Good social media effectively connect with a specific audience. Just like businesses add to customers’ lives by offering products and various services, effective social media campaigns can help a business grow and bring in more profit. Sometimes maintaining a profitable site gets challenging, which is why we offer a free webinar training where you can learn how to effectively push out your products and services in a way that will generate a substantial income. There are plenty of tips on the web that reveal how to use social media to your advantage, but many times experts only cover the basics and don’t cover the “secrets.” We thought we’d take the time to reveal some shocking truths that you can use to your advantage.
For starters, Jeff Bullas reveals that experts don’t typically discuss how challenging it can be to get organic traffic but he offers some tips below:
The hard truth is that the free and organic social media marketing doesn’t work like it used to. And that’s a bit annoying.
The good news. All’s not lost. Things change and marketers and businesses will need to evolve. So what can we do?
First you need to be aware of the changes and trends. Then you need to get cracking on the following:
Concentrate more on owning your traffic. Convert social and search traffic into a loyal email subscribers. Guess what happens when a millennial joins the workforce. They get an email address. Email marketing is not going away anytime soon. Use this to reach your audience when you want without a Facebook algorithm getting in the way.Invest in a digital marketing automation platform to do more with less. Scaling your marketing in a splintered media world needs proper grown up tools.
Re-purpose content onto other networks. Take your best posts and publish on Linkedin, Medium, Flipboard and even Slideshare.
Measure more and concentrate on what works best. The Pareto principle is a truism. Concentrate your efforts on 20% of the effort that produces 80% of the results. So start looking for a data scientist to add to your team.
Pay for social media traffic. But don’t do this unless you can measure the cost of leads and sales.
Don’t aim for the quick fix. The digital marketing game is not a sprint…..it is a marathon. Create pillar content around your key phrases you want to be found for on a Google search. Digital marketing is an asset build.Work with influencers and collaborate with joint venture partners. The old art of networking is alive and kicking. But it is now global, web based and niche focused.
Want to learn some social media stats from Search Engine Journal that not a lot of people know? It may help you develop a better social media strategy which means more website conversions!
We like to share the love. The average internet user has 7.6 social media accounts.
Between Q2 and Q3 of 2017, the number of social media users skyrocketed by 121 million.
Mature users aged 55-64 are more than twice as likely to interact with branded content than their younger social media consuming counterparts.
Followers aren’t the only ones talking. 96 percent of social media users that talk about a brand online, don’t even follow the brand’s profile.
Need evidence that we’re a visual species? Today, more than 3.2 billion images will be shared on social media posts.
49 percent of social media users share product information with the hopes of improving the lives of others.
We spend a lifetime average of 5 years and 3 months on social media.
Search Engine Journal also reveals some intriguing findings of Instagram, which may also help you improve your social media campaign.
Who has the highest number of followers on Instagram? Talk about self-love – Instagram itself is the winner with over 233 million followers. Poor Selena Gomez comes in at a distant second.
80 percent of Instagram users follow at least one business profile, and 200 million of those users are consistently checking in to see what their favorite brands are up to.
Sorry Snapchat, Instagram stories are 2 times more popular than you.
Top brands love Instagram, which is demonstrated by the 85 percent of them that hang out on the network.
Don’t forget that social media sites act as search engines, which can vastly improve your business. Neil Patel says if people find you on social media you’re more likely to get business and referrals.
Nowadays, people don’t just go to Google and Bing to look stuff up; they also use social media channels to find what they’re looking for. Patel makes this point in his article on why social is the new SEO: “We need to understand that search engine optimization includes the search that happens on social media search engines.”
This works in a couple of ways: First, if you’re active on Twitter, it’s entirely possible that people will discover your company’s new content distribution app after searching for content marketing-related tweets with Twitter’s search engine. Likewise, brands that lend themselves to beautiful visual content can benefit from making their content visible in Pinterest and Instagram by using hashtags and properly categorizing their pins.
Moreover, as mentioned in point #1, if someone wants to check out your company, they’re likely to open Twitter and Facebook and do a quick search to see what kind of presence you have on each channel. YouTube, and, of course, Google+ are also search engines.
Another secret truth that experts don’t often share is that Facebook groups should be taken advantage of more! Entrepreneur dishes on why people don't utilize groups nearly as much as they should be and how by frequently interacting you can potentially vastly improve your business!
Facebook groups are an overlooked social media tactic, and using them properly can yield huge social and business payoffs. If you’re B2B, you can create groups for the type of professionals you’re selling to.
The key is starting with a niche that aligns with your audience and products, then building it organically by curating great content and encouraging engagement. A great example of this is Tai Lopez, who has been able to share his exciting and inspirational views across social media channels.
You should create posts that ask questions that are relevant to the audience. Go “live” while in the group to chat directly with people or implement other video marketing trends in the group for maximum engagement. Many marketers have successfully built large groups with thousands of target demographic users.
This is a long-term game. Pushing for the sale too quickly can result in loss of trust from your initial group members, so be sure to slowly and authentically build trust and demand for your products and services. Always focus on building a community that is valuable for everyone in the group.
Want to know what some experts say will happen to the future of social media? Even though no one can predict the future, many experts have a good idea, so it’s intriguing to think about the upcoming changes or trends.
Natalie Athanasiadis, Head of Digital at Digital Visibility Group Melbourne
Chatbots are going to be one of the biggest things in social media marketing in 2018. They have evolved from inferior robotic responses to now being able to provide personalised and instant meaningful interactions with a brand’s audience. Facebook has reported that over 100,000 chatbots are currently using the messenger platform and this number is set to grow. This form of automation means you can spend the extra time working to further expand your business, while still producing a positive overall experience for potential customers.
Paige Leidig, CMO of NetBase – @paigeleidig
Launching new consumer products on Social Media first will become the norm. Initially, to early advocates in the testing phase of a product launch. Then followed by the full launch of the product. This will deliver the immediate feedback from advocates and also enable exponential awareness among followers and other like-minded consumers. This year saw Arby’s successfully launch their venison sandwich on social media, the sandwich generated plenty of buzz online which lead to it selling out in 15 minutes in Minnesota and 90 minutes at an Arby’s in Atlanta.Frank Strong, Founder & President of Sword and the Script Media, LLC – @Frank_Strong
Organic social media fades as a marketing tactic and the costs rise. All the underlying algorithms have changed. The difference is so stark, I don’t think we can call it social media marketing anymore – it’s just advertising. All the major platforms are increasingly depressing visibility unless the content is sponsored. Social media sites don’t want to send users to visit your website – the goal is to keep them engaged on the platform. No matter how social media savvy you or your brand is, the cost is likely to continue to rise.
The more you know about the future and current status of social media, the better. Of course, there is always more to learn but the more knowledge you have under your belt, the easier it’ll be to use social media to your advantage. Join us during our next free webinar training to learn more about how to make various techniques on the web work well for your business.
Sources: Jeff Bullas, Search Engine Journal, Neil Patel, Entrepreneur
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