Social Media: Dos and Dont's

2. Don’t Waste Your Time on Social Media Posts - Try Automation

Being active on social media doesn’t mean dedicating 8 hours of your day to posting. Save time by reusing old messages and scheduling messages in advance. How to accomplish that? Invest in a social media automation system. Each system has unique publishing tools and features that will help you achieve your social media goals.

Features You Should Look For:

• Content Repurposing: Are you able to reuse old messages without copying/pasting? Add certain messages to a queue?
• Cross-Publishing: Are you able to post your messages on various platforms at the same time?
• Scheduling: Are you able to schedule posts in advance?
• Analytics Management: Are you able to access and compare social media data and analytics with one click?
• Live Collaboration: If you have more than one user, are you able to see changes in real time?

Be sure that you don’t overdo the recycled posting. Evaluate your audience and check your social analytics to see when your postings have the most activity. Schedule your posts to publish at those high engagement times.

If you’re new to the automation world, contact our digital marketing experts. We can help guide you into selecting the correct software, starting the automation process, and also managing your content.

3. Do Add #Hashtags and Location Markers

Though adding hashtags may seem silly, it’s a proven way to increase visibility and engagement. According to Sprout Social, posts that include one #hashtag receive, on average, over 12.6% more engagement. Hashtags and location markers are essentially keywords/terms that allow people to search for your post with.
So, what are the right hashtags to use? Creating hashtags that are unique to your business can prove to be effective, but it’s important that you add trending hashtags and optimized hashtags too. Check out All Hashtag for keyword ideas relating to your industry. Compare and analyze the popularity of each hashtag on Hashtagify Me.

4.Do Add Images and Graphics to Every Post

By including images in your posts LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook posts, you’re increasing your engagement rates by 150% - 200%. Let’s face it, text-only posts are dull. Posts that include visual media can help you connect with new, potential clients and build brand awareness. This does not mean you should find the first “decent” looking image on Google. Be sure that the image is relevant to your brand and is licensed or completely free to use.

5. Don’t Ignore Your Messages or Brand Mentions

When you have multiple social media accounts, it’s easy to ignore your inbox and tagged messages. Break that bad habit now! Ignoring messages and mentions is comparable to ignoring customers who try to talk to you in store. By ignoring your customers, you’re losing sales and damaging previously developed relationships. Stay active and respond promptly to messages and mentions. Turning on notifications for your social platforms can aid in the process.

6. Don’t Expect Leads from Social Platforms

Social media can bring in new sales and sign ups, but you shouldn’t use it as your only marketing outlet. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are meant to be used to build brand awareness. Connect and engage your customers through social media to get them excited about your products or services, but lead them back to your website or store to give them the actual sales pitch.

7. Do Share and Tag Yourself in Other People’s Posts

When you sign up for a social media account it’s implied that you will be social. Interact with and engage in posts that relate to your business and industry. Share posts and comment from other (non-competing), business pages. By staying social, you’re building a community of loyal followers and free brand ambassadors.

8. Don’t Purchase Followers

We repeat: DO NOT purchase followers. Purchasing social media followers isn’t just a bad practice, but it’s the beginning of a compromised relationship between your business and the social platform. If you’re caught selling or purchasing followers, your account can be permanently suspended. Although the act isn’t illegal, social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram take immediate action to these bad practices to protect actual users from malicious links and spammy messages. Moreover, purchasing followers can skew your analytics and negatively affect your reporting.

9. Don’t Overdo the Sales Posts

No one wants to scroll through a feed of prices and “buy now” buttons. Be personal, but relevant with your messages, and only introduce a sales post every few weeks. Ask your followers questions that they can answer through a comment or like.

Post Ideas:

• Polls or surveys that followers can quickly fill out
• Invitation to a company hosted event
• Video of employees at the office or the store (can be showing products, showing their workspace, etc)
• Blog post about industry news
• Photo of new products, or pictures of happy customers
• Funny images relating to your business
• Infographics relating to your industry
• Fun gifs of your products or employees
• High resolution, professional photos of your products
• Pinterest pins relating to your company or industry

10. Do Monitor Your Social Media’s Analytics

Measure your social media success by regularly reviewing your analytics. Nearly every platform has the tools to measure, track, and test your social media campaigns and advertisements. Set time aside every week or month to do a full review of your social metrics. What’s new with your audience? Have your age demographics stayed the same? When (time and day), are they most engaged with your posts? What posts seem to have performed well? What sets those posts aside from the others? Use this data to create new, optimized posts.