Social media is a great way to drive repeat business and to attract new customers. Read these 5 social media tips to give your social media a big boost.
This is part 1 of a 3-part series on increasing sales through using the power of social media and social media marketing.
A FANTASTIC Way To Drive Repeat Business & Attract New Customers
If you’re wondering if social media marketing is right for your business, the verdict is in…
Social media is a great way to drive repeat business and to attract new customers.
Now you’ve probably heard all the buzz phrases and have heard of the power of social media marketing, but you don’t fully understand it all.
You might be wondering if social media adds any value to YOUR BUSINESS.
Since you might be thinking my niche isn’t the most interesting, and it’s unlikely to benefit from social media marketing. We’re going to cover 5 social media tips to impress your website visitors later in this article.
Same Old Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Social Media has changed the way people connect, discover, and share information. But let’s skip the jargon. You want some great social media tips to get ahead!
3 Things You Need To Know About Social Media
Social media is the technology that connects people—whether it’s to share content or just to chat.
Social networks, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are the places where social interactions happen (discovering & sharing).
Social media marketing is the way to use that technology to build relationships, drive repeat business. and attract new customers through friends sharing with friends.
Does That Sound Familiar?
That’s because social media marketing is really just word-of-mouth powered by technology.
Does it apply to your business.
Most definitely.
I’m going to give you a high level overview of social media marketing, and some powerful social media tips so that you can make an informed decision.
As always, I’m not going into the nitty-gritty as there are hundreds of guides and articles out there that do this already. I’m focused on a high level overview so that a busy executive will have enough understanding to make an informed decision.
I’ve also summarized key sections into useful social media tips so that you quickly see what’s important.
Right now I’d like you to have a look at these great articles:
- The Top 10 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing (Forbes)
- 7 Reasons Why Social Media is an Absolute Must for Business Branding
Once you’ve read those you’ll find it easier to understand what I’ll be talking about.
4 BRILLIANT Reasons Why You Should Take Note Of Social Media Marketing
There’s quite a science behind first impressions and many psychologists disagree.
What Do The Psychologists Say?
Some say it’s a blink of an eye.
Others say you’ve got 7s.
So to be safe, I think we can assume it’s somewhere under 7s!
I want to take a brief look at some social media marketing statistics, so that when I cover the 5 social media tips, you’ll realize how powerful they are.
Key Social Media Statistics
92% of marketers claimed that social media marketing was important for their business.
80% indicated their efforts increased traffic to their websites.
According to another study, 97% of marketers are currently participating in social media.
75% of marketers reporting positive results in terms of traffic increase as one of the major benefits of social media.
Those are some HIGH STATISTICS.
I think we should take note of what they’re implying.
What Do You Need To Do?
You need to have a social media presence.
6 Top Reasons To Take Social Media Tips Seriously
1. Showcase Your Brand
Handling a strong social media presence is an efficient way to build your company’s reputation and showcase your business. By regularly updating your prospects on all the brand and social happenings, they subconsciously start to view your company as an authority.
2. Develop a Loyal Community
Community strength is a very powerful branding force, and social media offers exactly this kind of relationship-building opportunity that is virtually limitless.
3. Increase Exposure
Social media leads to massive exposure due to its worldwide access, sharing capabilities, and huge amount of daily users.
4. Enhance Trustworthiness
By closely communicating with your clients on a social media level, you become a trusted source of information which makes it a great asset when creating company awareness and brand credibility.
5. Expand Sales
Social media helps you easily discover your customers’ preferences so that you can: focus on meeting their special needs and expectations, gain proficiency in that exact niche, excel your product list, and research your competitors.
6. Boost Traffic
Social media channels are major generators, constantly bringing high volume of traffic to your webpage.
Given that the social media is growing exponentially I think that you need to take this quite seriously.
How To Choose The Correct Social Media Sites With Over 500+ Choices
Let’s start looking at some of the social media platforms you can choose from.
What a Recent Study Has Shown
75% of marketers reporting positive results in terms of traffic increase as one of the major benefits of social media.
So it’s definitely something to take note of.
So we’ve determined that there’s great value to be had in social media marketing, but what’s the best way to effectively manage you budget here? Keep reading to discover the 5 social media tips to impress your website visitors!
The first step, is to choose the correct social platforms. While this may APPEAR to be easy, it’s not quite as simple as you think!
Do You Know How Many Social Media Platforms There Are?
There are over 500 social media platforms!
So you’ve heard of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIN, Google+ & YouTube.
But have you heard of the others?
Did you know that Stumbleupon has 25 million users.
Did you know that Tumblr. has 169million blogs created by it’s users. It was bought by Yahoo for $1.1 billion! (View This Great Infographic)
Have you even heard of these platforms and yet they’re ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE?
How Do You Choose The Correct Social Media Platform?
Firstly, this depends on your budget. The bigger your budget the more platforms you can reach and manage.
Secondly, it depends on your users. For most companies their main users will be found on Twitter & Facebook.
Thirdly, it depends on the size of the campaign you want to run on EACH platform.
What I’d Recommend You Do
One of my social media tips is that if I was you I’d start by getting a profile on the biggest social profiles.
Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIN (if you’re a business). If you’re a company that has great pictures that are shareable I’d include Pinterest in this list.
That’s the first step. Setup profiles on all of these.
Then I’d start by focusing on the two biggest platforms.
FACEBOOK & TWITTER.
Once you have those running for at least 6 months I’d review and then consider adding in another platform depending on the results.
Your Next Step
Please read this article:
Top 15 Social Networking Sites You Should Be Using
This will give you a quick synopsis of the biggest social media sites and you can then choose which ones you want to target.
How NOT To Do Social Media Marketing. Make Sure You Don’t Do This!
So now that we’ve looked at which social platforms to target and why.
If you haven’t read this article, I’d like you to head on over to this great article by Forbes magazine on social media.
Have You Read This Article?
The Top 10 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing (Forbes)
It makes a pretty strong case for using social media. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Let’s take a look at what to avoid with social media marketing.
How NOT To Do Social Media Marketing
Unfortunately, there is this mindset (generally from the over 50 generation) that if you have a personal Facebook account and are under the age of 30, you must be good at social media marketing.
This couldn’t be further from the truth, yet most companies behave like this.
They find a younger person in their organization and task them with managing the company’s social media presence.
Not only is this stupid but ignorant at the same time.
If you’re going to do that you might as well ask if anybody in the office can use a keyboard and a computer and ask them to build you a comprehensive, mobile responsive website.
It takes years of experience to learn the nuances. It’s not something you can just do!
Why Using This Approach Will Harm Your Business
People are not stupid. They will quickly see an unprofessional and badly designed social profile.
Your social profile is the face of the company that your users will see on the social platforms and you’ve got an inexperienced person managing this?
If you want to massively impact your click through rate, your site should look amazing in the search results! Learn how to do that here!
Doesn’t seem the smartest move.
On top of that, your staff are busy and get caught up in their daily jobs. They often don’t have the time or incentive to regularly update multiple social profiles.
This is why we regularly come across social profiles that haven’t been updated in months. Not only that, they look terrible.
What Your Customers Now See
Instead of having NO SOCIAL presence, your customers now see a TERRIBLE SOCIAL presence.
If I see a company has a bad social presence I avoid them completely. I just assume they are outdated and unable to keep up with the times.
I’d rather use a company that’s up to date and knows what’s going on in the 21st century. I realise this is not fair and there are many great companies without social profiles, but there are many outdated, and uninnovative companies that don’t have a social media presence, and I’d rather avoid them all as it’s easier than having to sift through them.
Before you think I’m being a bit harsh, it’s important that you know more and more users have this approach.
In fact some of them are turning to their social following to find solutions before they start searching with Google.
A Few Real Life Examples
Let’s look at a few real life examples where companies could have done with a few social media tips!
Here’s a real example.
We recently bought a new car. This is quite a daunting process as each brand has a number of different models and they all have different features.
While you can go to the websites of the various brands for the specs of the car, my wife just tweeted ‘This is our budget, we’re looking for a reliable, mid-range, safe car. Does anyone have any recommendations?”
This generated a massive discussion on Twitter and helped us make an informed decision.
Here’s another example:
A few weeks ago a friend posted on Facebook that they were wanting to buy a kettle and did anyone have any recommendations what brand of kettle to get?
Really? a kettle!
And another example:
Again it was Facebook. a friend mentioned that they wanted to go away for the weekend and did anybody have any recommendations. Many people responded with great weekend getaway locations. So even if you’re only renting out your guest cottage on your farm to city dwellers for a weekend getaway, you’d benefit from a great a social media presence.
And another example:
Somebody tweeted if anyone had any recommendations for a hair stylist in a particular city. They didn’t just want the corporate page they wanted people’s feedback.
What You Can Expect In The Future
This ‘social media’ is not a fad and going away any time soon. It’s a massive trend that’s here to stay. So you can expect more users to use social media to find the services/products they want.
Almost ANY industry can benefit from a strong social media presence.
(The only industries that might struggle are ones that solve embarrassing personal problems. I just don’t see people tweeting things like “I’ve got halitosis/bad breath, does anybody know a good pharmacy?” or “I’ve got badly into debt, does anybody know a good debt adviser?” – That’s not going to happen!)
3 Quick Checks To See If Your Social Media Profiles Are Up To Standard
So most companies I’ve spoken to have heard about the power of social media marketing.
They’ve heard about how BIG Facebook is and how BIG Twitter is and how many of their customers are using them. They’ve heard that it’s the future.
It’s a brave new world!
What Most Companies Have Done
Since they don’t want to miss out, they tasked a young person in their office to setup an account on the major platforms.
- Maybe Pinterest
- Maybe Google+
- Maybe Instagram
That was a couple of years ago. They signed up, loaded a few images, posted a few comments and left it.
3 Questions To Ask About Your Social Media Profile
- Do these profiles look professional?
- Do you have a consistent logo and profile image across all platforms?
- Do you have a GREAT cover image that captures a users attention on the various social profiles?
The cover image is usually the first thing a user sees when he or she becomes a fan of your page, and you want to give them a good impression of your brand.
How Much Time You’ve Got To Grab Attention
A great social media tip…
EACH SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILE PAGE HAS a FEW SECONDS TO LEAVE THE USER WITH a GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION.
If you’re leaving them with a mediocre experience what do you think they’ll assume about your company?
I know it’s not what you wanted to hear, but unfortunately, visitors are ruthless.
They’ll assume that you’re average social media presence means you’re an average company and will probably run for the hills.
If you’re not going to have a GREAT SOCIAL MEDIA profile page, rather HAVE NONE AT ALL!
What I Want You To Do Now
What I’d like you to do RIGHT now is review your company social media profiles.
Go on.
See what they look like. See what Facebook users see when they find your company on Facebook. Do the same for Twitter and any other profiles you have.
Do Your Profiles Look Like These?
If you’re social media profiles don’t look like these great examples, it’s time you’d better sort them out.
5 great social media profiles examples
Then decide if they’re at the standard you want. If they’re not, you’d better sort them out.
Give An EYE-CATCHING First Impression To Get Noticed
I now want to focus on the users FIRST impression of your company when they’re on a social media platform.
What Is a Users First Impression
I want to focus on YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILE PAGE.
So you’ve worked hard to build up a Twitter following and you’ve made this amazing tweet that’s just gone viral. It reaches thousands upon thousands of people.
They see this great tweet and want to find out more about you.
What Do Your Social Media Visitors Do?
They visit your profile to find out more.
You’ve done all the hard work.
What’s The LAST Thing You Need To Do?
Is give them an AVERAGE SOCIAL PROFILE.
That just screams mediocrity.
You’ve got a couple of seconds to impress them. Don’t waste this opportunity.
5 Social Media Tips To Impress Your Social Media Visitors
Firstly – Add a Cover Photo
Adding a logo to your cover photo turns it into a giant brand billboard. If you aren’t adding branding to your cover photo or background images, you’re missing out on a great opportunity.
Secondly – Link To Other Social Media Platforms
Link to other social media platforms. Different people prefer different platforms. If somebody has already ‘liked’ your page on Facebook, why not try and get them to join you on ‘Twitter’ as well?
Thirdly – Link To Your Main Website
Make sure your main website is listed on each of your social profiles. This will improve branding, and it will help users distinguish between the official versus unofficial profile pages.
Fourthly – Fill Out Every Profile Field
This might seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at the number of brands that have incomplete profiles. Fill out everything you can with quality descriptions and accurate information. Doing this will improve brand association (with locations, topics, goals, etc.) and add value to your followers’ experience with the brand. It also helps your search rankings for your social profiles.
Fifthly – Uniformity in Profile Descriptions
Every social profile doesn’t have to have the exact same description, but you should use most of the same keywords. You want consistency in how you market your brand to fans, and a social media profile isn’t any different.
I guess what I’m saying is be 100% CERTAIN that your social profiles look AMAZING!
So those are 5 social media tips that you should take note of an implement right away!
What You Should Be Doing With These 5 Social Media Tips
Is get a professional to do this.
While you can do it yourself it’s obvious to visitors that it’s been done by somebody who isn’t a designer. You need to get a designer involved in the graphics of your profile page.
You really want to give people a professional experience and with the increase in social media, you need to make sure that you keep this professionalism on your social profiles.
What I’d Recommend Starting With
One of the biggest social media tips I’d recommend is to at least starting with the THREE biggest platforms:
- Google+
Then take it from there. The first step is to get a professional social media profile.
Your Next Step
If you’d like an impressive social media profile from only $25, why not give our designers a go. We’ve helped many companies improve the look of their social profiles.
What’s Next?
Read our next article in the social media marketing strategy series:
