5 Tips for Social Media Marketing Success

Whether you’re a small business who does social media marketing in house or a large brand who outsources it to companies like us, there are some universal pieces of advice that anyone getting their feet wet in social media can benefit from.

Here are 5 tips we hope you’ll find useful for your social media marketing efforts:

1.  Thoroughly explore your options.

When selecting the sites  to target in your social media marketing efforts, it’s easy to fall into the trap of just going after big fish like Facebook and Twitter, simply because they’re more popular.  But smaller, lesser-known social media sites can be huge winners, especially if they cater to a very specific topic or niche audience.  For almost any given topic, you can bet there’s a social media site of some sort dedicated to it, even if it’s just a forum or message board.  What’s more important than getting your message in front of the most eyeballs?  Getting your message in front of eyeballs that are attached to the people who would be most interested in what you’re selling!

2.  Vary your message and approach.

As you begin to market your brand through social media and engage with others, it’s important to tailor your efforts to each site.  If the goal is to get people’s attention, the solution is to interact with users in a manner they can really relate to.  That means customizing your message to the many different audiences and communities you come into contact with, or in other words, to “speak their language.”  Keep in mind, what works for one social site may not necessarily work for all the others.  By varying your approach and trying new things you will begin to see where your successes are as well as where you might need improvement.

3.  Track your efforts with custom URLs.

Don’t be so eager to dive into social media that you forget to include tracking into your campaign!  You don’t need sophisticated web analytics or expensive social monitoring tools.  One of the easiest ways to track your efforts is to incorporate custom, shortened URLs into your campaign.  Not only are shortened URLs trackable, but they also make it easier for others to share your links, encouraging them (hopefully!) to spread the word.  There’s no shortage of free URL-shortening services.  Some of the most popular ones are bit.ly, owl.ly, and the longstanding TinyURL.  Many of these free services provide in-depth stats, such as how many times each link was clicked, and from where.

4.  Seize the moment.

Take advantage of the additional opportunities you encounter from day to day, even if it’s not a part of your initial marketing plan.  Don’t be afraid to veer off the path a little if something interesting comes up.  What’s the hot topic today?  Have you heard about something related in the news?  These types of things can be incorporated into your social media campaign as attention-getters and conversation-starters.  If it relates to your message and people are talking about it, shouldn’t you be a part of that conversation?  It’s important for your strategy to remain flexible enough to seize these types of opportunities and benefit from them.

5.  Remember to “keep it real.”

Lastly, with all social media campaigns, it’s important to be genuine.  Nobody likes shameless self-promotion, and most people can smell an ad a mile away.  Avoid sounding like a “trained parrot.”  In other words, don’t keep repeating the same things over and over again!  If you’re not careful in your approach, at best you might end up being perceived as a spammer.  At worst, you risk being “outted” and could face potentially damaging public ridicule.  We’ve heard plenty of embarrassing social media horror stories over the years; and it always seems the bigger the brand, the bigger the target.  If you’re outsourcing your social media marketing, be sure to set expectations and behavioral ground rules up front.  Be honest, be smooth, but don’t insult people’s intelligence.  An experienced social media marketer will take all of these things into consideration.

Web Ad.vantage has executed successful social media campaigns for a wide range of clients across many different industries.  Our Social Media Marketing services involve meticulous research, planning, and timely execution of our client’s social media campaigns.  We also offer on-site Social Media Optimization to complement our SEO services.

7 Comments »

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   Pingback by links for 2009-10-22 | Glorified Monkey — October 22, 2009 @ 8:38 am

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   Comment by PATRICK SWAN — October 22, 2009 @ 12:30 pm

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