Listen, I get it.
Managing a social media page can get pretty tough.
Forget about the fact that you need to make sure your social media marketing strategies are converting in a meaningful way.
One of the most tedious issues you’ll have to deal with is figuring out an efficient way to actually managing the darn thing!
Creating a positive environment for your community sounds like a great idea until you realize that turning your social media pages into community hubs is anything but simple.
Can it get difficult to manage a massive social media community? Absolutely.
But it’s not impossible.
Which is why today, I’ve put together a list of the most valuable social media marketing hacks that you can start using right away.
Before we go any further, let me clarify what I mean when I say ‘hacks’.
When most people think of ‘hacks’, they’re usually envisioning a quick fix to their social media marketing issues.
Let me get this out of the way right now. None of these hacks will fix a broken social media marketing campaign.
That’s just not the way social media marketing campaigns work.
That being said, each of these hacks will help maximize the effectiveness of your social media marketing strategy and help you get the most bang for your buck.
Some of these hacks are going to be laser-focused tips, some are going to present you with new ways of approaching your social media marketing campaigns.
But one thing’s for sure. Every single tip on this list is going to help you start making the most of your social media presence and start dominating the social media platform of your choice.
So, with that in mind, let’s dive right into this guide to building an efficient, cutting edge marketing strategy for social.
1. Forget ‘follow for follow’: Use ‘share for share’
I know I’m not the only one that’s noticed this happening.
Years ago, it was suggested that small business follow individuals on social in an effort to raise awareness for their social media pages.
Which makes sense, when you stop and think about it. If you’ve got no followers on Facebook or Instagram, you’d better start seeking out the people interested in your business.
And to be fair, this approach can still work when it’s done correctly.
Let’s say that the people who use Airbnb are your perfect demographic.
If you wanted to reach out to them, all you’d have to do is scan through the likes and comments on any Airbnb picture on Instagram and you’d have a list of leads to reach out to.
When it comes to the ‘follow for follow’, if your marketing efforts are targeted, they’re much more likely to be effective (surprise, surprise).
But ‘follow for follow’ can be a bit of a mixed bag.
The longevity of one of those follows is still up in the air, and it’s easy to cross that fine line from ‘convenient’ to ‘annoying’.
The biggest reason for this?
You’re not alone anymore.
When this tactic was first starting to be used, there weren’t many businesses actually willing to consider it, let alone actually try it.
Today, every small business or startup in your industry is checking the comment sections of industry leaders and spamming that list with invites.
The method has potential, but the market has become saturated by it, making it infinitely harder to stand out.
So, what’s the solution?
Simple. Shift your approach from ‘follow for follow’ to ‘share for share’.
The power of influencers is something that can’t be understated in the current marketing climate.
And this goes beyond the reach of celebrities like Kylie Jenner, who can promote products to millions of people with a single post.
Whether you’re a major brand like Coke or Pepsi, or you’re a small business owner looking to get the most targeted exposure possible, influencers have become massively useful.
But one of the most underutilized aspects of the social media influencer is their incredible targeted reach.
Let’s try a little thought experiment for a second.
Imagine that you’re running a business and you’ve already started to experience a bit of success on social media.
You haven’t exactly turned your brand into an online authority yet, but you’re getting there.
Instead of sitting around and hoping that the ‘follow for follow’ strategy will end up being as effective as it used to be, you decide to try something different.
You’ve noticed there are a few platforms that your followers consistently follow.
In fact, these are usually the lists that you’ve been using to practice the ‘follow for follow’ method!
Instead of continuing to hope for the best, you can decide to reach out to those pages and offer them a deal.
If they promise to promote your content in their Instagram story, you’ll do the same.
Of course, you can offer to do guest posts for one another if that’s a better fit for your audience and your needs
These methods of cross-promotion might sound simple, but that’s where their elegance lies.
The reality of digital media marketing is that digital ‘word-of-mouth’ is incredibly valuable.
Why? For the simple reason that it’s someone other than you vouching for your product.
Are consumers smart enough to realize that this is a business move on behalf of you and your influencer partner? Most likely.
But it’s still targeted promotion to a sizable audience, and that’s just something you can’t get anywhere else.
Oh, and did I mention it’s free?
2. Avoid Posting One-Dimensional Content
Okay, confession time.
This has easily become one of my biggest pet peeves of 2017.
I don’t want to sound dramatic, but there is an epidemic of boring, one-dimensional content and honestly? We’re all better than that.
If you’re confused about what I’m talking about, let me shed some light on the situation.
Over the last few years, small businesses, startups, and brands from around the world have realized the importance of creating content.
In fact, a good portion of those business have been able to wrap their heads around the importance of offering content with value.
These businesses have made an effort to create content that falls into one of three categories.
Either the content entertains, like the content that Old Spice has now become synonymous with making.
It can be inspirational, something that Nike has always had a knack for.
Or it’s content that focuses on solving a problem, which a quick search under the ‘business advice’ tag on Instagram reveals that plenty of brands are already doing this.
Which is fantastic! When we businesses make an effort to create compelling content, the general tone of the marketing landscape inevitably improves.
Except there’s one minor problem.
Quite a few of these businesses have cut corners when it comes to creating this highly valuable content.
Make no mistake, the content itself will typically fall into one of the three categories listed above.
The problem isn’t with the content itself, but rather how it’s being presented to their audience.
Take a look at all the content I’ve put out over the years and it’ll be pretty obvious that I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for the written word and content marketing in general.
I love making blog posts. Aside from being an extremely effective way to break down complex topics and offer tangible value, it’s something I genuinely enjoy doing.
But I’d have to be pretty narrow-minded to think that just my words are going to be enough to keep people interested.
The reality of content marketing (and any form of digital media marketing, for that matter) is that it’s meant to be consumed.
I could sit here, pull out a thesaurus and try to dazzle you with my writing ability. But that would just take the focus away from the critical question that every brand needs to ask themselves.
“How can I pack more value into this piece of content?”
So instead of trying to create a blog post that shows you how clever I am as a writer, I focus all my energy on creating the most multi dimensional blog post possible.
Reading is great, but not everyone feels like reading for 10-15 minutes straight in the middle of their day.
That’s why I made it my business to add a variety of visual media elements to my content.
Seriously, just take a look at my posts.
They’ve got a variety of images, in order to break up the monotony of all that text.
Plus, I make sure to add in a piece of video for those of you that like watching video content.
None of this is by accident. There’s plenty of data showing that content that has visuals is considerably more engaging.
Maester found that visuals actually have a massive impact on the reading experience.
What’s important to keep in mind here is that your content needs to have layers.
Aside from the importance of appealing to the different ways the people in your community like to consume content, creating content with layers makes for a more engaging experience.
If you’re creating a blog post with the intention of promoting it on social, make sure it’s not just a giant block of text.
You’re not just adding photos, screenshots, infographics and even videos to not only make your content seem more interesting to the average person scrolling through their News Feed.
By doing this, you’re adding depth to your content and ensuring that your audience is getting their content needs met, one way or another.
3. Curate and Recycle Content
If you’re wondering what makes content curation such an important aspect of social media marketing, it’s actually pretty simple.
Building a robust, respectable brand that’s viewed as an online authority is hard work.
And arguably, one of the most effective ways to make that process easier is to take some of the responsibility off your own shoulders.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
To properly understand what makes this bit so important, we first need to take a look at the state of social media marketing as a whole.
The truth is that the needs of the consumer have never been higher, in terms of the content you produce and promote on social media.
I don’t just promote on Twitter because I want to. I do it because I need to!
Not only should you have content that’s entertaining, inspirational or educational, but you’d better have plenty of that content coming out on a consistent basis.
Consistency is the name of the game, hence the importance of having (and sticking to) a content calendar.
But if we’re going based off of purely original content, the average business owner is going to have a tough time creating enough content for their audience.
Sure, you could hire someone to handle your content needs, but let’s face facts.
Unless you’re in an industry where things are changing drastically on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis, you probably won’t have enough to talk about.
And don’t even get me started on the difficulty of actually creating 5-10 unique pieces of content on a weekly basis.
All of this becomes even more disheartening when you realize that in order to be taken seriously as an online authority, you’ll need to be pumping out plenty of high-quality content.
But fortunately, the solution is actually pretty straightforward.
Just learn to curate content effectively.
No, seriously. It’s really that simple.
Of course, there are two levels of curated content. The first is when you promote someone else’s content on your social media pages, in order to share that value with your readers.
Here’s a look at Buffer’s Director of Marketing Kevan Lee sharing content on his Twitter that’s sure to interest his followers.
Keep in mind that the second level of curating content is about more than just finding someone else’s work online and retweeting it or linking to it on your site.
The best type of curated content involves a level of investment.
Why? Because this way, you’re able to provide more value to your audience and come up with a piece of content that builds on the value of the original.
What does that look like in practice?
A great example would be finding a series of studies and using them to create an infographic.
And you don’t have to be a massive corporate enterprise to put these together. Just take a look at an infographic that BuySellAds built with data from a variety of reputable sources.
It may not be a particularly easy way to add value to another piece of content, but you’d better believe that it’s going to be effective.
In fact, considering the popularity of infographics, it’s entirely possible that your curated content could end up being more popular than the content you used as a reference!
And that’s the difference between high-quality content curation and low-quality content curation.
The low-quality curation attempts are barely recognized as their own form of content. The high-quality curation attempts actually have the potential to steal the show.
And since we’re on the topic of content, it’s important that we tackle another issue that’s vital to understanding how to dominate social media marketing.
The term ‘evergreen content’ has become a bit of a buzzword, which is unfortunate since creating evergreen content can actually make a massive difference in your content.
The value of evergreen content lies in the same place as curated content, in the sense that you can use it to meet the expectations of your audience.
The key here is to create content that’ll always be relevant to your audience. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that current event articles or videos aren’t going to be a good fit for this category.
That’s right, leave that “5 Biggest Changes in the X Industry in 2016” article in the past, where it belongs.
Instead, come up with a blueprint-style article or video that’ll always be relevant to a specific group of your audience.
This can then be recycled and promoted multiple times via social media.
Not only will this increase the chances of it actually being seen by your entire audience, but it’ll also ensure that your content doesn’t feel stale or repetitive.
It’s worth noting that you shouldn’t be recycling content every week. After a few months, you can go back into your catalog and start promoting your evergreen content.
Conclusion
It’s easy to look at the subject of social media hacks and be skeptical about their effectiveness.
Believe me, I get it.
But the reality of social media marketing is that in an industry that changes as much as this one, you have to figure out the tricks of the trade quickly.
Understand the importance of the influencer, word-of-mouth culture on social media and start incorporating ‘share for share’ as part of your strategy.
Resist the temptation to post flat, one-dimensional content and instead search for unique ways to add more layers and depth to the content you’re sharing with your audience.
Recognize the importance of curating content properly and build evergreen content in the future with the intent of recycling it and getting multiple uses out of your valuable content.
Whether you’re trying to increase conversions, traffic, or anything in between, it’s absolutely vital that you end up using these tips to increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
Armed with these tips and tricks, you’ll be on the path to supercharging your social media marketing campaigns and ensuring that you’re ready to crush it on social.
What are some of your favorite social media hacks?
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