I spend much of my time giving social media advice.
During our free consultation, I do everything in my power to give definitive answers to every question I’m asked. No vague “it depends” stuff here.
Every business, big or small, has questions about how to market on social media.
Here are the top ten answers to the most-asked questions.
A Note Regarding Social Media Advice
Dictionary defines advice as: “guidance or recommendations concerning prudent future action, typically given by someone regarded as knowledgeable or authoritative.”
There’s lots of advice out there. Some good. Some really, really bad.
My advice comes from my experience and six years of serving clients and their social media needs.
You may not like my social media advice. My advice may not work for you.
Or, my advice could lead to a $30,000 win on your first #GivingTuesday campaign (as outlined in our most recent case study).
In the end, I can only be 100% open and honest. And that’s what I’m doing here.
General Social Media
1) Which social media channels should I use?
This question actually is one of those “it depends” answers, but only if you haven’t done your homework.
If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you should know who your best customer is.
- Demographical information
- Their interests
- Where you “see” them interact with you the most (website, email, phone, social media, in-store, etc.)
If you’ve done your homework, it will become obvious which social channel or channels will be most successful for you.
If you haven’t done your homework, go read this post and answer the 10 must-know questions for getting started with social.
2) How can we improve our social media presence?
First and foremost, I’d say businesses need more understanding of how each platform works.
Most of the folks I speak with on our free consultation have no idea that Facebook has an algorithm that severely limits reach.
Recently, Zuck said this about declining reach for businesses.
Facebook’s 2 billion users will “see less public content like posts from businesses, brands and media. And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard.”
Beyond that, go back to #1 and make sure you know your audience.
If you truly know them, you’ll know what kinds of content they’ll engage with.
Social Media Content
3) Should we cross-post our content?
Cross-posting content means automatically sharing a post from say, Facebook to Twitter.
My social media advice? No. Never. Please don’t!
While this seems like a time-saver, it can make you look like an idiot.
Auto-posted tweets, for instance, often convert images into links (that are often cut off!).
4) What will you post (I don’t have anything to post)?
Again, see #1. Your audience is the key to everything!
But, to start, there are a million things to post (even if you don’t think there are).
- Behind-the-scenes (BTS) photos of your office happenings or team members (with their consent)
- How-to videos
- Throwback Thursday photos (show off the history of your business!)
- Humor and memes (when relevant)
- Curated content; helpful articles with industry-relevant tips
- Videos or photos that highlight your customer wins
- Upcoming sales or promos
5) When should I be posting?
Though there’s a ton of data around which days and times are best to post, like this chart from our pals at Sprout Social.
However, I’d like to issue a word of caution.
Think about it … your audience is unique, not some general stat!
Instead of following stats, try creating your own data table of when posts perform best.
Remember: Best practices sometimes aren’t!
6) Do I need original content?
YES.
Even if you don’t have a blog (or time to blog), make sure that at least some of the content you create for your social channels is uniquely yours.
Social Media Advice: ROI
7) Will I get results from my social media?
You will. However, if you don’t specify the kind of results you want, you may not be happy.
Try to pick from one of the categories below.
And, know that choosing the right key-performance indicators is incredibly important to showing success.
8) If I use social media will I get a return on investment?
Return on investment, or ROI, is a financial term. Ultimately, what you are asking is will the money I spend on social media result in sales equal to or greater my spend on social.
My social media advice? No.
Organic social media is great for those awareness and engagement KPIs. But when it comes to conversions, paid media is best.
Businesses who use organic and paid social together are twice as likely to say social media is “very effective” for them.
[Source]
9) Can I track sales from social media?
Yes! You’ll likely need:
- Paid media
- A capture or landing page
- Google Analytics knowledge
Social Media Growth
10) How do I get more followers?
My best social media advice: Don’t get hung up on the numbers. Focus on quality versus quantity.
If you fall over yourself to give value to your audience (yep, see #1 again!), you’ll attract a quality following.
Oh, and don’t forget to follow and engage with people! #ThinkConversation, y’all.
Moreover, you don’t have to follow everyone back!
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how many weirdos are out there. 
You’ll want to follow people, businesses, and brands who are relevant to what you do.
Social Media Advice Is A Dime A Dozen
Real talk, if you can Google it, you can do it.
I think what social media success boils down to is the doing it part.
You can’t fake it ’till you make it and it’s a lot of work.
That why we exist, after all.
Source: B2C
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