The age of the internet is always changing.. and rapidly. Ten years ago, we were being introduced to different social media outlets, the most popular at the time, MySpace. Today, we wouldn’t even dare to put MySpace and Facebook in the same category.
According to the IPSOS Open Thinking Exchange, Americans average 3.2 hours on social media a day. That means an average of 37% of our time is being spend on social media, that’s like having a part time job!
It’s safe to say that if your company isn’t a part of this ever-changing digital social world, you are missing a large part of your audience. When building your social sites, there are a few key elements to keep in mind.
First, it is important to define your brand and identify which social media outlets will work best for your company.
*Quick-tip*
- Twitter – engaging written content using only 140 characters
- Instagram – visual, social engaging content
- Pinterest – imagery based content
- LinkedIn – business focused content
- Facebook – mix of social, imagery and video
- Vine – short form video sharing
Once you have identified the best social media outlets for your brand, building a following can be a slow process in the beginning. Research your competitor’s followers and give them a follow. This is a good way to get people to follow your brand. Be careful not to exceed 75-100 followers at a time or you can put your account at risk for being banned. Repeat this process over the next couple weeks and this should give you a good start engaging with your audience.
When thinking about your social media strategy it is important to know that social media sites are driven specifically by content. The majority of your posts should be content with value while only a very small portion is sales and marketing related.
- Be creative with your hashtags
- Stay relevant to trending and timely topics
- Show personality
- Fun, good consistent imagery
Don’t be afraid to tweet or share the same content more than once. On average, the second tweet about gets 86% as much performance as the first one. Now this doesn’t mean you should clog up your followers feed’s with the same content 50 times over, but tweeting more than once can make a bigger impression on your audience.
Make sure you create a game plan and follow through accordingly. When researching your competitors, see how often they post, what they post and what responds well with their audience. Use that as a tool when developing your strategy.
Track your metrics! There are plenty of tools out there to help you track the different media outlets you are using. This is an efficient way to see how you are growing, and what works and what doesn’t work for your audience.
- # of posts
- # of click-throughs
- # of page views
- # of followers
These are only a few important tips to help you get started! Happy networking from your favorite CT Social Media Company 🙂
If your looking for more information on developing your social media strategy, please contact us at 1-800-889-9316!
Written by: Daniela Giordano