March 1, 2013 by Daniel Sharkov|
There are dozens of social networksand while some marketers believe that signing-up for each and everyone is well-worth the effort, others agree that following that practice is rather futile.I am namely one of those folks, who aren’t keen on joining each and every new networking site that opens its doors.
That is the reason why in the following article I am going to talk about just the three -
Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter.
As you certainly know (unless you’ve been living under a rock), those three social mediums are currently the ones marketers pay most of their attention to.
And it’s no wonder – each works on a different principle but either way the potential is there and if you are serious, you can also get some serious traffic.
Leaving that aside, below I will share some of the common practices people seem to follow on this social media trio, which ones are worth and which are plain myths:
Facebook Dos and Don’ts
Do Share Your Own Content Every Day That is the golden rule. There’s really nothing bad in self-promotion. But unless you’ve spent hundreds of dollars to advertise your fan page or to create sponsored stories, generating a buzz around your fan page and turning it into traffic is no easy task.
Back in the days, I believed I shouldn’t be posting more than a few stories per week. I thought doing so might scare away the handful of fans I was able to gather.
Well let me tell you – the “modest” approach didn’t quite pay off.
It seemed like people were having hard time seeing those very few updates I was posting and I wasn’t getting much traffic.
What I want to say is that the Facebook page is yours, so there’s really nothing bad in sharing posts from your own blog. I’d say doing so is actually obligatory if you want to make Facebook a worthwhile time-investment.
Don’t expect the links in the about field to get people clicking and reading your blog.
So as important as it is to have your blog’s content floating around your Facebook page (I’m referring more to pages, since I believe those are meant for businesses, whereas personal profiles should stay personal – for friends and family), that might be boring. When you like a page, you expect something more exciting than links and nothing else.
Yeah, your articles (or articles from other blogs for that matter) might all be interesting and they might all provide information, that’s worth the read.
However sometimes people just want to have fun. And as serious as your niche might be, there should always be place for that.
Stories, comics, pictures -
you need to mix things a little. Those are the kinds of posts that get the bigger part of the likes, shares and comments.
A Facebook page can either be very impersonal OR it can be a place where all kinds of folks come to share their own points of view on different matters. What you make out of it is all up to you and I’d highly recommend you the second option.
The first step is to start writing descriptions to each and every story you make. It doesn’t matter if it is an image that you are sharing, your latest blog post or an infographic you just came across. Whatever it is, m
ake sure to tell people why you are sharing that specific piece and tell them why they should take a minute to check it out.
Additionally you should also pose different questions, reply to those who comment on them and thus create a discussion. Whenever someone leaves a comment, be it a positive or a negative one, you should always have a standpoint.
In short, show people you are a living, breathing organism, just like them!
Don’t Irritate Your FansEspecially with the new notification system that Facebook made available for the fan pages recently, we should pay even more attention to what we share.
Since that feature allows your fans to subscribe for your updates i.e. to get notified via the notifications icon on the top bar, you must make sure not to irritate them.
Basically consider factors such as how much stories per day you post (I wouldn’t recommend more than 3-4), how much promotional content you share (for instance reviews of products with affiliate links in them) and also what the ratio between publications with links, text only and images is.
Also make sure not to post too many images and quotes
– although they tend to get lots of attention – they shouldn’t be the focal point of your Facebook marketing strategy.
For more on the topic, check out some of my Facebook tips: Facebook Tips: 5 Effective Ways to Engage Your Fan Page Audience
Google Plus Dos and Don’ts
Don’t Fall for the “Ghost Town” Rumors Lately I’ve been coming across a good number of articles, talking about the low activity levels on Google Plus. And the fact is many people who are present on Twitter and Facebook, prefer not to spend time on Google’s social network.
There are thousands of inactive accounts. There are thousands of folks, who have less than a hundred followers and no posts at all.
However that doesn’t make Google Plus a dead space.
Not even close to it. Whatever your niche, you can be sure that lots of guys, covering the same topics will be waiting for you on Google Plus… well not waiting, but they will be there for you to find.
So right now reading this article, if you are one of those fellas, hesitating to give Google Plus a shot, I’d suggest you to change your thoughts and go for it right now. Google Plus is a great place to come across new folks along with great content and to also get others to discover your own work.
Don’t wait any longer!
If you decide to sign-up for Google Plus, there’s one more problem. That problem is consistency. Over time I’ve learnt that in order to start generating likes (or pluses in the case with Google Plus) and traffic on any social network,
you need to be there day in and day out.
That’s namely what lots of marketers, who decide to try out Google Plus fail to do. They register, then they publish a story, which ends up not receiving any engagement. So they publish another one and maybe another one. And if their second or third attempt doesn’t pay off they simply conclude that the network doesn’t work.
Well the reality is things don’t work that way. Nor my first (second or probably even third) Facebook post got any feedback, neither did my first Google Plus update. It definitely took more than that…
And yes, it is kinda discouraging seeing that what you shared hours ago hasn’t gotten any reactions,
but you just have to live with it and keep going until that one guy finds you and spreads your word.
On Google Plus, there is the option to share an update with one person only or with a limited number of users. That might seem like a powerful way to create some buzz around your start-up, but it seems like there’s more use than abuse.
Whenever someone uses that feature and shares something directly with you, you receive a notification. Since there’s no way not to see one such notification, people tend to share all kinds of things that you don’t really care for most of the times.
So my advice is not to use that feature at all unless
you have something really really important to tell others and of course unless you know them well. Otherwise you risk being unfollowed and reported for spamming.
Aside from a good way to increase exposure to your brand, Google Plus is also a great place to get the right content, whenever you want to. The circles that you can add people to allow you to fine tune what content you see. But first you need content, right?
The thing about Google Plus is that a good lot of the users aren’t consistent (about which I talked above). This basically means that one day you might have lots of compelling content in your stream and the other day you might be left with the same posts and nothing new and exciting.
That is the reason why you have to constantly follow new people in your niche.
But how do you find relevant Google Plus users?
What I did was to create a folder in Google Chrome’s bookmarks bar. In that folder I’ve added links to the profiles of some of the best content curators and bloggers in my niche. On daily basis I open up those profiles and look through their updates. More specifically I pay attention to the list of people who liked those stories. Most of the times I can find at least a dozen folks with interesting content that way.
That same strategy is constantly bringing new people to my own profile and if you haven’t tried it yet, get going right away!
More on the Google Plus topic: 5 Google Plus Tips to Help You Generate More Likes and Followers
Twitter Dos and Don’ts
Don’t be Afraid to Use Automation Over time I’ve seen lots of different opinions on the automation topic. It seems like lots of marketers don’t think of it is a genuine way to make progress in the social media realm.
But in the end, I can’t really see why so much criticism revolves around automation…
As bloggers our priority should come down to creating content. Looking from that perspective, every saved minute that goes towards writing, should be valued.
That is why I believe that there really isn’t anything bad in using services like IFTTT, Bufferand Tweet Adderto manage our Twitter presence, as long as that doesn’t have a negative impact on our audience. Based on what I’ve tried and tested, I can’t really see anything negative about those tasks being put to autopilot.
Use Twitter for More than SharingBlog post ideas, new connections and lots of interesting discoveries are some of the things you can achieve by paying attention to Twitter not only when you need traffic. One of the biggest issues with the microblogging platform is namely self-promotion – it seems like everyone’s there for that and nothing else.
The system can’t function that way. There’d really be no point if everyone would be to log-in, tweet their own post and log-out. You also have to see what others have in store!
As a matter of fact you might be surprised by how much new things you can get to discover thanks to Twitter. Adding your favorite bloggers to lists and taking five minutes to check some of their shares every day might turn out a doorway to new discussions with new people, new content for your to-read list, new blog post ideas and more traffic.
That’s how Twitter marketing should be done!
Don’t Waste too Much Time on ItThere’s no doubt – engaging with others is a crucial component to every successful social media campaign. However one counter-intuitive advice from me is don’t get carried away.
Discussions are a great thing, as they lead to new ideas. Saying thank you to those who’ve supported you is also important, since it helps you build trust. In the end of the day however, that is not the key to success.
Social media is just how you spread the word.
I would recommend you to set a schedule of some sort. Mine is very simple – it basically says that I have to log-in to Twitter three times a day (via TweetDeck) to check my mentions and get in touch with my followers. Not more, not less – once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once before bed.
It’s simple the more time you spend on this, the less productive you actually are.
Care About Both Quality and QuantityQuality over quantity – that seems to be a trend nowadays. Indeed one should focus on quality. Having inactive followers, who don’t even share your interests is worthless – there’s no denying.
But then again, why not keep the quality and ramp up the quantity factor simultaneously?
Namely because, as I mentioned above, people rarely take the time to check others’ work, tweets don’t get much exposure. It’s logical that the more followers you have, the more people will end up seeing your tweets and acting upon them.
So let me tell you one thing – start working on your following! As of now I have over 60,000 followers and Twitter traffic is going up with each and every new follower I get.
Getting more out of Twitter:
Share Your Thoughts!The above are my two cents. Now it’s your turn folks!
What are your social media dos and don’ts? What are some common misconceptions about the social networks in your opinion? Let me know by leaving a comment!
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