5 Techniques to Shake Up Your Business Social Media
I was thrilled to sit down with Tessa May Marr, the CEO of Marr Media Group, to discuss “5 Techniques to Shake Up Your Business Social Media.” Marr Media Group is a fully virtual social media agency that has a killer team of social media professionals.
Here is what Tessa had to share with me.
There is truly so much I could share about social media (I could go on for days), but today I’ll be discussing five quick and easy wins for your business’ social media. These are things you can implement in your own social strategies relatively easily and are crucial topics that are often missed.
- Tagging and hashtagging to increase discoverability and nurture relationships
- How to add value with your content and (why you should!)
- Why user generated content is a win-win-win
- Why, how, and when to engage with your audience
- The power of social advertising, even with a small budget
Tagging and hashtagging to increase discoverability and nurture relationships
The reason that you want to engage and use hashtags and tagging when you’re posting is for increased discoverability. Discoverability matters for two main reasons…
- You always want to be reaching new top-of-funnel leads through social media. You want to continuously grow your audience and find new people that could potentially become followers, and hopefully customers down the line.
- Just because you have (let’s say) 2,000 followers, that does not mean that 2,000 people see your content when you post. This can be very frustrating, and these social media algorithms change constantly. Tagging can help with that.
First, let’s dive into hashtags.
There are three ways hashtags can be used: the classic hashtag, the anchor hashtag, and the ‘under your breath’ hashtag.
An anchor hashtag is essentially a tagline for your business. This would be something that you’d want to do some research on to find one that is not already being frequently used, and claim it to use on all of your posts! For instance, Nike’s anchor hashtag is #JustDoIt.
Hashtags can also be used as sarcasm or “under your breath” comments. A good example of this is #FirstWorldProblems. This hashtag is often used to complain about something that isn’t really worth complaining over. This is where some people tend to get confused as there might be a really long hashtag that no one is ever going to use twice. In reality, they are only using that hashtag to be ironic and funny.
Now, let’s discuss classic hashtags. Users go through and search for specific hashtags when looking for information on a certain subject matter, so these classic hashtags are used to tag your content based on what kind of content it is. Let’s use Rene for example. If someone was interested in the Dermaviduals products, they might search “#Dermaviduals” and look for all the content that comes up to see what people are posting about it. Users can also follow hashtags that produce the type of content people want to see on their feeds all the time.
When you’re creating a post and using hashtags, put yourself in your target market’s shoes. Ask yourself, “What types of content and hashtags are they searching for?” From there, make sure those hashtags are relevant to the type of content that you’re sharing, and voila! They’ll find you.
When searching through hashtags to use, you ideally want a mix of some larger reach hashtags, and smaller reach hashtags (and this information can be found directly on Facebook and Instagram). There are pros and cons to both sides of this. If you use a hashtag that’s a little more niche, it might not get as many eyes. However, there are fewer posts, so your content stands out. Conversely, if you use a hashtag that’s more popular, meaning largely used and largely searched, then that may mean lots of eyes on your post, but you’re more likely to get lost in a sea of content. For these reasons, we usually recommend doing a mixture of both, and you want to be sharing anywhere between 15 to 30 hashtags per post on Instagram, but only 2 to 3 on other social platforms. It’s also crucial to always go back to your analytics and take a look at which hashtags worked for you.
Tagging is also very important, and I’m going to use Dermaviduals again as an example. Rene is the Canadian supplier for Dermaviduals Canada, and she supplies to a number of clinics. The better the clinics do, the more product they’re going to need from Rene. So it’s important to build these relationships.
Because of this, each time we are posting about a Dermaviduals product feature, we tag all of the clinics that we know carry it. This does two things. First, it alerts them that a post has gone out which gets more eyes on it and encourages them to share or engage. Second, users will be able to see which clinics carry these products which may urge them to book a consultation. It is all about building those relationships and making sure that content gets in front of the right eyes.
How to add value to your content and why you should
People often have the idea that they want to use social media to sell. You can definitely do that, but it can’t be the only part of it, and you certainly don’t want to start there.
Think of social media like a cocktail party. Pretend you’re at a networking event and someone comes in hot saying, “Here’s what I do, here’s my card, I’d love to set up a meeting and talk to you about your problems.” They are sell, sell, sell. Nobody likes those people! Don’t be so aggressive.
When you’re showing up on social media and building a community of followers, you want to get to know them and offer them something that’s of value before you start asking for their money; you need to build trust. It’s going to take someone seven interactions with you before they actually make a purchase. So be patient, and put yourself in their shoes once again, and think about what sort of content would add value for them. Some examples of this might include tips, statistics, quotes, inspiration, and even comedy. If you can find a way to create some delightful content that makes people laugh or smile, they’ll love you for that. And they’ll stick around.
User-generated content and why it’s a win-win-win
User generated content (UGC) is content that’s created for you by others about your product or service. Anytime you post about something and tag the brand, you’re creating UGC! We’re all doing it constantly on social media, and it’s super powerful. The reason this is a win-win-win is…
- You get your followers or customers to do the selling for you. This is so much more effective than you telling people how great your products or services are as it builds more trust.
- It saves you time and money from having to create content yourself.
- People love to be featured!
So when you get tagged in UGC, make sure you share it to your feed or stories and give the creator credit. If you aren’t getting tagged in content, try to incentivize your followers to do so by launching a contest or giveaway, asking them to share through your stories or posts, and even asking them directly in your clinic or place of business.
Why, how, and when to engage with your audience
It is super important to get in there and engage with your audience directly. The biggest question we get is, “How often do I have to do that?” We would recommend daily, but it also depends on how active your audience is. In terms of what time of day is best, check to see when your followers are most commonly online. This information is great to have and can be found right on most social media apps. Do some digging and find out when your users are online and schedule your 15-minute check-in around that time. (You can also use this information to inform what time your posts should be going out to ensure more eyeballs are going to see it.)
Why this is important is because the more engagement your post gets, the more people that Facebook or Instagram is going to show it to. In addition, the more you engage with other people by responding to comments and messages, the more the social network is going to share your content. It’s really trying to reward human interaction and keep social media true to its form by keeping a conversation going. In other words, don’t just pump out content trying to sell and not spend any time focusing on building relationships with your followers… it’s not going to work. Engagement has to be a part of it.
The power of social advertising
If you’re not engaging in social advertising yet, now is the time to think about whether you should start. For us, we tell our clients they absolutely have to do some social advertising or we won’t be as nearly as effective. Years ago, you could make magic with just organic growth, but that has changed drastically. Paid advertising is something that needs to be a part of your strategy, but it doesn’t have to cost a fortune.
Facebook in particular can be so affordable. If you want to learn a bit more in depth, be sure to check out some of our blogs! (Psst, want access to more awesome tips and tricks like that blog post? Subscribe to our mailing list!)
Firstly, you should always be running a Page Likes ad. We tell clients, “if you’re going to spend thousands of dollars to execute a social media strategy, let’s make sure it gets in front of as many eyeballs as possible.” We recommend a minimum of $100 per month to have a Page Likes ad running in order to target new users based on certain key characteristics. As an example, you could target specific locations, interests, age, gender, other Pages they like, and so on. If you have a large email list, you can target them, or you can upload that list and target people that are similar to them and can let Facebook AI do the work for you. There is truly so much you can do for just $100 a month.
In addition, you can boost posts. This is a really easy way to get your more valuable posts (such as new product launches or special deals) in front of more people.
And if you sell products online… well, you can do a ton with conversion ad campaigns! The power is there, you just have to start using it.
Tessa and her team are rocking my social media and are just too awesome to keep to myself. Here is where you can find her: Instagram @MarrMediaGroup. You can also reach them on their website, or reach out to her directly at tessa@marrmediagroup.com if you’re interested in booking a call to discuss anything more specific!
This blog was originally posted on reneserbon.com.