Social media marketing top tips by Jules Thomas

1. I am a firm believer of this adage for every life situation especially the business world. Be yourself, you can’t be anyone else, and As Rob Brown says; ‘Everyone else has been taken, be yourself.’ You are a great person with pertinent input to make. Make sure you do that.

2. Interact – don’t just treat social media marketing as a free advertising forum, you have to interact otherwise people will hide your posts or block you, which then makes everything you do futile. The clue is in the name its ‘social’ media.

3. Raise Awareness: Join some professional Linkedin or Facebook groups and start discussions. Raise your profile as a serious contender in your chosen profession. Get people to see you as an expert in your field, whether you are an IFA or a fashionista, post relevant discussions and comments that will establish you as an approachable, knowledgeable, expert. It’s key to your social media marketing campaign.

4. Blog, do write interesting, challenging and insightful blogs about you and your products or services, again this will enable you to stand out from the crowd, especially if you offer snippets of free advice within your blogs, are motivational or positive with the subject matter. Link to your blogs through all your social media platforms But don’t post links to your blog on every group, page or forum you are connected with, it’s still spamming and the strongest reaction you will get is annoyance.

5. Social Media Marketing is first and foremost about you, people buy from people. Pictures, make sure people can see you but don’t go for either end of the scale, don’t make it so professional looking, that there is no personality coming through, also make sure there is only one person in your shot, otherwise new connections wont know which one is you. The other end of the scale, I do not advise having a picture of you roaring drunk, pulling a face at the camera kind of picture, or pictures that aren’t recognisable as you. Don’t be a ‘ghost’ put up a picture!

6. Always link your posts back to your website, social media is a powerful tool for driving new business to your website and to do this, we need to make potential customers have an easy life, if you are promoting a particular product link to the buying page for that product, if they have clicked through they want more… more info or they want the product, make sure they get it and they don’t have to search to find it.

7. Take advantage of the shortened url options on these social media marketing sites, it makes you easier to find, easier to link to and looks far better than random characters or numbers mixed in especially if you want to add these to your business cards. This promotes Brand recognition, and allows others to find you through their own social media marketing campaigns additional connections will allow different tones to come through strengthening your connections.

8. Hootsuite or similar dashboards, I highly recommend when you begin your social media marketing strategy you incorporate one of the dashboards, these allow you to schedule your marketing messages in advance, leaving you free to concentrate on your interaction.

9. If you have members of staff representing the company on these social media marketing platforms, ensure you have a social media policy to outline what is and is not acceptable there whilst representing the company. And if you feel appropriate the statement ‘all comments are my own and in no way reflect my company’ mentioned in a prominent place can also save some blushes.

10. Have a plan! Social media marketing requires a plan or a strategy. Make sure you are clear on what you want to accomplish from your social media marketing, whether it is to simply raise your profile, educate on products and services or to actively gain new business. Make sure you plan, without one you only plan to fail.

11. Don’t let it distract you! Change all your social media email address to a free to use one, or a different email than your work one, this will stop you from becoming distracted from important work by notifications. Don’t sit with your social media marketing sites open, the temptation is too great, make sure you set aside dedicated time, and no more, it is easy to lose an hour or two flicking through things!

12. Reviews, recommendations, testimonials. So powerful to be able to see some one else’s opinion of your work, it takes some of the risk element out of the buying process, gives you credibility and adds to your visibility.

13. Don’t be fooled by numbers. This is not a game of let’s see how many connections, followers or likes I can get. Go for quality over quantity. The idea is to connect through your social media marketing not to advertise!

14. Facilitate, connect people to each other. When some one asks, does anyone know a …? On social media, you have a virtual network to refer to and once seen as a facilitator adds gravitas, credibility and builds your reputation.

15. Social media marketing is NOT a replacement for all your other ways of networking, developing new clients, building relationships and generating sales leads. It is an ‘as well as’ not an ‘instead of’. And it is not a miracle cure, but if operated properly social media marketing can become an extremely powerful tool for you and your business.

Social media marketing

I hope you have found these social media marketing tips useful and have gained a few pieces of good advice for your social media marketing campaign. Leave a comment below and share your tips, thoughts and experiences. Share this with your network by using the link buttons and connect to me on Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter. Should you require more practical help with your marketing campaign the drop me an email to jules@thelasthurdle.co.uk Have fun! let me know how you get on with your

Social media marketing