Social Media Strategy Overview
What’s the PURPOSE of Social Media?
The goal of social media is to connect people to other people. When 90% of businesses do it you could be forgiven for thinking it is as awkward as teenagers kissing for the first time. Cringeworthy and totally off the mark.
If you get the messaging right you get the attention and engagement.
Is Social Media Traffic As Valuable As Other Traffic Sources?
NO. Social Media traffic is some of the lowest converting, lowest quality traffic online. But it has its place in our traffic acquisition strategy.
BUT… Social Media traffic CAN bring us new leads & customers, and at a very low cost due to the viral nature of trending and niche targeted posts. Imagine if your post goes viral how much new traffic you can plant your retargeting cookie on. Its all in how your position your message.
While thsi traffic is not the holy grail of online traffic you should still link to and promote your Social Media accounts anywhere you can.
And… everytime you make a blog post, promote a link to it on Twitter, Facebook, and anywhere else that’s relevant. Hammer away at the content promotion and over time it will pay off.
How to “future proof” your SM strategy
My first step is to plan everything. I use Notion and Google sheets to plan all my content. This keeps me and my teams organised.
Then this might be a suprise but step 2 is to make a video about your topic. A short 20-40 second video shot in 720×720 on your phone or a specific digital camera.
My aim is to always drive traffic off social media into a lead capture where I can get the email address for future marketing. Here is my fave email tools.
This will be our content that we use again and again. We can recreate this content in 20 different ways. This maximises the content lifecycle and allows us to use the spin offs on multiple channels as new content.
I like to splinter that main content video into:
- Youtube video
- Blog article
- Quote card
- Instagram story
- Facebook Story
- Snapchat story
- Facebook post
- Instagram post
- Pinterest video
These are my main platforms but there are almost 60 others to be used for syndication.
You should always have a website to host your lead capture forms, pop ups and other list building options. Learn how to build a website for any experience level.
A secret platform for helping me get the words from the video into usable format is a place called Rev.com a transcribing service. They help by taking the video speech and making text from it, great for adding quotes and subtitles.
Platform Specifics:
Facebook 720×720 dimension
YouTube 1920×1080 dimension
Instagram 720×720 dimension *Max time 59 seconds
Instagram Story 1080×1090 dimension
*Max 15 seconds
What’s the Purpose of Social Media?
To ENGAGE with some of your target market
To BRAND your products & services and company To SUPPORT your customers or prospects
To PUBLISH some of your content
To SYNDICATE and link to your Web Site content To help others DISCOVER your content & products
WARNING: Social Media ‘surfing’ can be a HUGE WASTE of your time and won’t make you money.
Type Of Social Media Posts
Asking A Question Interesting Images Educational Content Entertaining Content Opinionated Content InfoGraphics
Full Content or “Content Teaser” ‘Some’ Sales Promotions & Offers
What The Heck Is A Hashtag?
A hashtag is simply a keyword with the pound symbol in front of it. i.e. #vacation #gotigers #savingmoney
DON’T overuse hashtags! Rule of thumb to keep in mind is to use a maximum of 1-3 highly relevant hashtags. DON’T use any on Facebook!
How To Achieve The Viral Effect?
NATURALLY FOUND (Organic)
We ASK People To Share, Like, Follow
We INCENTIVIZE People To Share, Like, Follow
Facebook Tips That Build Momentum
Facebook has been done to death…by crappy marketers. This is still a very viable platform. I am finding Facebook groups to be the a solid source of lead generation and traffic. Start Facebook Groups related to your target market Facebook hates links within posts; Share a link
Getting the messaging right and the targeting is the trick on Facebook. Especially for organic social its harder to get enagement unless you pay for Ads.
Consider OUTSOURCING your Social Media efforts Tell Stories and share ‘real life’ with your audience COMMUNICATE, DON’T JUST SELL
Try to post 2-3 times per week if not more
Post as your Facebook Page on other people’s posts Run CONTESTS!
Talk about “Mistakes people make” in your market Share helpful resources
VISUAL gets most attention – videos & images Post related images WITH content posts
MIX IT UP – post full articles and article teasers Use 80/20 Rule to post more of top engagement Create a SERIES around most popular posts
Try posting late at night or “off” hours and behind the scenes. The behind the scenes works really well when you have more than 2,000 followers. Any less and it doesnt get the engagement.
The good thing about Facebook is the automation it has with many third party tools. You can schedule a years worth of posts over a weekend. Dont sleep on using Facebook in your traffic strategy.
Instagram Tips To Build A Business
If you have a “visually appealing” product and/or market use it, if not maybe spend your time elsewhere Link to an Opt-in Page in your BIO with a CTA Consider using a URL shorter or redirect for your URL like bit.ly or Link Tree.
CROSS-PROMOTE with similar companies, brands and category kings (Influencers).
Use up to 3 relevant hashtags but don’t overdo it. You can add more hastgas in teh comments.
Pay close attention to competitors’ posts. Do some competitor research and work out their strategy. This will pay off in the long run.
In your post description “encourage” the CTA in BIO link. People need to be told what to do so make sure you tell your audience you want them to click the link in the bio.
Take a video in 720×720 and add some captions before uploading to your profile.
Post “share-worthy” photos and videos
Once you see conversions coming from Instagram activity, EXPAND your Instagram efforts…
Buy a Sponsored Post from large follower accounts in your market — reach out to them directly
Do deals with “Instagram Influencers”… get them to tag your account in their posts and promote you
If it’s really working well… test advertising on Instagram but be very careful to track ROI
If you need to post schedule you can use something like Meet Edgar or OneUp app.
Twitter Tips To Get Traffic
NOTE: I don’t recommend heavy Twitter usage. no more than 3 tweets a day.
Use an easy to remember/spell username
Try and use a maximum of TWO relevant hashtags
Like you do with most social profiles remember to link to your domain URL in your BIO. In some cases you can link to the most profitable sales offer or highest converting sales page. Test this method out it can work crazy good.
Share links to your blog posts using compelling copy Engage with other users in your market
Retweet relevant posts from your market
Use Twitter for competitive research
Twitter is a great way to get updates out to the masses. It is underrated and you can get a lot of traffic from Twitter especially if you use moments.
Pinterest Tips That Build An Empire
The most underrated channel on this list, Pinterest is a traffic goldmine. If you take some time to design Pinterest perfect images your traffic from this platform will surge.
If your marketing and/or products are related to a “visually appealing” market then consider investing time into Pinterest efforts. If not, don’t.
Explore Pinterest to see what types of products are the most popular — if what you sell is, go for it!
Write compelling, keyword-driven, SHORT descriptions Pin items multiple times per day
Follow Pinterest suggestions – no hashtags, no promotional language, no CTA mentioning
Vertical pins work best — 600px wide x 900px tall, 800px wide x 1200px tall, 600px wide x 2100px tall, 400px wide x 2800px tall
Overlay compelling copy onto images
VERIFY your web site with Pinterest. This is huge and it pays off.
LinkedIn Tips To Grow Your Audience
If YOU are the ‘product’ in your business as an expert, and you sell to a certain industry, consider investing time in LinkedIn marketing — if not, don’t. Network appropriately with others in your industry Attach “Rich Content” to your profile – promote CTA Examine competitor profiles for ideas
Optimize your profile with great copy and keywords Participate in discussions and post GREAT CONTENT
Recreate your best articles as on LinkedIn and publish with a CTA to your original article.
For affiliate marketers the LinkedIn space might not be the best place to focus on. For businesses that have services and eCommerce businesses you should be on LinkedIn drawing people from that platform to your own sales pages and offers.
Key Takeaways
Build your social profiles out 100% and make sure you keep them active. The golden rule is working on 3 main platforms. Then you can syndicate to the other platforms that are not your main audience targeted platforms.
Track everything, take the time to add UTMs and review your efforts. Get an understanding of how good or bad your efforts are on each channel.
Have some fun with it, don’t always post serious stuff and mix it up. Thanks for reading and put this to action. Peace!
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