10 Tips for Successful Social Media Marketing

There’s no magic pill that makes your social media marketing strategy successful, but there are some tried and tested tips that will get you started in the right direction. If you’re just starting out, or looking to improve your existing digital marketing plan, consider these 10 tips for social media marketing success.

Dedicate appropriate time and resources.

This might be the single most important thing that dictates whether or not your social media marketing campaign successful. Too many companies decide to tip a toe into the social media pond, which often means tasking an existing employee or team with building and executing a social media plan with little to no direction. Management should instead identify dedicated social media managers who can devote the appropriate attention to creating a comprehensive social strategy that dovetails with the company’s communications plan. If creating an internal team is not possible, outsource your social media to professionals that can help keep you on track for success.

Use automation.

No one expects you to be a slave to your social media presence. Yes, you should aim to respond to comments, questions and messages in a timely manner, but that shouldn’t consume your life inside or outside of the office. Most social media platforms offer content scheduling or interface with third party applications (like Hootsuite) that allows you to plan future posts. Not only does working ahead give you time to develop stronger content, it’s easier to organize a cohesive message across all of your platforms when you’re not working on the fly.

Be consistent in your messaging and your posting.

Just like in person, your digital fans and followers want to be able to rely on you. This means two things. First, your brand messaging should align across all your digital and traditional platforms. Obviously the content may vary based on the channel, but it should be obviously related and tie into your brand identity. Second, if you say you’re going to do something, do it. This is most obvious when companies launch social media platforms or blogs and then don’t keep up their posting. When it comes to doing something poorly or not doing it at all, go for the latter.

Don’t spread yourself too thin.

So often, people come at social media ready to take on the world. They launch multiple platforms without understanding what it takes to maintain multiple online presences. Social media is always evolving, and that means anything from creating new platforms to rolling out new features. Just because the cool kids are doing it doesn’t mean you should hop on every bandwagon that rolls through town.

Real World Example: A Client asked about Instagram stories and whether we should start using that for their brand. This Client has mostly pre-planned Instagram content promoting events and very little real-time posting. We asked if there was a plan to change the current Instagram strategy and promote more real-time posts, and the Client told us there was not. We recommended that instead of having a very sparse Story feed, we utilize the feature as a campaign tactic during events

Track and measure everything.

Yes, we know the ROI of social media is hard to pinpoint, but there are LOTS of metrics available and you may be able correlate some of them to increases in sales, web traffic, form fills, etc. If you don’t start tracking, you can’t see trends over time and you’ll never know if there’s an association between your social media marketing and key performance indicators.

Curate content.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but you do need to give credit where it’s due. Search the web for content that validates your products, services or objectives and share it on your own platforms. A good rule of thumb: as long as you aren’t violating any copyright laws and you provide a link back to the original content giving that author credit, you’re probably safe. If you’re not sure whether or not you’re infringing on someone’s intellectual property or their content, reach out and ask if you can have permission to reuse their golden nuggets.

Engage with your fans

If you have amazing fans that like, comment and share your posts – SHOW THEM SOME LOVE! Our favorite thing is when brands share user content and a shout out for their creativity. Plus, it’s almost always preferable to have a third party talk about how great you are rather than telling everyone yourself.

Leverage current events – or don’t!

So often brands try to newsjack current events and so often they fail. If you need a good laugh and some examples of epically bad attempts to leverage current events, check out the Google SERP for “newsjacking fails”. If you don’t have a strong tie to the event, or a legitimate reason to be posting, err on the safe side and post nothing.

Run contests or giveaways

People love free stuff, so give them what they want! If you have some fun giveaway items use them to celebrate a company milestone or run monthly contests. You’ll need to make sure you’re in compliance with the rules for the platform you’re using, but this is a great way to get people engaged and provide value to your followers. If you want to start utilizing this aspect of social media marketing but you don’t want to manage the contests internally, it might be time to find an agency that can step in and help out.

Make it fun!

Remember, social media is fun! People want to be entertained on their newsfeeds, and if you want to get their attention you have to provide useful, funny, or sensational content.

About Top Shelf

We firmly believe that “Teamwork Makes the Dream Work” at Top Shelf Digital & Social Media Marketing. Our talented team of digital marketing specialists works together to set your brand up for success. We offer full-service digital marketing services including: