17 Tips for Maximising Your Social Media Promotion Efforts

The following is a blog I wrote in 201 to generate inbound leads for a digital marketing agency. The blog is optimised for the keyword "social media promotion"

Today there are over 462 Million internet users in India.

Out of those, 200 Million are active social media users.

In fact, India has world’s largest number of Facebook Users with over 195 million users. We are overtaking US by over 4 million.

What does this mean for your business’ social media promotion strategies? Are you making the most of these opportunities?

Are you struggling with:

Ever-changing algorithms

New social networks

The confusing world of social media advertising

These can make it hard to get valuable results through your social media efforts.

But no more!

Panworld Digital has come to your rescue.

Use these carefully curated actionable tips and your social media metrics will see a positive impact in no time.

Let’s start!

#1 Create and Automate a Social Content Calendar

What is the very first step to maximise your social media promotion efforts?

Creating a social content calendar that embodies your overall marketing strategies.

Why?

To grow your social pages, you will need to post consistently. A content calendar makes this process simpler.

Also:

Automating social media content makes posting consistently easy. It is far more efficient than manually posting.

Using automation tools you can schedule your social media marketing plan's posts for multiple platforms and weeks in advance. This will increase efficiency as you’ll know what content is being pushed on which platforms, and when.

Some popular social media management platforms that allow you to automate posting are CoSchedule, Hootsuite, Buffer, and PostPlanner.

#2 Curate Content

Curated content includes content that is relevant to your business but not created by you.

This will give you relevant content that you can further share with your followers. This makes posting consistently easy.

But remember:

Quality is just as important as quantity.

The content needs to be relevant to your audience. Being helpful and entertaining also helps.

Here’s the deal:

Some content performs better on some networks than others. You can curate content by social network. This will give you a greater chance of success on a specific network.

Get started:

Websites like Feedly, Juxtapost, and Storify are great sources for curating content. They give you a dashboard full of the latest posts from dependable sites.

You can also create a list of sites in your industry or niche that are known to publish high quality content and reshare that.

Content curation communities like Triberr, Social Buzz Club, and Viral Content Buzz bring together content creators. You can find amazing content here and promote your own.

#3 Include More Visual Content

Updates with images perform better on social media.

On Facebook, images get the most shares. In fact, Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat, are based entirely on images.

Investing in visual content will help your feed stand out.

To keep your social pages looking fresh, you can create multiple images per piece of content.

A new image can be used each time your reshare the content!

The best part?

Adding images to your social media posts is easy.

Tools like Canva and Landscape allow you to create perfectly-sized images that are fit for all major social media channels.

Adding Twitter Cards to your website can also help. Using this will ensure that blog posts you Tweet will have a featured image built right.

#4 Switch Up Content Formats

Sharing a mix of content formats on your social pages will make sure that your audience keeps coming back for more.

GIFs are becoming increasingly popular.

You can also convert snippets from your existing articles into a set of images or an inforgraphic. These posts will perform better than just a status update. You will also be able to share these on Pinterest and Instagram.

In fact, Instagram has the most engagement of any social media channel.

You can leverage this by sharing snippets of videos that leads to longer content on your website or YouTube. Cross-promoting your multiple channels will help you increase your audience on all fronts.

Switching up content format can also mean creating an e-book!

If you have written a lot about one specific topic on your blog you can combine them.

#5 Create Killer Headlines

Your headline is your first impression.

When sharing content on social media, headlines play a key role. It’s how you reel readers in.

A boring headline generates few clicks and fewer shares, while a killer headline immediately sucks the reader in.

Did you know 59% of users reshare content on social media by only reading the headline? A forbes study confirmed this.

We’ve all been guilty of sharing an article we haven’t actually read at or all the way through.

Since users aren’t paying as much attention to internal content, the strength and popularity of a piece sometimes comes down to the strength of its headline.

How to create better headlines?

You can create multiple titles and perform A/B testing to see which headlines perform better.

Use a tool like BuzzSumo to help you research effective titles for the same type of content per social network.

Lastly, you can try the CoSchedule headline analyzer to improve your headlines.

#6 Choose Your Platforms and Customise Content for Each of Them

You don’t need to be present on each and every network. Instead, be where your audience is

What if…

Your community hangs out on Pinterest instead of Facebook while you’ve wasted valuable time and resources perfecting your Facebook page?

You need to invest the majority of time on the networks that are popular with your audience. In case they’re scattered, focus on where they’re the most active and spend the most amount of time.

The thing is:

To maximize your social media promotion ROI, you need to research which networks are delivering the most value for your business.

You can see user engagement through in-app analytics for every network and decide where to focus your efforts.

Also:

Each social network is different. So why should your social media pages read the same?

You can’t just create a piece of content and expect to share it as it is everywhere

What works for one platform may not perform the same on the others. Even though there are tools that allow you to share the same message on a variety of social media outlets, you risk not sounding human.

Don’t simply dump content.

You need to reflect the tone of each network in your message. Every social media platform serves a different purpose and draws a distinctive audience.

For example:

Twitter is for news and tips whereas Facebook is for entertainment and value.

With limited time and resources, creating a unique post for each social media channel can be a challenge, but it’s well-worth the effort. This will help to give your content a fresh feel no matter where your audience lands and show that you’ve put some thought into each update.

As soon as you create content, write multiple social posts for it in one go. Mix up different headings, copies, and images.

Not only can you use this on different social platforms, you can also use these copies to repost multiple times on the same platform.

Why?

Because appearing to promote a large variety of content doesn’t require publishing more content!

#7 Timing Matters as Much as Content

The content you’re sharing needs to reach as many people as possible!

There are thousands of infographics online that tell you what the best time to post on social media is.

But…

You need to find what works for you. It comes to understanding how users engage on each social network, and experimenting.

Find where and when your audience is the most active.

Third party tools and Facebook Insights can help with this. Use it to see when most of your audience is online. You can also see the time frame when you should be posting your content.

You can even experiment by posting the same or similar content at different times throughout the day and see which one does better.

Keep in mind that different social media platforms may not have the same peak times. Also, what works one week, may not have the same effect next week.

Once you’ve figured out the best posting times, you can compile a posting schedule to ensure you post during a certain time of day.

#8 Engage Your Audience by Sounding Human and Forming a Community

It’s called ‘social’ media for a reason.

Frequently engage with your audience.

But...

Remember to sound human.

It’s important to remember that social media was originally made for people; not for businesses. This makes your brand’s two-way interaction with real people the most important aspect of your presence on social media.

Don’t be the company that only shares links all day.

Ask them questions and respond to theirs. Listen to their concerns and ideas. Interactions can include replying to other peoples’ posts even if it doesn’t tag you, retweeting, liking comments, etc.

Try to create a community vibe for your audience.

A simple way of doing this is creating a brand hashtag that is consistent across several social media platforms.

This allows you to cross-pollinate campaigns. It also offers users a cohesive experience regardless of where they interact with your brand.

You can also interact with your audience through a Facebook group, Twitter Chat or LinkedIn Group.

Remember:

You brand voice should resonate with your target market.

If you're targeting mid-management professionals, use a professional tone and avoid memes, and puns. But if you're targeting a younger yet professional audience, be the right mix of formal and casual.

#9 Hashtags are Key

Did you know that using popular hashtags broadens your content’s reach?

Hashtags allow your social media posts to show up when people search for those terms.

They help potential followers who are interested in your content find it when they may not otherwise.

Use tools like Hashtagify.me to spot relevant hashtags. You could also stalk your competitors pages to see what hashtags are working best for them.

Word of caution:

Try to keep the hashtags down to three or less! It looks spammy otherwise.

You can even come up with your very own hashtag for your business. Such a hashtag will help tie all of the pieces of your campaign together. Make sure your hashtag is something that is easy to remember and grabs the attention of users.

#10 Make Content Easy to Share

This tip is a little obvious but I can’t stress this enough!

On your website:

Have prominent social media buttons – to your pages, as well as, share buttons.

On your social media pages:

Call-to-Action (CTAs) are a great way to encourage your audience to like, share, and engage with your content.

This will help you capture leads from social media. Be sure that the CTA fits in naturally and does not look inauthentic.

#11 Valuable Content for the Win

Not every post you share should be promotional.

In fact, to be considered an authority, you need to share content that adds value to your audience’s life.

Put time, effort, and money into creating quality content.

While you might be able to grab someone’s attention for eight seconds with a catchy headline, valuable content is what will eventually get you a loyal audience and customers.

Think, “share” first.

What will make your audience want to share your post?

Try to think about how your audience can benefit from your content. Aim to spark emotions and interest with captions and headlines.

This doesn’t mean you can’t promote your business in those other posts; just be sure you pair it with great valuable content. This can even include curated posts.

This will keep your audience hooked, helping you maximise your social media promotional efforts.

#12 Work with Influencers

Here’s the deal:

Influencer marketing content delivers 11X higher ROI than traditional forms of digital marketing! (According to a TapInfluence and Nielsen Catalina Solutions research from 2016)

Influencers can help you expand your audience! They also help build brand awareness, content engagement, legitimacy and trust.

Identify influencers who are relevant to your audience, and trusted by them. User customer personas to find out what and who your customers like. You can use social media research or tools like Buzzsumo to find the right influencers for your business.

Use communities like Facebook groups as an opportunity to share your knowledge and interact with influencers. They will be more likely to share your content with their followers on social media and maybe even on their own websites once you’ve interacted with them.

A word of caution:

When it comes to influencer marketing, it’s best to make it truly a collaboration instead of following set guidelines.

If your partnership comes across as inauthentic, the influencer’s audience will not respond positively. In fact, 59% of consumers believe advertisments inconsistent with an influencer’s feed feel fake.

#13 Sell on Social Media

Make the marketing funnel shorter by selling directly on social media.

Yes, you heard that right!

You can now ‘Import Your Online Store’ to your Facebook Page.

Pinterest has Buyable Pins and a showcase feature that allows you to display the best your store has to offer.

You can have a business instead of a personal account on Instagram and advertise through it. You can leverage to sell through tagging brands in stories, or via adding links in the see more option.

Just recently, Snapchat launched an option to add links to your snaps.

There’s so many ways to sell through social media! This is something worth looking into if you have an e-commerce business.

#14 Test, Analyse and Improve

Here’s the thing:

People react in a different manner depending on the copy of your social media post. This is why you need to test out variations to see which one performs better.

A/B test consists of two messages with one variable. It is usually shared with different test audiences to measure which version is more effective. This will help you increase the effectiveness of your campaign.

You can test out content headlines, landing pages, call to action phrases, and more.

Apart from testing:

You should analyse past content to improve posts.

Over 40% of businesses don’t track their social media ROI at all!

Analytics is your biggest missed opportunity.

It’s important to analyse the effectiveness of your social media efforts and analyse the results. Don’t waste time and efforts in methods that will not give you the returns you want.

If something isn't working, you need to know, and you need to stop it.

Ideally, you should be tracking metrics on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis to know when and if you need to make changes to your social media strategy.

Invest in analytics as much as you invest in planning and posting.

What else?

Check Before You Post

You can use BuzzSumo or Social Animal to see what content has already achieved social sharing success. This will help you know what content performs better before you post.

Social Listening

When it comes to social media, people have all the power to say whatever they want about your company and brand – positive or negative. Thankfully, there are a lot of Social Listening tools to help you keep track of what customers are saying about you.

#15 Maximise Advertising with Targeting

One of the biggest parts of social media promotion is advertising.

Facebook Advertising alone has over 22 billion clicks per year!

It even tends to be relatively cheaper compared to other marketing channels. You can run a variety of advertisements on Facebook.

What about other social media platforms?

LinkedIn has a great advertising platform if you are trying to get your content in front of other businesses and business professionals. They offer sponsored updates or text ads.

Promoted tweets will help you reach a wide group and help with engagement. Twitter advertising is very cost-effective and generally has a wide range of users available at your disposal.

Snapchat advertising allows you to get personal with the users. There are various ways of advertising including advertisements that appear between snapstories or dedicated snapstories, and a cheaper alternative – filters.

They have shoppable advertisements that appear as a native part of the audience’s feed. Monthly, over 120 million users visit a business’ website, get directions, call, email, or direct message a business after seeing an Insgtaram advertisement.

Analyse and decide on the right social media for your business’ advertising efforts.

The best part about advertising on social media?

Targeting capability!

You can target people based on demographics, age, language, behaviour, connections, geography, and so much more.

The thing is:

The more people you target, the less likely you are to achieve higher engagement rates. Low engagement rates mean you will be paying more for poorly performing advertisements.

Narrowing your targeting can boost engagement and reduce marketing costs.

You can even layer your targeting options.

How?

Layer already-powerful targeting options with additional data. You can leverage these combinations to create timely, relevant campaigns.

You could layer purchasing behaviour on top of demographic data. It could also include Life Events, places visited, hobbies and interests, or virtually any other targeting demographic.

For example:

You can target students between the ages of 15 to 20 in a particular city, with a history of purchasing a product similar to yours online.

Life Events are particularly interesting. You can even specify how soon after these events take place that your advertisements begin to appear to these audiences.

For example:

You can decide to show baby clothes advertisements to couples who’ve just announced their pregnancy.

#16 Remarket

How many times do you go to a website.

Add something to your cart.

Then leave.

Choosing to come back to it later.

Or not at all.

The typical shopping cart abandonment rate for online retailers is close to 70%.

It is extremely important to maximise the potential of a leads even after they leave your website.

By retargeting you are nudging them towards a sale.

Not just that, remarketing also gives your brand added exposure and by improving brand recall.

It’s one of the most effective methods to increase conversions.

By failing to remarket to potential customers on social media, you’re putting all your time, money, and effort into a single opportunity to get a conversion. This is rare if not impossible.

#17 Reward Your Audience

We saved the best for last.

Reward your audience for engaging with your social media pages.

Why?

Because everyone likes free things.

This can be as simple as offering free Wi-Fi for a Facebook check-in. You could share a discount code if a tweet gets certain number of retweets. You could even email them free content in exchange for a comment.

The possibilities are endless.

How about rewards through contests?

You can easily run sweepstakes on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Sweepstakes are simple. They are a great tool for lead generation in high numbers. The only drawback is that if your prize is not related to your business then these leads may not be your target audience.

Of course everyone wants an iPhone but do they want your product?

You need to ensure that the people who enter your promotion will actually be interested in buying from you down the line.

Apart from sweepstakes, your contests could also be based on likes as votes to win. These posts can go along with a specific contest hashtag.

This method encourages the participants to create content related to your brand.

You get them communicating about your business to their own networks while also capturing user-generated content which you can then use for future marketing efforts.

If your contest has a judging component then you could invite influencers to be a part of the judging panel. Attaching their name to your contest adds credibility and gets them to talk about it.

What happens after the contest?

Be sure to have a follow up strategy in place.

You can put out an advertisement to all past participants that did not win. You can then tailor the advertisement directly to these individuals.

Build a custom audience through the leads you generated from the contest on Facebook. You can exclusively target this audience with Facebook advertisements.

They’re more likely to become customers since they’re now aware of your brand.

Facebook also allows you to create a lookalike audience based on your existing contest leads.

If your leads wanted to enter your contest why wouldn’t those who are just like them?

Along the same lines, who is more likely to want to engage with your business than someone exactly like your existing customers?

Best Practices for running a contest:

Make all your rules clear

Follow platform guidelines (for example: It is against Facebook policy to reward users for sharing content)

Make it easy for users to participate and share their entries (for example: Retweet to win)

Time to Implement

At the end of the day, choosing the right mix of these actionable tips will do wonders for your social media promotion strategies.

Tell us about social media promotions methods you are implementing and how they are working out for you!