Are you getting the best ROI you can from your social media efforts? Perhaps it often feels like you’re shouting into the void: you put up post after post but barely get a response.
How can you turn things around? Here’s what the most successful social media marketers do.
They Use a Deliberate Content Marketing Strategy
You might look at a brand’s social media presence and think that they’re just posting what they feel like, when they feel like it. But look more closely and you’ll probably spot some patterns.
Maybe they always share a funny meme on Monday mornings. Perhaps they have posts on a specific theme all week … which then link into a product promotion on Thursday or Friday.
Having a deliberate content marketing strategy means it’s much easier to be consistent with social media. You can try out different things, see what works, and plan your content to tie into events, launches, sales, or other things you’re doing as a brand.
There’s No Single Strategy for Success
Some social media gurus make it sound like their method (or “formula”) is the one true way to succeed.
But really, there’s no single social media strategy that spells success. If you think about the incredible range of different brands that use social media, it’s obvious: what works for a giant B2B company in one industry probably won’t work for a tiny B2C company in a different industry.
To succeed with social media, it’s important to try out different things. Give each strategy a fair shot – but if you’re not seeing results, pivot and try some new social media tips and tricks.
They’re Patient – and Know that Building an Engaged Following Takes Time
Perhaps you’re pouring lots of time and effort into social media posts but only seeing a trickle of traffic as a result.
And yet other brands seem to be getting huge numbers of comments, responses, and new customers – even though their content seems sub-par.
If you only have 50 followers, you’re not going to get anything like the ROI that someone with 500,000 followers will get, no matter how great your posts are.
Keep producing high-quality content and focus on growing an engaged following over time.
They Make it REALLY Easy to Share Content
Go to the latest blog post or piece of content on your website. How easy is it to share on social media? If you have to manually copy and paste the URL … well, most people simply won’t bother.
Successful social media marketers make sure it’s really easy to share content. You want all the shares you can get! Using a FB share button (or other social network share buttons) makes it quick and easy for website visitors to share your content.
They Can Let Go of Mistakes
Perhaps you put up a post with a horrible typo last week and it still haunts your dreams. Or maybe you said something jokey but ill-advised on social media, and the backlash made you want to crawl into a hole and stay there.
Successful social media marketers make mistakes. They get things wrong. But they don’t obsess over this or let it slow down their forward momentum; instead, they move on.
They Don’t Try To Be Everywhere
There are dozens of different social networks out there, and you might think that you need to post content in as many different places as possible.
After all, you don’t want to miss out on any potential new fans.
The problem with this approach is that you’ll end up spreading yourself too thin. You won’t be able to keep up a consistent flow of content on more than a small handful of social media sites at any given time.
Pick, ideally, no more than three sites to focus on.
They Set Clear Goals and Track Their Progress
Just like successful people in every field, successful social media marketers set goals and track their progress.
You can easily track new followers, number of comments and responses, new leads gained from social media, and so on.
If you don’t have clear goals, it’s hard to know where to concentrate your efforts on social media. Should you be trying to gain new followers or working hard to win sales from the ones you already have?
By setting yourself goals – such as “double our followers in the next 6 months” – you know exactly where to focus.
Social media marketing can feel daunting and you may be concerned about not seeing an immediate return on your investment of time (or potentially money).
By following the above tips, you’ll be sticking to the same principles as experienced social media managers – and you’ll soon start to see your efforts paying off.