40+ Social Media Marketing Tips From The Experts

With Social Media marketing, there are many options to choose from, but only one will deliver the desired results. These tips will help you avoid common mistakes, save time, and get the desired results if you want to optimise your social media marketing.

This is a long list, but there are many ways to market your business, and social media marketing is one of the best ways to go about it. You can use social media sites to create a buzz about your brand, and that's the first step to getting your business to the next level. You're missing many opportunities if you're not using social media content.

In this article, seven social media experts provide expert advice on effectively using social media. They offer advice from choosing the best platform for you to getting the most out of your social media marketing.

Brian Tracy: The Top 3 Ways to Make Social Media Work for You

There are no shortcuts to success in social media. You must make it your business and dedicate your time to the medium to succeed.

Social media is great for small businesses that can't afford to hire a full-time PR team to manage their brand's reputation. You don't need to spend much money to see results.

Brian is a fantastic marketing expert and author of best-selling books. Today he gives us the top three reasons why social media works for some people and not others.

1 – Don't Try to Do It All at Once

You should start slow and build momentum. It's better to begin slow and steady than to rush into it and then feel like you've wasted your efforts. Starting slowly also allows you to find out what works and what doesn't so that you can adjust accordingly. Don't feel like you need to have all your social media sites active on all platforms at once. 

2 – Choose a Social Network That Suits You

If your company is an enterprise, don't assume that every social network will work for you. You need to choose carefully and do the proper research to see which ones will provide your users with the kind of interaction you need. For example, Facebook is perfect for companies looking to market and sell products. It's also suitable for organisations looking to share information with their customers. However, it's not a good choice if you want to build brand loyalty.

3 – Develop a Strategy and Stick to It

The third and final step in creating your social media marketing strategy is to execute. Once you've decided what you'll say on each platform, you must keep saying it. Worrying about the next big update, the next shiny feature, or the next campaign is easy. But remember that you're a human being, not a robot. You're not supposed to be perfect.

If you aren't sure how to use social media for your business, take a step back and think about why you are doing it in the first place. Is it because you think it is going to make your business grow? Maybe you hope to build relationships with others who can help you grow your business? Do you just want a fun way to connect with your family and friends? Or perhaps you are simply looking for a way to communicate with your employees?

Kevin Systrom: 10 Tips on Social Media Management

We all know that managing social media can be a full-time job.

For those who have been around for a while, social media was just beginning to take off when Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launched Instagram in 2010. Since then, it has become the go-to app for sharing photos, posting videos, and staying in touch with friends and family. This week, we asked Kevin Systrom to share his top 10 tips for businesses and individuals managing social media.

1 – Understand the difference between marketing and public relations

Marketing and public relations are often confused by businesses. However, there's a difference between the two, and the difference between marketing and public relations is vital. 

Many marketers are not necessarily public relations specialists. They understand how to market a brand or product but don't necessarily understand how to develop and execute a public relations strategy. Public relations is more than just PR. It's a process, not a single technique or action. Public relations includes developing and implementing a plan to ensure your brand's reputation stays positive and that customers trust you.

2 – Determine if social media is suitable for your company

While social media can provide many benefits for companies, it doesn't consistently deliver. Some companies realise that it's not as simple as just throwing up a Facebook page and having customers flock to it. 

Social media is a means of communication, not a destination. Social media isn't right for every business, and many companies find out the hard way.

3 – Create and share content that matters to your customers

Social media is a fantastic tool for connecting with your audience. But there's a fine line between connecting with your audience and broadcasting. Instead of creating meaningful and valuable content, people who use social media solely to broadcast their lives don't win friends or influence. 

Connecting with your audience using your authentic voice is the key to making social media work for you. 

Once you've created content that truly engages your audience, it becomes easier to start sharing it. When you create meaningful social media content, you establish a relationship with your audience that will help you gain influence.

4 – Promote your brand effectively through various channels

Facebook is the largest and most popular of the social networks, followed by Twitter and Instagram. These platforms are essential for establishing connections with consumers and promoting your brand and products to your target audience. 

However, there are many other channels available to you. It's estimated that over 70% of Americans regularly use social media. This includes sites like Tumblr, Pinterest, Vine, Flickr, and FourSquare. 

Many of these sites allow you to establish a presence, build up a following, and engage with people who might be interested in your company.

5 – Grow your network and cultivate relationships

There is no limit to an individual's influence with just a few key people. In fact, the people you spend the most time with tend to have a more significant influence than those who don't. For example, someone you have spent less than a day with could hold a position of power over you, while someone you've been friends with for years is the person you turn to for advice. 

Therefore, it's imperative to connect with people at all influence levels and take advantage of every opportunity to make new connections.

6 – Monitor and measure your results

If you aren't monitoring and measuring your social media marketing efforts, you don't know if you're making any progress. But what do you need to monitor and measure? 

There are three key areas that you must monitor to understand what your social media marketing efforts are doing: engagement, conversions and leads. 

Engagement is how many people see your messages and engage with your content. Conversions are how many people who engage with you buy something from you. Leads are all the leads you generate through your social media channels. 

If you aren't tracking these areas, you're not getting the complete picture of what your social media marketing is accomplishing.

7 – Make sure your social media tools are working

Many business owners mistake thinking that all their social media marketing tools are working perfectly. After all, they're getting a return on investment, right? Wrong. 

In reality, we can partially utilise many social media marketing tools because they're not working. If your content is poorly optimised for social media, if your links aren't clickable, if you don't use social media as a place to get new customers, and so on, your social media marketing tools will fail.

8 – Don't be afraid to ask for feedback

The best thing about social media is listening to what people say about your brand. But, you have to ask. 

The last two or three times I've been asked for feedback on Twitter, I've said something like, “Please share with me if you have any questions or if I can help you in any way,” and I've never gotten an answer back. 

People don't want to say anything wrong and will not respond to a request if they feel you don't want to hear what they're thinking.

9 – Be consistent but not boring

You must remain consistent across all platforms, but the content truly makes you memorable and gives your brand a personality. Consumers who follow your company online should know what to expect from you. 

With consistency comes consistency in branding and messaging. But don't be afraid to stand out too. The more distinctive your voice and message are, the more likely they'll remember you.

10 – Don't forget about offline communication

If you aren't getting the results you want with social media marketing, then it might be time to consider that your strategy might need some improvement. 

Offline media such as television, radio, billboards, print ads, and email marketing are often overlooked when trying to reach your target audience. They're still important, but social media takes the spotlight as the primary form of communication between businesses and customers. That's why it's so important to understand the various tactics available.

Jon Loomer: 5 Social Media Marketing Tips That Will Increase Your Reach

From Facebook Ads to Twitter Ads, several tactics help you drive targeted traffic to your site, increase brand awareness and grow your following.

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provide businesses and individuals with fantastic marketing opportunities. 

Whether you're a small business owner looking to expand your market share or someone with a specific skill set that you'd like to share with others, social media can help you reach out to hundreds of thousands of people without spending a dime.

1 – Build a Reputation: Create a Positive Online Image

Many people don't realise just how much they say and do online and how much that says about them. In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, more than two-thirds (62 per cent) of U.S. adults get their news from social media. 

If you're trying to build a positive image, you must actively manage your online reputation. By monitoring your activity on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogs, and forums, you can see what people are saying about you and make the appropriate changes to your online presence.

2 – Increase Visibility: Focus on Quality Over Quantity

In online advertising, there's a balance between getting as many impressions of your product as possible and getting the quality impressions that will significantly impact driving sales. 

On social media, the latter is usually the priority. But just because you don't post daily doesn't mean your content is weak. Posting regularly is essential for building brand recognition and credibility. Quality over quantity is the rule here.

3 – Connect with Influencers: Become an Influencer Yourself

Influencers are critical to a successful social media strategy because they can help drive traffic and engagement to your website and brand. 

These influencers should be people that already have a large following on social media and whose opinion is highly sought after by potential customers. 

They might also be people who are interested in your product or who are part of your target market. The idea behind connecting with influencers is to get exposure for your brand. This could mean getting mentioned by an influencer in a tweet, retweeting or liking their content, or adding them to your Facebook business page. 

Influencer marketing is especially effective for brands that don't have the budget to advertise. Instead, they can use a low-cost method like influencer marketing to build a strong reputation.

4 – Engage: Listen, Ask and Share

Social media platforms are an excellent place for businesses to share content, engage consumers, and listen to what they have to say. 

To create a social community, you need to interact with them. Share a status update about a new product, ask for input, or even give a shout-out. In addition to this, you can also participate in groups. 

These are communities of people with similar interests whom you can find on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn. These social communities allow you to stay on top of current trends and popular topics in your industry.

5 – Manage Your Online Presence: Keep It Simple, Stupid!

I'm all for creating a robust online presence and promoting your business. However, as an entrepreneur, I firmly believe in keeping things simple. No one has time to read an entire post. People don't want to read. They want to click and get to the point. 

That's why social media is such a powerful tool. It allows you to post quick tips and links to your website. It allows you to promote your business without writing an entire blog post.

Kevin Hillstrom: 9 Steps to Creating the Perfect Instagram Account

Every brand wants to stand out on Instagram, but creating the perfect account can feel overwhelming.

In today's world, social media marketing is a must for every business that wants to succeed. 

But if you're a small business, you might feel overwhelmed by how much to do and spend. I've teamed up with a social media marketing expert, Kevin Hillstrom, to help you navigate Instagram like a pro.

1 – Understand the Visual Language of Instagram

An average of 500 million people are active on Instagram every day. The site boasts nearly 1 billion monthly active users, and more than 95 million photos shared on a typical day. 

This is a highly visual social platform. The most popular images on Instagram are often those that depict beauty. So the key to understanding the visual language of Instagram is understanding what makes beautiful images on this platform attractive. That's why there is no better time than now to build your brand's visual presence on the platform.

2 – Choose an Appropriate Hashtag

To determine the right hashtag for your business, start by identifying the products, services, or brands people are talking about online. Then, research other companies that sell those same items and see if they use a similar hashtag. If not, why not? 

Does your brand resonate with a particular theme? If so, you may want to use it. Alternatively, if there isn't another company doing what you are doing, it may be a good idea to create a hashtag of your own.

3 – Post at the Right Time

One way to reach people through Instagram is to post at the correct times. Here are the times that people most often use Instagram and what time of day to post. 

Most people check their Instagram accounts in the evening, and more than half of users check-in between 6 PM and midnight. Therefore, the best time to post on Instagram is around 6 PM or night.

4 – Follow the Rules of Engagement

How many people follow the Instagram Rules of Engagement? Probably not that many. Most people just jump in without thinking about whether or not they should be on Instagram. 

If you're trying to create something on your social media account, you must carefully consider the rules of engagement and create a strategy that meets them. For example, when posting content on Instagram, your goal is not to attract people to come to your website. If you do that, you'll be disappointed when no one visits. 

Your goal should be to attract followers to your Instagram account, which leads to increased brand awareness and traffic.

5 – Manage Your Feed

There's no doubt that the rise of Instagram has changed the way that marketers market their businesses. You no longer rely solely on Facebook ads to attract new customers. Now, you can use Instagram to target local audiences and market your brand.

6 – Set up Your Profile

It's not exactly rocket science. You set up your profile with a photo, some hashtags that relate to your brand and products, and your username. This lets people know who you are and makes it easy for them to find your account.

7 – Post Consistently

Instagram's algorithm does not prioritise posts based on frequency. This means that posting too often can hurt your business instead of helping it. 

For best results, schedule your posts. Schedule your content in advance and choose a timeframe (i.e. daily, weekly) that's realistic and fits your business.

8 – Grow Your Audience

Instagram has become a popular social media channel for bloggers, brands, and businesses. However, the platform isn't for everyone. Many blogs are now growing their following on Instagram, and they're taking advantage of the platform's ability to reach a broader audience.

9 – Build a Following

Building a following on Instagram is no different than building any other online presence. It would be best if you worked hard to attract new followers with a Facebook page, Twitter account, or blog. 

There's no magic formula here; it's simply building a following through consistent posting and engagement. 

First, make sure you're building a following by using hashtags. You should always be able to search for an item you're looking to buy on Instagram and see if there are people who are discussing it in the comments section. Being active will increase the chances of other users seeing your posts.

Justin Gander: How to Make LinkedIn Profiles More Effective

LinkedIn can be both a sales tool and a sales training tool. But how do you effectively utilise it?

Have you ever looked at the LinkedIn profiles of your competitors and thought, “Why am I wasting so much time trying to improve my profile when they seem so much better than mine?” 

Maybe you're not thinking this way, but that's exactly what's happening. I'm talking to all of you LinkedIn newbies: your profiles are not getting the traffic they deserve. 

You're just wondering why it's taking you so long to attract more connections—is it possible to create a more attractive profile that gets your messages to show up on more people's news feeds? If you're looking to attract more connections, the answer is yes!

1 – Get your head in the game

I've never met anyone who doesn't want to be more popular. The problem is that many people don't know how to do it or don't want to put effort into getting there. 

People who use LinkedIn to connect to business colleagues and professionals are often willing to put in some time to help others become more visible in the network. 

LinkedIn offers ways to connect with people and build your presence in the network so that you can get your head in the game for LinkedIn marketing.

2 – Do a bit of research on your target market

LinkedIn is the perfect platform for targeting potential customers, but you can't do it without some background knowledge. Learn who your audience is and what they want. 

Read LinkedIn's Pulse feature to find out what your target audience's concerns are and what issues they're struggling with. Then, determine what you want to accomplish with your marketing efforts and what you want to do for your audience. 

Once you've got your marketing strategy planned, start reaching out to those in your network, and you'll soon see whom you're speaking to and what you can do to attract the attention of your ideal customer.

3 – Get yourself up to speed with current trends

To stay competitive in the digital landscape, you must understand and adapt to the latest LinkedIn marketing trends. The way you present your profile, the type of content you share, and the type of ads you promote all play a significant role in getting more traffic to your website. 

By understanding and adapting to these LinkedIn marketing trends, you'll ensure you're always presenting the right image of your brand to your audience.

4 – Build relationships with your connections

One of the reasons I started working with LinkedIn was to build connections with people I wanted to meet in real life. I did this through a process called LinkedIn “Mailing Lists,” in which I searched for all the people I wanted to connect with in my niche and sent messages to them. 

Over time, I built up a network of contacts who have proven to be a valuable source of clients and opportunities.

5 – Be genuine, be helpful, and don't spam

To become a reputable user of LinkedIn, you have to be genuine. In other words, don't be fake. Don't overdo the niceties, don't fake being someone you're not. Be genuine. Help people who need help. 

You can use the network to find jobs, contacts, and other helpful information. LinkedIn is great for these things because it's a professional network that will be useful even after you've quit the company.

6 – Follow the advice if you can

Do you struggle to stand out in a sea of similar profiles? Is the content on your profile not relevant to your target audience? Is your headline or cover photo just okay? Perhaps your headline doesn't match your image? 

If you answered yes to any of these questions, it's time to do something about it! Many feel that adding a few thousand dollars to their budget each year isn't worth the effort. 

But if you follow the advice in this article, you'll see how to increase your success rate of getting leads and converting them into sales.

Aaron Strout: 7 Secrets for Successful Social Media Management

Today, the biggest challenge of social media management is creating a strategy that can scale to meet the needs of a growing organisation.

In today's world, most businesses rely heavily on social media marketing for advertising and communication. With millions of social media profiles, it's much work to manage. 

That's why we've partnered with Aaron Strout, one of the best social media managers, to provide seven steps you can implement to streamline your social media workflow, gain suitable attention, and create a thriving presence. 

These tactics will keep you organised, help you build better relationships, and ensure that your social media efforts will be effective and efficient.

1 – Have a plan

Social media is just one part of the marketing mix, but it's essential. Because social media is now so pervasive, businesses need to have a strategy for how to engage customers through social media channels. 

With a few social media management tools, your business can simultaneously manage all aspects of social media marketing.

2 – Set goals and be clear about what you want

Social media marketing can feel overwhelming, especially if you don't know what you're trying to achieve. There is no natural magic formula for social media success, but we can help you understand where you need to be. 

There are plenty of people out there who have spent a fortune on social media, only to have achieved nothing. You must set realistic short-term and long-term goals and regularly monitor and review your progress.

3 – Use social media to your advantage

Social media management is about getting your content to your audience, making sure it gets seen, and keeping tabs on your activity. This includes everything from scheduling content to responding to comments and likes. 

Social media management also includes monitoring and optimising your posts and social channels and monitoring and responding to online conversations.

4 – Make it a habit

Social media marketing isn't something that you can do overnight, but you can master it in a short amount of time. 

Many small businesses new to the digital marketing game fall into the trap of thinking that a large social media following is what they need to succeed. However, this is not always true. 

A social media following is only necessary if it allows you to gain new customers and grow your business. Otherwise, a social media following may lead to unwanted spamming and a potential PR disaster.

5 – Use tools to manage time effectively

You're wasting time and money if you're not using social media tools to manage your time effectively. We often control our actions and what we do, but we still find ourselves wasting time and money. Social media can help you stay organised and efficient in managing your time.

6 – Treat every post as an opportunity

What do I mean by this? Many people looking for new clients and business opportunities on Facebook and LinkedIn often post about their business. But, they forget that their profile pictures, status updates, comments, and everything else on their page are a marketing opportunity.

Instead of just posting and getting lost in the crowd, use it all to your advantage and create a strong brand identity.

7 – Make sure you're adding value

Adding value to your social media marketing activities means sharing quality content and valuable information that helps people solve problems and live better lives. 

So, be mindful of the content you share and ensure you're not just promoting your products and services. Create quality content that will positively help your audience. This may take some time, but the effort is well worth it.

James Clear: 6 Ways to Use Facebook Ads

You know that Facebook ads are a gold mine if you just know how to tap into them. These tips by James Clear will show you exactly how.

In the past few years, Facebook has changed the game regarding online advertising. There are six different ad formats that you can leverage to increase your Facebook ad's ROI. And, once you know which one is best for your specific situation, it's much easier to get started.

1 – Advertise Products

Facebook advertising is perfect for any company looking to sell products online. Facebook users are the world's largest audience, with almost 3 billion active monthly users, and a growing number of them shop online. 

A Facebook ad is an image or video ad that runs on the News Feed, the stream of updates from Facebook friends and people who follow brands or businesses on Facebook. 

While you can't target your ads to specific users, you can limit the age range of users who see your ad and bid on keywords to attract certain types of users.

2 – Promote Events

Facebook ads allow you to target people who live in specific cities and states and those who attend events or follow a specific industry on a particular day or month. 

Because of this targeting capability, you can run Facebook ads to promote your event and get people to attend. 

If you're trying to sell tickets to your event, you can target people in your city and use events to get them interested in your event. For example, if you're organising a corporate event, you could promote it on Facebook to see how many people in your area are interested in attending.

3 – Market to Your Audience

If your business is focused on a specific audience (in other words, if your target market is based on an industry, a demographic, a location, etc.), then you may need to make sure that your Facebook page targets this audience precisely. 

Using Facebook's ad platform, you can target your audience based on age, gender, education level, occupation, and even income level, among other factors. With the ability to target, it's possible to run ads that appeal to a specific population segment.

4 – Test New Products

Facebook ads allow you to test your products and services in real-time with potential customers. It's become such a successful tool that many marketers even use it to test new advertising campaigns.

Facebook ads allow you to quickly test the performance of your existing ads and the effectiveness of your ad copy, but also to see if your target audience is interested in your product or service. If the ad performs well, you can then optimise it and scale-up.

5 – Sell Services

It's estimated that only 5% of businesses advertise online using Facebook, but that's because they don't realise how effective this channel can be for selling services. 

“Facebook ads for services are growing faster than all others,” says James. But, to sell services effectively, you need to follow the principles of selling products. This includes understanding your target customers and what they're looking for. 

It also requires creating value through your ads and showing that you can provide exactly what your customers need.

6 – Reach New Customers

There are two primary channels for Facebook ads: organic reach and paid ads. Organic reach is achieved through people's actions — liking or commenting on your page, sharing a post or photo, or viewing your ads in a feed. Paid ads are targeted based on a user's demographic, location, age, or other factors.

Conclusion

We believe social media has created a new world where every marketer can be a publisher. With so much competition and opportunity, there's no room for mediocrity. 

We've learned a ton, and now we want to share our knowledge and experience with you. So whether you're looking for a list of top social media marketing tips or want to know how to optimise your marketing campaigns, this guide will give you everything you need to grow your brand.

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