6 Ways to Get More Out of Social Media
By: Thomas Greig
Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Social Media

Photo by Merakist on Unsplash

Love it or hate it; you can’t ignore social media as a powerful way of reaching your audience. The more connected we are, the more integral social media should be to your marketing strategy, especially when marketing to millennials.

By 2025, millennials will make up 75 per cent of the workforce. So, let’s face it, as the most significant demographic with significant purchasing power, it’s more than likely you’ll be marketing to this tech-savvy generation at some point.

But if your social media campaigns leave you feeling frustrated or unfulfilled, check out six ways to get more out of social media here.

1. Get Genuine Followers

Yes, perhaps it does make you feel better and looks more fashionable, having a high number of followers on Facebook and Twitter. But if you have a low level of engagement, you won’t be fooling anyone.

Facebook’s algorithm punishes companies for buying likes, or rather, for displaying a suspiciously low level of post engagement.

That means that not only will your posts get ignored by your phoney following, but they’ll get shown to fewer people who may be interested in them.

Put great content out there, be patient and make sure that your followers are genuine.

The same goes for relevancy. Buying fans (hopefully) may not have crossed your mind, but it’s equally as much of a waste of time willfully following just anyone.

Or making friends left, right and center that have no relevance or possible connection to your brand. Again, it may help to raise your numbers, but watch as engagement drops like a stone.

If you offer translation services, look for fans who are interested in languages and may find your content of value. If you sell children’s clothes, make sure your followers are parents.

2. Interact with your Fans

Fan interaction, relationship building; whatever you prefer to call it doesn’t really matter as long as you do it! According to Social Media Examiner, your visibility in the newsfeed depends on how much you engage with your fans.

Get a new follower on Twitter or Instagram? Great. But the work doesn’t end there. In fact, it’s only just beginning.

You need to get to know the people you’re connected to. Ask them questions, interact, send them useful links and information from time to time.

Retweet them, shout out to them, give them a reason to care about what you have to say.

Never, ever leave a customer comment or complaint unattended. Not only will you upset the person who wrote it, but your other fans will deduce that you don’t care about customer service.

Negative social media presence is worse than no social media presence at all.

3. Post at the Right Times

You’ve heard this before, but it’s worth reinforcing that you need to post at the right times. As every company is different, there’s no hard and fast rule as to when will work with you, so use your common sense.

See when interaction is highest. If you deal with customers around the globe, try posting at different times for different regions.

If your client base is mostly in the States, try posting at a time when interaction will be highest from East to West.

80% of the US population resides in the eastern and central time zones. So, take this into account if you want your tweets and posts to each the highest audience.

It goes without saying (but I’m going to anyway) that you should never post when your target is likely to be sleeping.

You could compose the most compelling social post on record, but if it flies under the radar because it came out at 3am, you may as well have saved yourself the time.

4. Be Genuine

Social media gives you a chance to get creative, which can be fun and also attract a lot of fans. But don’t get carried away and end up giving them the wrong message about your company.

Your social media campaigns should still be relevant to what you do. Ideally, they’ll generate interest in what you sell. Social media is great for brand awareness, but ideally, you’ll also get converting customers out of it.

Transparency builds trust on social media, so be genuine and transparent. Your followers will spot a phoney from 100 yards away.

5. Give Back

The concept of reciprocity is all-important on social networks. What does that mean? It means you have to return the favour.

If you want to get recommendations on LinkedIn, start writing some yourself. If you want more followers on Twitter, start following other people.

Someone will return the favor. Remember that it’s not all about you. So, don’t fall into the trap of talking too much about yourself or your company.

Make sure that you also share your followers’ content as well. Like and comment where appropriate and build up your social karma.

6. Post Great Content

This may be easier said than done. But don’t just post to fill a certain quota of tweets or entries you’ve set for yourself. Post content that is of value to your followers.

If you have an interesting blog article to share, share it, and make sure you add a suitable description that entices your audience to click.

Don’t just add a link and leave it handing or lazily copy and paste the first paragraph of the article. And if you haven’t got great content of your own to publish, post other people’s great content.

Not only will you be saving yourself from a creative void, but you’ll be spreading the love and giving back.

The many social media platforms that abound can seem a little intimidating at first. But spend more time on the ones that your audience spends more time on.

Don’t try to invest the same amount of time in each platform. Use common sense and be prepared to put in the ground work.

Remember, just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, you won’t become a social sensation overnight. Not without following some ground rules to make the most out of social media.