It\u2019s very easy to distil social media marketing down to something it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot more to social media marketing than posting stuff to\u00a0Twitter and Facebook. That\u2019s before we even consider paid advertising. Social media marketing is a vital part of every digital marketing strategy<\/strong> and it is entirely instrumental to your content distribution. Remember: your content is only powerful if other people actually see it<\/strong>. Even if you\u2019re writing purely for SEO, a captive audience makes it a lot easier.<\/p>\n

Social Media Marketing breaks down into 4 cs, each as important as the other:<\/p>\n

\n
1. Content<\/li>\n
2. Conversation<\/li>\n
3. Community<\/li>\n
4. Connections<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

   Content<\/h2>\n

   So step one: social media marketing and content!<\/h3>\n

   Content, social media marketing, and success are inextricably linked. They are a trifecta that work wonders in the digital era. The problem is that it takes a lot of time<\/strong> to do it right, and many\u00a0businesses quit too early into the game. We, for example, rank on page one for the vast majority of our chosen keywords: for everything from content creation agency to digital marketing, we\u2019re there. It\u2019s taken a solid six months but we\u2019ve laid the groundwork so we\u2019ll be hanging out there for quite some time.<\/p>\n

   The truth: there\u2019s no magic formula to social media and content.<\/strong><\/p>\n

   So how do you optimise your social media marketing\u2019s content?<\/h3>\n

   1. Choose your platform wisely.<\/h3>\n

   User base, gender-bias, target your audience.<\/p>\n

   2. Scope out competitors and the giants of your industry and learn from them.<\/h3>\n

   There\u2019s a lot of shtick about going viral, and\u00a0much of the advice out there is from brands who already have 200k followers. It\u2019s easy to say: \u201cmake good stuff and people will come.\u201d This isn\u2019t true. Pare your expectations down to match reality<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

   A client of ours has nearly 30,000 likes on Facebook because she occupies a niche and she\u2019s constantly creating content in the form of posts and providing funny pictures. That works for a certain audience i.e. the mommy \u2018blogger\u2019\/momtrepreneur section, but it won\u2019t work so easily for a garage, for example. Tap into your network. Why are they on your social media page? Use that.<\/p>\n

   3. Visual content is gold.<\/h3>\n

   Pictures and videos drive up engagement. Don\u2019t be afraid to do something crazy. (Budget, allowing.) Remember this?<\/p>\n

   <\/div>\n

   4. A clever tweet is worth a thousand words.<\/h3>\n

   Hop on a trend<\/strong> with a funny tweet and you\u2019re home and dry. Yesterday, for example, Garth Brooks blew up because of the cancelled concerts. Within ninety seconds of the news breaking, #GarthBrooks started trending. A couple of silly tweets later, and we were up on engagement and follower count.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

   Remember:\u00a0an awful lot of people are clamouring for that same platform. Be fast!<\/p>\n

   5. Pinterest is a\u00a0silent giant.<\/h3>\n

   Pinterest gets relegated to the beauty\/interior design type bloggers a lot. Admittedly, we\u2019re passive Pinners. The key take-away here is that Pinterest is great for generating links and small, quick SEO boosts<\/strong>. It won\u2019t send you shooting up the rankings, but each pin to\u00a0your blog or website keeps things trundling away.<\/p>\n

   Remember: social media marketing\u2013and digital marketing too!\u2013relies on the sum of the parts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

   Conversation<\/h2>\n

   Social media marketing is so powerful because it gives voice and personality to a brand. There\u2019s nothing as bad as a lifeless Twitter or Facebook account. You know the sort: they occupy a niche so all they do is tweet\/post about how they are best at it or how you should buy from them.<\/p>\n

   \n

   This is promotion done right!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

   Social media marketing works as a relationship builder.Even if you represent a brand and are hidden behind a company logo, you still have every opportunity to establish a voice<\/strong>. Be funny or charming or conversational.<\/p>\n

   Quick tips:<\/p>\n

   \n
   1. Check your mentions a couple of times a day. Only 51% of social media marketers do. Bad move! 69% of users expect a response within a couple of hours.<\/li>\n
   2. Respond quickly.<\/li>\n
   3. Don\u2019t respond to negative comments.<\/li>\n
   4. Ignore trolls entirely.<\/li>\n
   5. Use monitoring and listening tools e.g. FollowerWonk to figure out your optimal times to be posting. It makes sense: there\u2019s not much point coming up with a clever post at 3am when no one will see it.<\/li>\n
   6. Don\u2019t be afraid to \u2018like\u2019 your own stuff if no one else has. It\u2019s usually encouragement for someone else and it\u2019ll pop you back to the top of the timeline.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Community<\/h2>\n

      If you can forge an online community, then your company is in for a massive boost.<\/p>\n

      A community doesn\u2019t just happen, it evolves.<\/strong> But how?<\/p>\n

      \n
      1. Be engaging. Talk to people. Don\u2019t be afraid to hop on a trend and join in. That\u2019s how everyone got started.<\/li>\n
      2. Share knowledge. Learning happens from experts and peers around shared interests.<\/li>\n
      3. Use every connection you\u2019ve got. Be shameless about it!<\/li>\n
      4. If you\u2019ve got a product, build social into it.<\/li>\n
      5. Keep track of everything. Maybe it\u2019s the digital marketing\/analytics nerd in me, but track everything. Data tells a story all of its own.<\/li>\n
      6. Remember: ENGAGEMENT is far more rewarding than sheer numbers. Get both and you\u2019ll be Justin Bieber in no time.<\/li>\n
      7. Advertise. In 2013, 6.1 billion was spent on social media advertising. We\u2019ll be doing a round-up of social media marketing and advertising in the coming weeks. We can\u2019t have this blog post turning into a book, now can we?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

         Connections<\/h2>\n

         Connections\/PR\/leads are the entire point of social media marketing.<\/strong> There\u2019s no real point shouting into the abyss if you\u2019re not getting anything back from it. Take a step back and consider what you\u2019re doing and why it\u2019s not working for you if that\u2019s the case.<\/p>\n

         What\u2019s the best way to leverage your social media marketing into a real, viable thing?<\/h3>\n

         \n
         1. Turn that online rapport into an offline one. Meet up with that business person you\u2019ve been suggesting coffee to for a few weeks. Go ahead. Have that coffee. Talk business. Make plans!<\/li>\n
         2. Don\u2019t just take. If a connection generates leads, do the same in return where possible.<\/li>\n
         3. Add value to the community you belong to. As much as you\u2019re there to be noticed, it\u2019ll only happen if you are valuable. Make people laugh, be smart, be useful and you\u2019ll be heard. Slowly but surely, you may even become an all-hallowed influencer.<\/li>\n
         4. It\u2019s not about you<\/strong>. It\u2019s about your customers\/leads\/followers, etc. Provide the best user experience possible.<\/li>\n
         5. People are at the heart of every successful social media campaign. Remember Batkid and the Dove Real Beauty campaign? Exactly.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            <\/div>\n

            How\u2019s that for a bit of optimism on a Wednesday?<\/p>\n

            Batkid\u00a0seems an appropriate way to wrap this post\u00a0up. Realistically, unless you\u2019re a very special company doing wonderful things, you won\u2019t make a Batkid video. But! Use the 4 cs and you will see the effectiveness of your social media marketing campaign dramatically increase. Approach it with the attention and care it deserves and you\u2019ll reap the benefits.<\/p>\n

            Don\u2019t have the time or the inclination? Get in touch and we\u2019ll do it for you. How was that for a smooth call-to-action? In the meantime, think we\u2019ve missed anything? Tell us as much on Twitter!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

            Please follow and like us:<\/span><\/div>

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            It\u2019s very easy to distil social media marketing down to something it isn\u2019t. There\u2019s a lot more to social media marketing than posting stuff to\u00a0Twitter and Facebook. That\u2019s before we even consider paid advertising. Social media marketing is a vital part of every digital marketing strategy and it is entirely instrumental to your content distribution. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nuamarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nuamarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nuamarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nuamarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nuamarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nuamarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95,"href":"https:\/\/www.nuamarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions\/95"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nuamarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nuamarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nuamarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nuamarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}