Social media is a new medium, even if it is already ten years old. Businesses and ministries are finally figuring out the power and potential that it can have for their own causes. But just because they are using the social media does not mean that they are using it well.
Below we have six social media tips to help you go from good to great. Note that it is not only knowing these tips that will lead to success, but that your whole team adopts them fully. Half-hearted attempts will only lead to mediocre success that is not even worth your time.
Focus On Just One Social Media Network
This general tip is easy to do in the sense that it takes more work to use others. Yet when you see other businesses succeed on another network, you get that itch to begin to split the priorities up and take away from another network. Unless you are pouring a hundred thousand dollars into tools, staff, and other expenses, this route is not worth it. Here are three tips to effectively focus on one network.
- Know your social media priorities
This begins with knowing your audience and what social media networks they are on. This may be a simple survey of customers, people with their feet on the ground, or some deep research. From here, look at the true costs of the top networks. This can include training people to use each network well, already established social media foundations, tools to help you grow your reach, or other benefits that you would not be receiving from another network because you choose a different one (i.e. Google+ offers AuthorRank but Facebook offers 1 billion people). After some analysis, you will have a prioritized list. - Know your time spent
Just because you have a priority for each network does not mean that you will ignore the others. Establish a list of goals that you want to have for all of the secondary networks, ignore tertiary networks, and develop three times as many goals for your one primary one. Now that we have goals within, put time limits to each goal that will allow you to focus on the first goal while still understanding that you are giving some time to the other networks. While you establish these time frames, keep in mind the next point. - Engagement vs. Marketing
It is one thing to set priorities, goals, and time restraints for the different networks and whole other to execute this interaction. People are not looking for someone to sell them something and you should be doing more than just marketing on social media. A cold call salesman hardly ever makes a sale and is even less effective at getting repeat business. Instead of turning your social media accounts into an announcement board, put the time and energy to build relationships and networking, including your secondary networks. Every account you have is a branding move and so you need to have the proper amount of time for each goal that lasts longer than posting a single tweet or Facebook status a day.
Know The Proper Etiquette
Using social media is good, but having great etiquette can add so much weight and value to every post you share. That will not only improve the brand on your company or ministry’s page, but more than likely increase click-through traffic.
- Do Not Spam
There is an unspoken limit to the number of posts that you can share on each network before it comes off as your company spamming others. We cannot give you a magic number, even specifically for each network. Some general trends find that Twitter users are more tolerant of more posts than LinkedIn or Facebook. Google+ users are still figuring it out, but posting the same blog link over several communities and your own page where people automatically receive a notification will surely get you blocks by a majority of your followers very quickly. - Share More Than Text or Links
Maybe the worst rule to break in all of this that is simply ignored is when someone posts a link to their blog or website and then ditches it. All we have to go off of is that you want us to see the link because it might be important to you. But if we did this in real life, similar to running into a community on Google+ or a group on Facebook to share a link and leave, we would receive negative criticism near instantaneously. Sharing a link? Give a three sentence synopsis of why someone would want to click it. Have a status update? It is generally viewed more thoroughly if you add photos with it. These actions are designed to avoid spam marketing and instead create a conversation. - 80/20 Rule
The 80/20 is simple in concept but frustratingly difficult to execute. We want traffic to our sites or customers at our checkout page or people looking at joining our church service. That being said, people viewing your social media accounts want stuff too. You need to be giving to them 80% of the time for every 20% of the time you ask for something in return. Need them to sign up for a newsletter or subscribe to your YouTube channel? Make sure you are engaging in conversations and “giving” your knowledge. It shows you are authentic, an expert in your field, and more than just a business looking for a sale (even if you are looking to profit somewhere down the line).
How are you going to use these tips?
[…] media to this point, I have a job lined up for me come July 1. Yesterday’s tips to take your social media accounts from good to great really are what I have been experimenting since starting this blog. That being said, there are a […]