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Do you want tips that will help you stay ahead of the social media marketing curve?
Here’s some great advice from ten social media pros.
In this article I share 10 social tips from the pros to improve your social media marketing in 2014.
#1: Tap Collective Social Power
Smart companies realize that social media is about people, not logos. Collectively, your employees have far more social connections than your company is ever likely to accrue.
So the path to broadening your organization’s reach and engagement in social media should start inside your own walls by surveying your team to determine where and how they are already active in social media. Tweet this tip!
Jay Baer is founder and president of Convince & Convert and author of Youtility.
#2: It’s All About the List
The energy of your business is directly tied to your email list.
Facebook ads are one of the most powerful lead generating platforms for small businesses today. Specifically, page post ads that drive traffic to a free, valuable giveaway (such as a free training video, ebook or cheat sheet) are extremely effective. These ads are inexpensive, highly targeted and can be completely automated.
It may take a little trial and error, but once you find that sweet spot where your ads are consistently producing results, you’ll be hooked! Tweet this tip!
Amy Porterfield is co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies.
#3: Scale Social Service
One of the most challenging parts of social customer service is handling the volume of queries.
Identify, recognize and enable your most actively contributing fans and advocates to help address long-tail content creation and answer other customers’ questions. This is one of the best ways to scale social customer service efforts. Tweet this tip!
Becky Carroll is director of social media and customer impact consulting at Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC) and author of The Hidden Power of Your Customers.
#4: Kid Smart in Real Time
If your job is to provide social coverage for an event in real time—say, a new or exclusive environment, experience or setting—approach it like a kid at an amusement park.
A beginner’s mindset goes an incredibly long way in vibrantly bringing an audience somewhere they otherwise wouldn’t go. Check your assumptions at the door for what’s interesting; let your five senses guide you. Tweet this tip!
Charlie Kautz has worked in global marketing and corporate communications at TaylorMade-Adidas Golf for the better part of the last seven years.
#5: Social Selling With LinkedIn
LinkedIn, more than any other platform, is most effective when your entire company is behind your efforts.
Don’t just stop at marketing your company page—get your salespeople involved with using LinkedIn for social selling. Ask your employees to participate in an employee advocacy program.
Don’t forget the targeted status update opportunities you have for paid social on LinkedIn too! Tweet this tip!
Neal Schaffer is author of three books, including the forthcoming Maximize Your Social.
#6: Measure What’s Actionable
Measure, measure, measure. If perception is everything, then measurement defines your social program’s value.
Social media delivers more value than just ROI. How do you define the value of a relationship? Social media also helps drive leads and revenue, buzz and awareness; it reduces call center volume; supports recruiting; and can foster research and development innovation.
Start with your business objectives, define how social media can help you reach those objectives, and then measure those social programs relentlessly.
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Measure what moves the needle for your business and avoid data overload. Identify a few main key performance indicators and focus on them. Use supporting metrics for insights to inform your strategy. Tweet this tip!
Maria Poveromo is the senior director of social media, analyst relations and public relations at Adobe.
#7: Organic Is Good. Paid Is Better.
We all want to believe that organic posts on social networks are all we need to spark engagement. But your promotional strategy must include paid placements as well.
Relying only on organic strategies to drive results is analogous to hanging out with the same high school group your entire life.
To grow, you have to expand beyond your immediately familiar community and break through to those coveted second-degree connections. Tweet this tip!
Jason Miller is the senior content marketing manager at LinkedIn.
#8: Five Things Customers Care About
In every industry (it doesn’t matter what you sell), there are five subjects that move the needle, because they are the ones consumers are most concerned with. They are:
- Cost/price questions
- Problems/issues questions
- Versus/comparison questions
- Review-based questions
- Best-of questions
When consumers research, these are the five subjects they care about, yet most companies are afraid to address them. The moral: Don’t be afraid to address topics that consumers truly care about, as eventually they’ll move the needle more than any other content you could produce. Tweet this tip!
Marcus Sheridan started The Sales Lion, a blog and brand which, along with Sheridan’s passion-filled keynotes, has become synonymous with content marketing excellence.
#9: Pin Your Way to Being Helpful
You don’t have to be a retailer to make the most of Pinterest for your business. All you need is helpful content that offers solutions to your audience’s problems.
By pinning content from your blog, digital assets from your website (like guides and white papers) and quality information from across the web, you can use Pinterest to establish you and your brand as the go-to resource in your industry. Tweet this tip!
Azure Collier is a social media education development specialist on Constant Contact’s content team.
#10: Be on a Mission
Forget more followers. Use Twitter to get more business! To consistently attract valuable prospects, start with a simple “mission” for your Twitter account:
@Username is where ____________ (describe your best prospects) know they will always get ___________ (what’s in it for them to follow your account?).
This should be very simple—something compelling your parents could repeat at a dinner party if they were sitting next to a good prospect for you. Tweet this tip!
Laura Fitton is inbound marketing evangelist for HubSpot, co-author of Twitter for Dummies and founder of Oneforty.
Want 28 more social media tips?
You can find the tips in this article as well as 28 more in the Riding the Waves of Social Media ebook below.
This ebook is a joint project created in collaboration with TopRank Online Marketing.
Who are these experts?
These social media marketing experts are all speaking at Social Media Marketing World 2014.
You’ll hear from 80+ of the world’s top social media marketing pros as they reveal their newest social media marketing tips and practical, real-world, proven examples.
Join Chris Brogan (co-author of The Impact Equation), Mari Smith (co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day), Michael Hyatt (author of Platform), Jay Baer (author of Youtility), John Jantsch (author of Duct Tape Marketing), Amy Porterfield (co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies), Mark Schaefer (author of Tao of Twitter), Michael Stelzner (author of Launch) and experts from more than a dozen brands as they reveal proven social media marketing tactics at Social Media Marketing World 2014—Social Media Examiner’s mega-conference in beautiful San Diego, California.
You’ll be able to take your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, blogging, podcasting and video marketing to an entirely new level.
Join nearly 2,000 fellow marketers at the live mega-conference designed to empower and inspire you with social media marketing tactics—brought to you by Social Media Examiner.
What do you think? Do you use any of these social media strategies? What’s working well for you today? Please share your thoughts in the box below.
