Website visits from social media sites are some of the most qualified traffic you can get. Each person chooses to visit your link given the social content they saw. Social Media is still just starting its ascent into becoming one of the most fundamental business strategies an owner should work on.
Today I’ll share the six keys to a successful social media strategy. But first, let’s take a look at the power of consistency.
Serial Entrepreneur Eric Holtzclaw states, “Consistency is a must as you build and grow your business.” Social Media management is no different, here are five rules of why consistency matters.
1. Consistency allows for measurement
How can you know if it works or not without having done a strategy over a time period the same way? Give it at least six months
2. Consistency creates accountability.
The simplicity of having deadlines and understood company and personal goals (X number of followers gained), many times launches a new initiative to success.
3. Consistency establishes your reputation.
In order to grow you need to have a track record of staying the course to achieve an objective. Don’t switch gears too often.
4. Consistency makes you relevant.
Your audience and employees need to become accustom to a particular routine of information. Whether it be weekly blog posts or daily Facebook updates.
5. Consistency maintains your message
Your audience will view your company in part based on how you view your social media.
If you are dedicated to building your social media properties with an eye toward long-term growth, you can almost ensure success. Be committed and you will see results.
And now, let’s look at the six steps to social media success…
1. Know your audience
Do you think the average 68-year-old grandpa is on Pinterest? Neither do I.
So, if you are targeting senior men, you would be making a severe mistake by putting your social media efforts there.
Even if you ran flawless campaigns, it still wouldn’t work.
One of the first things to do when making a social media strategy is to find out who your audience is and on what platform they are spending most of their time.
2. Choose your channels wisely, and commit.
Remember, this is a strategy of endurance and commitment. Think long-term! You will be putting your time into building a foundation to grow your following and increase traffic.
Most businesses struggle to achieve their goals on even one social media network. The odds of doing on five are significantly less.
I recommend picking a maximum of two channels, at least to start. If you already have one social network doing well, and if you have experience with social media marketing, you can choose three networks.
If you’re worried about missing the boat of traffic from other networks that you aren’t engaging in, don’t! There is plenty of traffic on any given network that you can harness to grow your business. Besides, you don’t just want traffic. You want the right traffic!
3. Create a value treasure chest
Now that you know who your audience is and what networks to target the real work begins! You need to provide your audience valuable content that they can rely on to be delivered. The better your content is, the quicker you will see your online presence grow in numbers and reputation.
This goes back to the basics of being consistent. If you share heavily on one day and then neglect your networks the other six days, you will not see your traffic grow. You need to be active consistently to build your presence.
Make sure to build a treasure chest of various types of content. Over time you will begin to see what kind of content resonate best with your fans. These can include:
- Blog posts,
- Video tips,
- Pictures,
- Quizzes,
- Motivational quotes, etc.
One of the most important concepts to remember, which are frequently overlooked by business owners, is the fact that you should not be sharing your own content exclusively. In fact, you should be sharing others’ content more than your own.
There are different theories on what the right ratio is, but I like to follow the 5-3-2 rule.
- 50% others’ content
- 30% your own content
- 20% personal content
Yep. I said personal. Don’t forget that social media is about people. Not brands. People want to connect with other people. Don’t forget to be human.
4. Follow who? Follow me!
If a social media post falls flat and no one is there to hear it, did it happen? Yes, it may seem obvious, but part of your strategy needs to address the elephant in the room. You need to grow your following base to see more traffic. If nobody sees your posts, you’re wasting your time.
Starting from nothing makes it difficult, but it’s possible.
There is one simple trick that everybody should start with: follow your target audience. This one simple action will ensure that at least some percentage of those you follow will follow back. It won’t be 100 percent, but every little bit counts.
As you get a larger following, you don’t have to follow as much because the content and shares you will get will start to earn you more traffic.
5. When to Post and How Often?
Slowly but surely you are growing your follower base by interacting and sharing content that you’ve created for your audience. Great!
Some followers will click on your posts, maybe even share it. It’s only natural to want to post more for more clicks. That said, it’s important to recognize the concept of posting too much.
The number of posts you share has both a technical and human element.
Technically speaking, each network has their own rules, or algorithms, that discourage companies from posting too often. These rule usually hinge on engagement rate. If you post too often, you’ll see your engagement rate decrease dramatically.
Different networks have different thresholds until you see a drop-off in engagement rate.
The human element involves the same psychology that created the Spam folder, or pop-up blockers. Nobody wants to feel that they are having information shoved in their face every time they are logged on to their personal social network. Not only will you be unfollowed, but you might even get reported as being a spam user.
It’s up to you and your business to track down your efforts and test different strategies that work best for you.
– INTERMISSION –
Check out this cool infographic from buffer.com:
6. Oldies but Goodies – Share Past Content
What if you are running out of content? Remember, not just any content, but good high quality content?
In order to maintain the ratio of posting promotional and non-promotional without driving yourself to the brink of insanity, simply repost old content too!
One tip: When re-sharing old content, make sure not to use the same description. People will catch on and may think you are spamming worthless content. If you are using Buffer for posting and scheduling then you’re in luck. Buffer allows you to change the descriptions before you schedule it. This makes it very easy to manage.
Conclusion
It’s impossible (barring an incredible amount of luck), that you can generate quality traffic via Social Media using a haphazard and poorly thought-out plan.
Remember that consistency and commitment are the keys to positive results!
What about you?
Please share your social media success stories (or failures) in the comments below!