Social media marketing can be one of the most cost-effective and easiest ways to send traffic to your website or blog. To help you understand the process better, here are the top things you need to keep in mind when creating your strategy and conversion funnels.
1). Develop a social media strategy designed to reach your target audiences. To begin, pick one or two places where your target audiences hang out.
2). Once you know where you want to post, make sure your content is shareable. Just keep in mind that it needs to be designed and written well to be shared.
3). If you’re going to be on Instagram.com, make sure your profile is filled out with keywords because profiles are searchable. Add your headshot or logo. Treat your Instagram account as a funnel. Add a URL to a landing page to capture email addresses. Make sure every post is cohesive and on brand. You can see that our Instagram URL points to our free PR course and that the colors match with the colors on this site. When you post to Instagram, each image can have up to 30 hashtags, which you definitely want to use.
4). If you're going to be on Twitter.com, make sure your profile is filled out fully, include your photo or logo, and add in your URL. The URL can be to your website or a landing page. You can treat Twitter as a sales funnel or use it as a way to connect with the media or customers. When you post to Twitter, each post should have one or two hashtags (more than that looks like spam).
5). If you're going to be on Pinterest.com, make sure your profile is filled out fully with the right keywords because your profile is searchable like Instagram. Include a friendly photo and URL to your website or a landing page to get email addresses. You should treat your Pinterest profile as a sales funnel too. Create 10 to 15 boards with at least 20 pins each. You'll want to pin 30 percent of your own content and curate 70 percent from the SmartFeed and around the web.
6). If you're going to use Facebook.com, fill out your profile completely. Add your headshot or logo as well as a cover image. Share your page with your friends and encourage them to do the same. This will help you start generating page likes.
7). Post to your social media profiles daily. Here's the recommended frequency based on my own experience:
Twitter: 10-15 times per day
Facebook.com - 1 - 2 times per day
Instagram.com - 1 - 3 times per day
Pinterest - 50-80 times per day
8). Posting to social media can get overwhelming so use an automated scheduler to streamline your workflow. Try using something like Buffer.com or HootSuite.com.
9). If you're looking for media coverage, try using Twitter.com as a tool to connect with the right journalists and editors. Be sure to Tweet and Retweet others content. You'll also want to make sure you have more followers than the people you follow.
10). Regardless of what you post on any platform, make sure you have a strong call to action. You need to tell people what action you want them to take.
11). If you're looking to spark page views, then get on Stumbleupon.com. Stumble other content and add your own. Blog posts, videos, and tutorials generally do the best on Stumbleupon. If you have a clothing boutique or you're trying to sell something directly, then this is not the right platform for your business. Stumbleupon is generally the best for content producers.
12). I always thought Facebook.com groups were annoying and a lot of work to manage, but boy was I wrong. Since I've joined about five groups and contribute to each one weekly, I generate about 20 percent of my website's traffic from them. There's groups for all niches and interests. You just need to find the right ones with active participants.
13). If you want to broadcast yourself, try Facebook.com's new LIVE feature. You can hold a Q&A session or some other live event. Just make sure you promote it ahead of time and you write a compelling description. I haven't experimented with this yet, but plan to do so later this summer, and I will be sure to write about findings then.
14). If you want to broadcast yourself, use YouTube.com. Make sure your channel is optimized with the right keywords and include a URL with where you send traffic. Include a clear call to action.
15). Integrate social media sharing buttons on your website. Check out SumoMe.com for more information here. Make sure your website is optimized for mobile phones and tablets.
16). Publish content variations such as articles, videos, quotes, images, and infographics to engage your followers.
17). Post different content on your social media platforms. For example, post a video on Facebook.com, a quote on Twitter.com, and a video on Instagram.com to keep your followers engaged.
18). Use Google Hangout to host live events or webinars.
19). Make sure to use hashtags properly. They're generally not used on Pinterest.com and Facebook.com.
20). Check out what your competitors are doing on their social media. Look at how they interact with their followers. What can you do that's better?
21). Hold contests and giveaways on Facebook.com, Instagram.com, and Pinterest.com.
22). Make the investment in custom photos especially for Pinterest.com and Instagram.com.
23). After you've mastered the basic social media channels, try putting together a presentation on Slideshare.net to increase traffic.
24). Use LinkedIn.com to connect with other professionals (especially if your company offers professional services).
25). Add a blog page to your website and add one to two posts per week. Be sure to share each post on your social media platforms to increase traffic back to your site.
26). If you're looking to generate sign ups for your email newsletter, then setting an advertising campaign on Facebook.com is one of the most cost effective ways to reach targeted audiences.
27). Be sure to interact with your followers. Respond to comments and follow those back that follow you.
28). Like, comment, and follow to grow your followings organically.
29). Partner with influencers for shout-outs to reach more audiences. Instagram is great for this. In fact, partnering with larger accounts helped us gain over 24k followers in 4 months. (For larger bloggers/influencers, you'll probably have to pay a fee).
30). Make sure your profile pictures are the same on all of your social media profiles.
31). Monitor and measure your social media efforts to determine what key messages resonate the most with your target audiences. You should also use social media to monitor what's being said about your brand.
32). Be consistent and post daily, otherwise, your followers will forget about you.
33). Don't try to sell your followers because that will turn them off. Be helpful by answering their questions or providing feedback on issues they have.
34). So many small business owners spend time on their social media marketing without ever seeing an ROI because they don't understand how social media works and how it should be used. If you want to see results, then you need to have to a strategy outlining your goals and target audiences. (Stay tuned for our next book on social media marketing due out later this year).
35). Use social media to listen to what your target audience wants so you can give it to them. Facebook groups are a great medium to do this.
36). To keep your social media marketing manageable, create an editorial calendar in Google. Create columns for the date, messages, assets, and the hashtags you plan to use in every post.
37). Make sure you have the same handle across of the your social media profiles.
38). If growth is slow in the beginning (which it probably will be because you'll be learning the nuisances of each platform you use), keep at it. Don't get discouraged. If you're consistent and produce interesting and valuable content, you'll be able to grow your business easily and effectively.
Throughout the next several weeks, we will look at each one of these platforms in depth so you can learn how to use them to build awareness, drive traffic, and increase sales.
What are some of your favorite ways to leverage social media marketing for your small business or creative startup?