Social Media Marketing Tips
The Secret of Social Media Marketing

Introduction

Millions of businesses have Facebook fan pages, and twitter profiles, they even have hundreds to thousands of followers.

Most of these businesses lack the knowledge to run their profiles for the best results, they don't know what to post, when to post, or how to use social media for the best results, and that is what you are learning here. 

This article covers the most important parts of what you can do with social media. It is set up to help you see how valuable social media is, and to give you the knowledge to provide the best presence for your followers. 

What Kind of Results Can I Expect From Using Social Media? 

Studies show that businesses that invest time into their accounts see the following benefits:

• Decreased marketing
• Increased sales
• Market research (invaluable)
• Increased awareness of your business
• More customers 

The problem is most businesses do not have the time to invest in learning how to use social media for best results, and they don't have the time to spend on using it because they are running their businesses. 

Realisticaly though, those who put in the effort can begin seeing results as soon as they have a few hundred people in their fanbase. 

What is the Secret of Social Media?

Relationships - that's it. It's comparative to being nice and welcoming and getting to know your customers, you are building a relationship. 

Looking at it like a bulletin board, as so many do, will not bring the benefits listed above. Connecting with your followers is the only way to go. 

How to build that relationship?

The same way you build any relationship, slowly, and by being yourself. 

Provide the help and assistance they might need, give them a reason to like you, and make them feel good about having a relationship with it. It's all possible and the return is more than you would believe. 

What Do I post or share with my fans?

The biggest mistake a lot of businesses make is they repeatedly post updates all about them, links to their websites, information about sales, new product stock, etc. 

If this is all you post, you will quickly lose followers, people don't want to see this. 

What do they want to see?

They want to be entertained, taught, given information, and inspired. Whatever your business is, you have to provide them a reason to follow you, and stay a follower. 

Here are some things to post on a regular basis:
• Links to websites or blog posts, something of interest to your followers
• News or current event links that interest followers (use the Google Trending Keywords that Fan Page Robot provides for you).
• Pictures, memes, infographics
• Ask questions. e.g., What's your favorite sports car for 2015?
• Share other people's posts from your newsfeed, or retweeting from Twitter followers
• Share your opinion (be personable) e.g. "I've been watching the Olympics but it's so hard to stay on top of the schedule NBC has posted, any one else frustrated?"

Screenshot: Content Generator at Fan Page Robot

social media autopost content

How to Use Social Media for Promotions

Now that you've provided your visitors with a reason to follow you, to engage with, and you've built a relationship, you can post promotional links. Paul Slack, a social media expert, suggests using a 90/10 ratio for promotional links. 
This includes:
• Links to your site
• Links to your new blog posts
• Sales messages
• New product stock posts
• Anything about your company that says, click me, and come buy our stuff!

This type of ratio between providing value and asking for the sale has given companies a lot of success with their social media campaigns, people don't feel too pressured to buy buy buy, and they are likely to enjoy a relationship with you, so they share your posts, and refer you to friends. 

Now let's discuss a few more intricacies of social media, before we send you on your way. 

How Often Should I Post?

How often you will post depends on the site. 

For Facebook you will only want to post a couple to a few times a day, maybe 4 times, depending on how active your followers are. 

On Twitter, your tweets disappear almost as fast as they are posted (don't worry it's still worth it) so you'll want to post more often. 

How Do I Get Followers?

On Twitter it's pretty easy to get followers, several people will follow you back, just for following them. Start following people, and as you learn how to use Twitter to appeal to more people, you will get more followers. 

Facebook is a little different. Once your fan page is live, I suggest sending a message to all of your current or past customers via email about your new fan page. I would also post on your website about it, and ask people to follow you from there. 

What About My Website?

A common issue I hear is why bother with social media when you already have a website. The reason is because your customers are there, on Twitter there are 316 million monthly active users, and Facebook has 1.5 billion. 

People spend enormous amounts of time on these sites, so being there allows them to spend some of that time visiting with, talking about, and sharing your company. 

What If I Don't Have Time?

You are at the right place. At Fan Page Robot, our mission is Saving Your Time. We provide you with the content and tools you need to build relationships with your followers and leverage your social media presences into profits. 

It's understandable that you may not have time to invest in social media, but there is no reason to miss the opportunity altogether. 

Join us today. Our innovative tools will help you implement a social media marketing strategy that will provide results, and deliver on all of the benefits we've discussed in this article. 

by Brantley Gilbert (Social Media Expert) on August 6, 2015
© 2024, fanpagerobot.com. All rights reserved.