Social media and marketing have become essentially synonymous over the last few years. They go together like peanut butter and jelly – you just can’t have one without the other!
Most of the major players in the marketing realm have quickly adapted to the integration of social media into their marketing strategy, displaying social media icons / #hashtags on all of their ads, including on their commercials.
You can’t even turn on your favourite TV show, without being prompted to engage through social media. Hashtags are popping up all over television, on The Voice, American Idol, The Bachelor, prompting viewers to pick up their device and tweet.
The Bachelor took this one step further, this season by publishing tweets live from fans during their reunion episodes, allowing their fans to engage and share in real time. This has garnered much positive feedback for the show, with their fans.
The producers also incorporated tweets from the Bachelor, himself while he was watching at home!
So, you’re not a multi-million dollar television corporation…
{Lessons for Others: How to be Successful at Social Media Marketing}
What to DO
- Have a Daily Routine. Log in to your Social Media Profiles, every day!
- Choose one day a week to schedule posts, that way you won’t be thinking about what to post on the fly!
- Check out your analytics, see what posts have been drumming up the most engagement.
- Keep your routine short. Divide it up throughout the week.
- Interact. Respond to messages, posts, etc. from your followers.
- Post. When establishing your Social Media strategy – post up to 3 times per week. When you start to feel comfortable with your followers, you can post / share 1-5 times per day. If you know you have a big promotion coming up, schedule your post to coincide!
- Post Milestones, Events & Questions
- Tag Other Pages in your Posts
- Like & comment on other’s posts as much as you like – as long as the posts are relevant and not spam.
- Post about current happenings – use the media
- Check your vendor pages for sharable content. This fosters continued strong vendor relationships!
- Set Goals. Where do you want to see your page in 3, 6, 12 months from today? Set attainable goals, centred around engagement, not the number of likes you can acquire. Quality over Quantity.
- Monitor your Results. Use the analytics panel on your Facebook page, Google Analytics, etc. to track your successes and failures on the route to achieving the goals you set out.
- Have a back up plan. Social media blunders, rants do happen. Have a plan in place, that you can put into action right away!
What NOT to do
- Promote yourself on Other’s Pages. If you wish to engage with another Page, tag them in a relevant post on your own page / feed.
- Post too much, too often. You do not want to be considered “SPAM” by posting constantly. Sometimes, less is more.
- Post about Hot Button Topics. Avoid posting about religion, race, politics, etc. These types of posts can easily instigate social media wars on your page.
70 / 20 / 10 Rule…
{ The Golden Rule of Social Media Marketing }
- 70% of the time, make your posts about your audience. Share / post relevant non-promotional content, that your audience will be interested in!
- 20% engage your audience in conversation. Ask questions, encourage feedback.
- 10% of the time, make your posts about your. Sell your product! Ask for the Business!
{Have fun! Take chances! Make Mistakes! Try Creative Posts!}
Web References
You Tube
National Lampoons Griwold Family Gives Old Navy a Social TV Boost
Hubspot
Entrepreneur.com
Mashable
Submitted By: Becky Minor. To contact the author of this entry please email at: becky.minor3@gmail.com
If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Programme Director, Social Media for Business Performance.