7 Ways to Become the Best Social Media Marketer

Whether you’re new to social media or have been active in your industry and had limited success from social media, it’s time to stop and assess. You might come across as self absorbed or overly promotional.

Look at your competitors and assess what they are doing. See what social media accounts are achieving the kind of success you are after and analyse how they are doing it. Nine times out of ten they will be delivering a service – whether it is entertainment, curated news or other expert value.

Remember, you need to build credibility. Trust over transaction.

The best social media marketers root their social media activity in the objectives of the business.

They create a social media strategy that brings structure and purpose to social media activities. This involves understanding the platforms your target audience are using and how they are engaging and delivering value in your social media offering so they are stimulated to follow you.

Each platform needs a dedicated approach because they operate slightly differently and offer different opportunities. It is important to understand what works best to create targeted content and generate engagement.

Ask yourself

• Who is my target audience?
• What do they currently like / engage with?
• What message am I trying to convey?
• What content works best on this platform?
• How can I make my content stand out?

The best social media marketers have a number of streams working simultaneously. Posting consistently in a tone that is appropriate for your brand is important. But increasingly so too is replying and commenting.

Creating a content calendar for your social media platforms helps provide clarity and consistency over time. It helps ensure you never run dry if you have a nice mixed feed that focuses on industry news, company news, expert advise, topical comment, stories and behind the scenes content and industry and national “days” when appropriate.

A content calendar also helps plan what kind of content to post over a longer period, allowing to plan written, graphic, video and audio assets better.

If you’re new to social media activity, start with realistic posting goals. Don’t commit to a plan of activity that will be difficult to maintain. Select 1-2 platforms and start with one quality post a week before moving to more frequent posts. Encourage colleagues to share and repurpose any content to other platforms and other marketing activities such as email or website blog posts.

Social media feeds have a high turnover and algorithms govern how content is released. Although you may have 1,000 followers, it is unlikely they will see your social media post about your next promotion.

Social media posts are released in waves and subject to engagement.

So how do you get posts seen?

Make them newsworthy

• Content built around news is always a good idea as it is timely and relevant. Why do you think, for examples, accountants respond rapidly to budget announcements, unpicking the essential outtakes for their customers.

Choose your media wisely

• Use static images with simple clear messaging to capture attention. (Use your captions to explain more).
• Gifs, memes and videos can also attract attention – just make sure they are on brand.
• Use your people – it’s always good to build stories around the people your customers may come to know.

Look to tell stories

• Use storytelling as a way to engage your audience and to develop a brand voice that means your content starts to become unique..
  Stories work better than ad-based promotional content that will be scrolled past.

Tap into trends

• Big trends in your industry, local community or the world are a good angle, especially if you are explaining the impact on your customers. Again make sure anything you are talking about in social media fits with your strategy and organisational goals.

Engaging with your followers is important in building a community and feeling more personable. It also helps the algorithms on each platform to show your content to more people.

Ways to do this include:

• Liking and responding to comments – doing this instantly shows the platform there is high engagement is very important to ensuring more people see it. The first hour or two is critical.
• To achieve this, use polls, ask questions or encourage people to respond in comments.
• Where permissible tap into live streaming, live events and other other techniquest to bring about engagement.

If this is a new area or an area you’re looking to make sizeable steps in, we recommend following the following influencing voices and websites.

Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Land both offer lots of fresh blog content every week and are available via RSS or as a free email subscription.

And be sure to follow Neil Patel and Rand Fishkin who are both leading experts in the field having both developed their own brands and multiple online businesses using search marketing principles.