know that sometimes even the most epic material requires love and hard work when it comes to promoting content across social media. And with the right combination of strategy, effort, and luck you really can get your amazing content to succeed on social media.

 Try these 6 under-mentioned strategies to promote your content across all social platforms:

 Let’s jump in! 

No one size fits all strategy: You just cannot use a single post across all platforms, I know that with limited time and resource, creating a unique post for each social media channel can be a challenge, but it’s well-worth the effort. This will help to give your content a fresh feel no matter where your audience lands and show that you’ve put some thought into each update.

The other advantage of creating a unique post for each platform is that each social media channel has its own set of rules and so what works on one channel may not work on the other.

Here is a list of rules that fits each social media platform:

Twitter: An audience looking for news, tips, How-to’s, interesting articles, and what’s trending and awesome visuals with a witty punch usually comes to Twitter.

Facebook: An audience looking for entertainment and value comes to Facebook. Think of getting maximum “share”, rather than Likes and Comments. What will make your audience want to share your post? While crafting a post for Facebook, you must aim to spark emotions and interest.

Instagram: It is all about stunning visuals. Post part of content which is visually most pleasing; hire a designer to work on the same.

LinkedIn: An audience of professionals. True that! How will your post add value to the professional lives of your audience? Try and express those professional benefits in your LinkedIn updates.

Pinterest: Full of creative people, who put their heart out when they create a post for Pinterest. Infographics is the perfect medium to post your content on Pinterest.

 Reach the right chunk of people

One of the keys to social media outreach that I’ve discovered is that it’s not the number of people that you reach out to, it’s the type of people.

There are three kinds of people:

 Faithful Members:

These amazing people retweet your post or share it on their timeline on Facebook, they are the faithful audience members of your brand. They are the one who talks about your brand in their social circle and even recommend it to people. Provide as much value to them as you can, on both social media and through e-mail newsletters.

Your Peers:

 These are the people who want to gain attention of the same people that you are trying to focus on, more or less. It is an effective strategy, as it increases your potential audience size and is good business as it benefits both parties.

Working with peers can be as easy as to share each other’s content on social media, teaming up on a blog post, or going a bit deeper by creating free resources that your audience will find useful.

 Influencers:

It is not as tough as it seems, after all they are also human beings like you and me.

Just remember a few basic principles when connecting to influencers:

1. Provide them value through your content.
2. Do not expect anything from them.
3. Be courteous.
4. Be human

 Keep timing and frequency right.

You must be thinking over a long time on how to decide the time and frequency of your post. Believe me, it changes constantly- what works for us one week is different the next. That’s why I’m always experimenting with various schedules and encourage you to do the same. Try and experiment different timing and frequency, using one set for one week, and then changing it all together the next week. This will give you tons of data to study and zeroing down on a single time that suits your brand and specific to your audience.

 Generate glamorous headlines:

On an average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.

What better way to convey value in a short amount of time than through a well written headline. Remember a few basic principles before writing your headline:

• Use ‘You’ and ‘your’ a lot.
• Help your readers imagine a better life through your headline.
• Make headlines emotionally appealing.

 Make use of CTA:

Call-to-Action (CTAs) are a great way to encourage your audience to like, share, and engage with the awesome content that you are creating and to eventually generate leads.

But when promoting content across social media, it’s important to fit right CTA in your content, and at the same time be genuine, specific and original as possible. Use below mentioned tips for using CTA and you are sure to promote your content right on social media.

• Ask thought-provoking question
• Ask participants to “share this post, “tag a friend,” or “follow us on social” in return for a give away
• Include CTAs in wonderful images
• Offer additional free content and resources where no signup is required

 Aspire to build a social media community

Actually communication must be two ways, is the logic behind building a community.

Whether you build your community on Slack, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter or a host of other online options, the most important part is your brand’s two-way interaction with real people.

Your brand is at the center of your community, but the goal is to give your customers an identity and a voice where they can share their thoughts about big topics in your industry. Listen to their questions, concerns, thoughts, and ideas and respond to them genuinely.

Over to you

At the end of the day, good content, quick responses and a real person to monitor and interact through your social media channels will do wonders for your social marketing campaign.