5 Tips On Upping Your Social Media Game
Since training and coaching Business Owners in marketing, I’ve come to understand that one of the common concerns when it comes to marketing their business is, how to use social media properly.
The one thing I find myself always saying is that, “You’re not alone and don’t panic, you will never completely understand social media.” This isn’t me being negative or defeatist. The realities of it are, social media is land for rent and we don’t own any of it!
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“Social media is land for rent”
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So, what does this mean?
When it comes to social media, we have no control over the features made available to us on each platform, we can’t control how the algorithms distribute our content and we can’t possibly become experts on every single platform, unless we spend all day, every day focussed on honing our social media skills.
So, what’s the point? Why should you bother? Well quite simply, YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE THERE! And, if you aren’t utilising social media as best you can, you are putting your business at a MASSIVE disadvantage.
I hate to say it, but like it or lump it, all businesses need to play the ‘social media’ game!
To ease the pain and overwhelm, I’m going to share 5 top tips with you that are going to help you as you tackle this beast and up your social media game.
TIP 1: Pick One Platform.
The place that you know your customers are hanging out, whether it’s Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter…TikTok ???? (that’s a whole new world, so don’t lose sleep over that one just yet).
Focus all of your attention on that one platform and master it, before moving on. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be leveraging more than one platform, it just means that you can’t be a jack of all trades and a master of none. Get comfortable with one, then move on to the next.
TIP 2: Be Social
When we work with our Business Owner clients in our monthly Inner Circle training sessions, we teach three core social media engagement strategies based on:
- Organic Reach
- Paid Reach
- Outreach
Posting on your social media pages is one thing, but you have to work much harder than that if you want to truly master Social Selling (yes, it’s a real thing). You have to develop and nurture your social relationships and remember that being visible in the social media world is everything, therefore:
- Make sure you respond to every single person who leaves a comment on your posts.
- Join groups where your ideal customers hang out and actively participate, giving value and insight all the way.
- Don’t go in for the kiss too early! Meaning, don’t directly sell on the first interaction. It’s like dating. You wouldn’t get down on one knee and propose on the first date, now would you? Give your audience good reason to come towards you.
TIP 3: Don’t post boring content!! ????
There are 2 million posts, articles and videos posted on LinkedIn everyday alone. If you post rubbish content, then don’t expect to stand out. You won’t engage your audience and more to the point the algorithms will limit the distribution and reach your content receives.
Something else to consider is that all social media platforms want to keep you on their platform for as long as possible, so using features like Instagram Stories, videos and such, are likely to keep your audience more interested and engaged, and score you more highly on the algorithm rankings.
TIP 4: Don’t post links that send people off platform too often.
You may have a fantastic blog, or a special landing page that you want to promote on your chosen social media platform, and that’s fine, you’re growing a business right!? BUT, if every post you make sends your audience away from the platform, it’s not going to do you any favours.
A way to find the right balance is by applying the 80/20 rule. 80% of your posts being valuable, interesting, engagement worthy content and 20% of your posts being links offsite, or even a sales call to action. Always consider, what is the next logical step for a customer in your social media funnel?
TIP 5: Approach social media just like a game of golf (bear with).
- Focus on the green – What are your social media objectives? What are you aiming for?
- Know the course – Every great golfer gets to know the landscape of the course, from the trees to bunkers, to the density of the green. You need to know the landscape of the social media platform you are using and how to navigate it.
- Know who you’re playing against – How does your handicap and skill level stack up to your competitors? The likes of Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose don’t take this for granted and neither should you. Understand how active your competitors are, what they are good at, what their audience engage with and how you can make yourself more attractive than them!
- Choose the right clubs – Depending on what stage your audience are at in your social media relationship, depends on the activity you undertake and what tools you use, for example;
In golf you need to use a driver when you tee off to get as much distance down the fairway as possible. For social media you need great, engagement worthy content, to get as much reach and distribution of your posts and to generate as much awareness as possible.
In golf once you’ve finally gotten the ball to the green, you use a putter to get up close to the ball and gently nudge the ball into the hole. Similarly, with social media, once you’ve nurtured your prospect through your social media funnel, you need to get closer to them, making your messages more personalised and using features like ‘Instant Messenger’ to tip them over into more meaningful conversations with you outside of the social media environment. - Play the long game – For those avid golfers out there, you will know that the game of golf takes patience and perseverance and a long time to master. Social media is no different.
- Remember golf is a social sport – Golf is a fantastic sport for meeting new people and sparking all sorts of conversations, and that is exactly how you should view social media. You wouldn’t spend four hours on a course with a group of people talking only about yourself, so don’t do that on social media either. Make sure you participate and engage with others.
- Get a Caddy – You never see a pro golfer struggling around the golf course with their golf bag. In fact, a Caddy plays a massive strategic role in a golfers round and in most cases know the course better than the golfer, anticipating every shot as they go. If you find yourself struggling around the ‘social media course’ then you need to get your own ‘Social Media Caddy’.
Let us be your ‘Social Media Caddy’ for the day. Visit our On Demand Section where you will find variety of Social Media courses to choose from.
