You know how important social media is to your overall marketing and customer engagement strategies.
But, it’s become increasingly difficult to keep up with so many different accounts and ensure you’re reaching the right people, using the right platform, at the right time.
With limited time to spend on social media activities and so much to consider, you’re probably looking for ways to save time and increase your efficiency. I’ve pulled together a few amazing social media hacks from the experts.
Here are just a few ways to maximize your social media efforts.
1. Use trending topics to increase brand visibility
Tim Schmidt, SEO Expert, has written about using a site called Social Mention. This website reveals the topics and hashtags that are trending in real time. Publish messages via social media that include trending hashtags to reach out to more people and attract potential customers.
2. Invite people who like your posts to like your page
Katie Lance, Social Media Consultant, cites this as one of her favorite Facebook business page hacks. Use the list of people who liked your post to then invite them to like your page.
“This little hack is now something I do about once a week and it’s helped me consistently increase my Facebook likes.”
3. Share your content everywhere
Laura Kimball, CEO, Click Measure Media, loves Viral Content Buzz as a tool enabling you to share content across multiple accounts at once. One of the best features is the built-in scheduling, making content creation a breeze. Read about other free tools that Laura has selected for their high-quality content and usability.
4. Use emoticons to increase conversions
Neil Patel, Founder KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg, QuickSprout & Hellobar, has dedicated one of his blog posts to the use of emojis as part of a company’s marketing strategy. He found that 92 percent of the online population use emojis, and companies are using this information to connect with their audiences on a more human level. Want to get a message across in a unique way? Incorporate smiley faces, hearts, animals. The options are endless.
5. Don’t spend time solely on engagement
Mike Kawula, CEO, Social Quant, has some wise words for those of you that feel engaging with customers is taking up too much of your valuable time. Instead of spending countless hours replying to tweets, checking your Instagram feed or responding to direct messages, find ways to multitask. Engage with followers only when doing another task such as walking the dog or listening to a podcast so you don’t get sucked into the social media rabbit hole.
6. Use a period before your tweet
Susan Payton, President, Egg Marketing & Communications, writes in a post for Cision that, instead of just using the @ symbol to mention someone in a tweet, put a period before it. Doing this will ensure that all of the people who follow you see that tweet and you engage more people in the process.
7. Edit photos for Instagram
Leslie McDermid, Social Media Specialist, tells us how to get our photos Instagram ready using a few cool apps. She likes PicLab to edit photos by adding text, frames and filters. You can also pay a small fee or watch an ad to remove the watermark, and you have the option to unlock all the fonts and overlays. Read more of Leslie’s social media hacks on her Social Media Marketing Tips Canada blog.
8. Use “if this, then that”
Jay Baer, President of Convince & Convert, keynote speaker, podcaster and author, encourages the use of If This, Then That (IFTTT). This tool connects all of your social profiles, blogs, favorite apps etc. to create an array of conditionally-defined, time-saving tasks. For example, you can set it up so that your Twitter profile photo automatically changes each time you update your Facebook photo.
9. Share content across multiple social networks
Another hack from Jay Baer, he promotes the use of Buffer to automatically share interesting content you’ve sourced across your chosen social networks at pre-determined, optimized times. This will save you from having to publish content to each profile individually so is a great tool to increase efficiency and productivity.
10. Utilize social media to build relationships with influencers
Joe Pulizzi, Founder of Content Marketing Institute, says to make online friends with some of your top industry influencers by frequently sharing their content. Tweet, re-tweet and like their posts. With any luck, they will eventually notice you, follow you, and reciprocate your efforts by sharing your content with their audience. This increases your reach and may lead to more followers and potential customers.
11. Use Reddit instead
Kat Haselkorn, Content Strategist at Go Fish Digital, cites Reddit as an incredible resource that is underused and misunderstood. “The Front Page of The Internet”, Reddit has thousands of different verticals in which you can post your content. Kat adds that “posting on Reddit can drive traffic to your site and provide honest, unfiltered feedback about your content.”
12. Optimize relevant tags
Elisabeth Osmeloski, VP of Audience Development for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land, has written about properly using Open Graph tags on Facebook. By optimizing these tags, you can control how your content looks in social feeds when users like or share your content. This can mean the difference between ten and tens of thousands of shares.
13.Tools, tools and more tools
Kim Garst, Social Media and Brand Strategist, is very open about her love for tools to assist with scheduling, posting and engaging with posts. One tool she recommends is Hootsuite. Other tools she has reviewed and revered for their functionality include AgoraPulse, Schedugram, ManageFlitter and SocialOomph.
14. Repeat your tweets
Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist of Canva, repeats his tweets up to three times to ensure he reaches more of his audience. He has been criticized for this strategy but he says that each one of his repeat tweets gets about the same amount of traffic, showing that he would otherwise miss out on 75 percent of click-throughs.
15. Scale social connections
Brooke Ballard, Chief Digital Strategist at B Squared Media, uses Rapportive for Gmail to view everything within a contact’s LinkedIn profile right in your inbox. Brooke adds, “If we’re not connected, I can follow them on Twitter, or send an invitation to connect on LinkedIn directly from inside the email — all without leaving Gmail.”
As you can see, there’s a goldmine of hints, tips, and tools to make your day less about flitting from one social platform to the next, and more about making vital connections with your audience. Final words of advice — select and test a few to see what works for you.
Don’t try to incorporate too many changes at once. It takes time to build and manage a successful social media strategy.
Do you have any social media hacks of your own? Share them in the comments below!
