Top 6 Social Media Tips for 2014

20 Dec 2013

13 Likes

0 Comments

If you’re looking to improve your use of Social Media for business in 2014 and achieve real results here are my top 6 Social Media tips:

1) Produce a Social Media Strategy - The beginning of a new year is a great time to create a Social Media Strategy. You shouldn’t have a Facebook Page just because everyone else has one. Having a strategy ensures that you’re clear on the purpose of your social networks and social media activity and that it’s integrated with your business strategy. If it’s your priority to increase sales then you can set objectives for your social networks to help achieve this. For example, increase visitors to website from Facebook by xxxx visitors per month. It can also help you focus on ideas for posts and tweets (see point 2 below).

2) Plan and schedule - With increasing demands on our time, it’s important to plan and schedule your posts and tweets. Start 2014 by creating a Content Plan - plan content around events you’re organising or attending plus seasonal events such as Valentines Day, Easter and Christmas. If you’d like a Content Plan template let me know. You can then schedule using a tool like Buffer - read my review here. Scheduling enables you to implement your Plan in an effective way. In a single 30 minute session you could schedule updates for the rest of the day, week or even for later in year. It also has the benefit of increasing your reach and awareness of your business.

3) Post and tweet visuals - Posts and tweets with images or video receive more engagement. Fact. The growth of social networks like Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat in 2013 illustrate (pun intended!) that people enjoy visuals. In 2014, change your priorities when planning your content (see point 2 above). Put images before text. Start by thinking about what image, photo or video you’re going to upload and then how to describe it. Remember, you can also include text in images, for example; quotes.

4) Talk ‘with’ and not ‘to’ people - In 2014 make a real effort to have more conversations with your audience on social networks. It’s called Social Media for a reason.

5) Always engage when someone shows an interest in you - If someone retweets, favourites a tweet or mentions you; make sure you return the favour. Retweet them, follow them, comment on their blog or Like their Facebook Page. You wouldn’t ignore an outstretched hand when someone greets you offline so don’t ignore the outstretched digital hand.

6) Include key words in your posts and tweets - With search engines such as Google placing increasing importance on ‘social signals’ when ranking search results, it will be important to include key words related to your business and industry in your updates. If someone tweets you asking what time your conference starts don’t just reply with 9.30am, tweet back, “The 2014 Digital Marketing Conference at Olympia London starts tomorrow at 9.30am”.

If you’d like help with any of the above please get in touch to arrange a one-to-one social media consultation or in-house social media workshop.

I wish you the best of luck with your use of Social Media for business in 2014!