Kristopher Jones – CEO of LSEO.com and ReferLocal.com – has held a very interesting talk concerning Social Media Marketing at the Online Marketing Rockstars Conference in March 2015. Inspired by this talk, I tell you some important things you have to pay attention to be successful in your Social Media Marketing. But even before you start with your Social Media Activities you should answer two questions: First, what goals do you want to achieve through your Social Media Marketing? And second, are you going to manage your Social Media Channels by yourself or not? And if you decide to do it not by yourself, will you hire someone to do it internally or will you outsource it?
After answering this questions and deducing your Social Media Strategy, you can start with your Social Media Activities. Therefore we have 10 tips of Kristopher Jones for you:
1) Stop selling, start listening!
Do you enjoy listening to a man who just tells you how good he is? Of course not! So, stop selling on Social Media! Just selling your stuff is totally the wrong way on social media. If you do so, people will ignore you and you will definitely fail. So what should you do instead? At first: start listening! Listen carefully which problems your target group is facing with? It’s very valuable to get to know your target group better, don’t miss this chance! While listening to your target group, ask yourself the following questions:
- Can I offer free (valuable) pieces of advice immediately?
- What free resources are available which I can share?
- Do I have or know of any valuable information to share? For example white papers, how-to guides or new links.
2) Engage and humanize!
Conversations on Social Media always include at least two people. So, try to answer as many questions from your follower as possible. To direct and @ messages you should always answer! But please do avoid automated responses. This is totally unauthentic! Build real and authentic communications. You don’t have to share only valuable information, but also real life activities and personal experiences. So you can build a relationship with your customers.
3) Add tons and tons of value!
Be constantly on the lookout for valuable resources which you can share with your community. Also look for opportunities to educate your customers with valuable information. For example links to articles, videos, books or other experts. It could also be helpful to connect your audience to people outside of their network who could be interesting for them, through introductions or referrals.
4) Build and share original content!
Create your own original content. Good – and relevant – content is a major factor for the success of your Social Media Marketing. There are various types of different contents. For example how-to content, information that solves the followers’ problems or just content to entertain. Be creative. Also important: Share your content in different formats. There are also lots of different ones: text, video, picture, infographics, lists, etc. To use your own contents effectively and efficiently start a blog and socialize all of the content on your website. The creation of good, sociable content will not just improve your Social Media Marketing but also your SEO.
5) Share lots of pictures and video!
I just mentioned the different formats of content. Use especially the power of pictures and videos: pictures and videos tend to drive higher engagement than text-only posts. For example you can add up to three images with any tweet. So, make sure that you set up a good mix of your push communication between text, video and photos. Especially for the appeal of your brand, pictures and videos can have a huge impact to make it more approachable and likeable.
6) Be consistent!
Make sure that you constantly share valuable Information. It’s not possible to give you a number which is generally valid. But try to share at least one piece of valuable information per day. Commit yourself to responding to direct messages and mentions in real-time. And try to create and share at least one piece of unique content per week.
7) Always be available!
Social Media can also be a very powerful communication tool for customer service. But you have to ensure that you are always available! If complaints are raised in your community, it’ll be very important to react quickly. So you cannot just prevent a “shitstorm”, but sometimes even turn this anger into satisfaction. But this is only possible when you are available.
8) Stay focused!
85 percent of your follower base should be connected to your product or service – or are of expertise. Stay focused in building relationships with your customers and engaging with prospective customers who are interested in your business area. And: Focus on those platforms where your customers are. Always keep in mind: The quality of your followers is much more important than the quantity!
9) Become an Influencer!
Evolve high quality followers who engage with your content and communications. How? Create high quality content which encourages engagement and gets shared. But do not just deliver quality in your content, but also in your engagement in responding in real time. Also consider: Do not decrease the power of Social Media by devolving it to an inexperienced Social Media Manager. So, the conclusion is: quality = influence.
10) Analyse and optimize your efforts!
Try different things and compare them afterwards. For example post at different times of a day or a week, make different offers or different types of content. Do different things and analyse them. So you can get valuable information for your further Social Media Marketing and it’ll consequently be improved.
A german version of this article you can find on: https://marketing-mit-content.de
Moreover we interviewed Kristopher Jones at the Online Marketing Rockstars Conference in Hamburg. Have fun watching the Video.
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