We crave social media more than we crave a good breakfast. Ever since social media”™s inception on the web, businesses have been utilizing various platforms to tap into new, previously unreachable audiences.
The craving for social media is only growing, but how can businesses get their slice of the pie? These three best practices will help.
CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA POSTING CALENDAR
Ever feel stumped about what you should post next? A social media posting calendar is your antidote. You can give each day a theme, such as Motivational Monday where you post motivational content. You can get even more advanced by theming each time frame of the day. For instance, your social media postings follow a certain theme for the morning, afternoon and evening.
ASK THE IMPORTANT QUESTION BEFORE YOU POST
Once businesses experience the slightest success on social media, it”™s tempting for those business owners to believe they know exactly what their audiences want. Here”™s the problem: no one knows exactly what their audiences want. The only way to know for sure what your audience wants is to put content out there and see how people engage with it.
Some of your posts will get more engagement ”” retweets, shares, likes, etc. ”” than others. Engagements are votes. If posts about Topic A get more engagement than posts about Topic B, you need to provide more of Topic A.
The important question you must constantly ask yourself before you post anything on social media: “Is this what my audience wants?”
CREATE A LEGENDARY EXPERIENCE OUTSIDE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Not all statistics are created equal. Some of the statistics will give you an accurate idea of where your business is heading. Other statistics are only helpful in certain situations. For instance, when people engage with your social media posts, that tells you what your audience wants.
So, if you continue to boost your engagement on your social media posts, are you on the road to success?
Yes and no.
In part yes, because more engagement means more visibility. However, if you can”™t capitalize on that visibility, then all of the exposure in the world won”™t make a difference.
When people click on the links to your website, are they joining your email list? Are they sticking around on your site instead of on the social networks where they can quickly skip over your business? Are you getting word-of-mouth marketing and growing your customer base from your social media efforts?
To truly become successful on social media, you must create a legendary experience on your website and send as many of your followers there as possible. It took me a long time to learn this lesson.
Engagement is critical on social media, but why are you growing a social media audience for your business? Do you have a plan for making revenue other than tweeting, Facebooking and pinning while doing nothing more than hoping for the best? That plan is critical to your success on social media.
IN CONCLUSION
We crave social media to the point of happily waking up to a flurry of notifications showcasing likes, retweets and shares our posts recently received. Utilizing the best social media practices will allow you to capitalize on that obsession. However, if you don”™t have a plan to generate revenue that goes beyond getting engagement, you will need to establish that plan before posting anything else on your social media accounts. Armed with a strategy, you’re on the path to online success.
Marc Guberti is a student at Fordham University and a social media and business blogger and author. He”™s on Twitter @MarcGuberti and can be reached by phone at 914-722-6005 or email at Marc@MarcGuberti.com.
