Well, I Didn’t Know That! #14 – Social Media Marketing Strategies
In today’s Well, I Didn’t Know That! post, I’m sharing how I plan to up my social media marketing game. You can employ the tips I share in today’s post too, regardless of your niche! Over the course of this week, I’ve spent five hours working through a course and follow-on action points. In today’s post, I’ll summarise the key action points I learned to improve my social media marketing techniques.
Background
I’ve only kept a light touch on social media before. If I’m honest, I don’t really like social media that much. Social media can be a wonderful power of good. However, in the wrong hands it can do a lot of harm. I’m glad I missed out on having a smartphone with social media access in my school years, put it that way!
I obviously want to do good! I can’t do much about folks misusing social media to spread harmful messages, but I can cultivate a positive space with my accounts. That’s what my target is.
I found a really useful video course over on Hubspot. Not only is the course broken down over several videos so you can watch what’s applicable, but there are a number of free resources to help you get started. I used their workbook to analyse my data and identify areas where I can improve my content. They also have a content calendar you can use to get organised!
If you want to check out the course for yourself, here is a link. Otherwise, let’s take a look at the tips and tricks I learned and will be implementing on my social media platforms in the near future!
Tips and Tricks
Start Social Listening and Monitoring
It may be something you’re already doing, but checking out what hashtags and popular audio on reels are and using them in a relevant way helps get you seen. Social listening is more than that – it refers to listening for what perception is on your brand too. But, most relevant to me (given my small profile size) is getting my name out there in the first place!
With what I’ve learned in mind, I’m going to try to post some more topical content. I’ve not been one to follow trends all that much before. I’m not going to change that too radically, so don’t panic! However, I may start to pick up more new or highly anticipated releases and talk about them so I have sought for content!
Complete a Content Audit to Work Out What Works on Each Channel
One of the bigger tasks I had to do after taking the course was to take a look at the content I’ve already shared and determine what performed best. The idea is to focus and develop what’s popular and try to build upon it. This can be different for each channel. For simplification, I’m only using Instagram as an example for this post. However, in real terms, I’ve performed the same analysis on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
For Instagram, there are a couple of very clear themes. Reels outperform photos in terms of reach and engagement. I also reach more accounts that don’t already follow me, which is great for growth. This is obviously as the algorithm is pushing more video content nowadays, but also ties in with one of the main messages in the course. People want to follow and engage with other people, not faceless brands. As a result, video is one of the most popular forms of content consumption right now.
This also ties in with my second finding – Instagram photos with my mugshot in performed better on average than those that didn’t! It’s not very often that I include myself in these photos. So far, I have preferred to step back from the camera rather than put myself in it. However, it’s apparent that needs to change. Going forwards, I’ll have to bite the bullet and get in front of the camera. You’ll get to see a lot more of me, you lucky devils!
Change Up What Content Types You Share
Something I’ve never considered before, but really should have considering I engage with content regularly, it that there are different purposes of post.
Typically, my posts have an informative stance. However, there are different formats of content – entertainment and engagement posts. Whilst I don’t think I can bring myself to start filming funny lip sync videos to popular audio without dying of embarrassment just yet, there’s nothing stopping me from creating my own entertainment posts from scratch. It’s something I need to think about and have a play with. As the vast majority of entertainment content is viewed in video format nowadays, this is another reason I need to put my big girl pants on and get on camera! I’m sure it’ll get easier the more I do it!
Likewise, engagement posts should be pretty easy for me to incorporate into my posting schedule. Polls, Q&A’s and asking followers questions are all ways I can engage with an audience as opposed to posting what I think is interesting into a void. I’ve had to think (and look into) who my primary audience is, and I need to incorporate this into future post planning.
Partner Up With Other People and Brands
I’ve produced a lot of solo content for a while. I used to get involved with sharing guest posts on my blog years ago (and some of that is still my most viewed content to this day). Association with other individuals and brands can influence audience perception of you. So, I need to incorporate this back into my blog… and my social media.
One way I’ve thought of this is to duet with someone, or I believe you can go live with someone? I confess neither are things I know how to do, so I suppose the first step is to find out. So, my lovely readers, if anyone could give me some direction in the comments as to how I do this, that would be much appreciated!
Summary
I still have a lot to learn, and this is a process I’ll have to do repeatedly to make sure I’m on the right tracks and staying relevant. I won’t get it right 100% of the time, but it’s a continual, active process I need to embrace if I want to connect with more people.
Have you learned any social media marketing tips and tricks from today’s post? What are your most effective social media marketing strategies?
