Strategy

Mar 03

5 Tips for Stagnating Social Media Strategies

image credit to rostock.de

You started out with an awesome social media strategy, one that you just knew was going to bring in all sorts of traffic. And it did. But then it all stopped . . . you haven’t changed anything, but the traffic isn’t increasing and your followers have stopped growing. Now what?

A stagnating social media strategy is one that needs some tweaking. The very nature of social marketing demands constant changes in the way we do things. In fact, if you continue to do the exact same thing all the time, you’ll find that you hit a plateau after a while, where nothing really goes forward.

To help you prevent this common problem, here are a few tips:

1. Re-evaluate your target market. Maybe you’ve saturated the existing market and need to branch out. It can be worth taking a second look at your target market and see whether or not you need to adjust your aim. You might need to reach some other people, as well, in order to continue growing.

2. Try something new. If you’ve only used text until now, why not try making a relevant video and sharing it? Sometimes just the excitement of doing something new can draw in more followers and interested potential clients. It’s certainly worth a try. Contests, video, audio and free reports are all excellent methods of giving your readers a bit of a boost.

3. Add a social media account. Once you’ve become familiar with Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, it might be time to add another network to the mix. Reaching out to a new area will help increase the number of people you come in contact with, as well as increase the visitors to your site.

4. Be more active. Sometimes you just need to be a bit more approachable and that often happens by upping the amount of time you spend on social media. Even increasing by ten minutes a day can have some great effects and get you out of that rut.

5. Make a plan. Do you have a plan as to what you’re going to do each day on social media? If not, take a look at your goals and then decide what you need to be doing every single day. Don’t be vague, make notes on specific topics to cover, etc.

There’s so much you can do with social media to promote your business, but if you’re finding that you’re stuck, then it’s time to change things up a little. Re-evaluate where you are and what you’re doing with your marketing and come up with a better plan that will allow you to get out of the rut and start growing again.

Mar 01

Social Media Metrics You Need to Pay Attention To

Intermediate Track, Social Media Classroom 3 Comments »

image credit to hair website

Ok, it’s Monday and some of us question why we even exists at the beginning of the week. Imagine then what some of our clients ask us on Mondays. Here are some answers! If you’re using social media as a promotional tool, it makes sense that you’ll need to monitor a few specifics in order to know if it’s working or not. Most businesses just look at the amount of traffic that is coming in from those sites that they are using for promotion, but they fail to check other very important areas.

So, what should you be paying attention to? Here are a few tips:

How long the visitors stay. If someone comes through a link on Twitter, but clicks away before your page has a chance to load, it’s not going to do you a lot of good. You want people to stick around. A common reason that visitors leave quickly is because your website wasn’t waht they were looking for, so make sure you are nice and clear about what you do on social media sites.

Whether they bother to share your content. In an ideal world, you’d be able to enjoy viral reposting on every single blog post you write. In the real world, you might not get that very often. However, by writing viral content and promoting it the right way, you’ll have a far better chance of getting others to spread the word about your business.

How many people answer the call to action. Your site should have a call to action, be that to sign up for your newsletter or make a purchase. You need to track the number of visitors from social media to see what the conversion rates are like. This is an area that can always use improvement, so keep tweaking your social media strategy and see where you can go with it.

Who’s talking about you and what they’re saying. Keep a running search for your business name and check it frequently. Google Alerts is a great way to do this and keep track of who has been talking about your company. You should find out what people are saying. If it’s good, you’re fine, but if they are badmouthing you, it’s time to look for a solution and a way to deal with those who are having a hard time with your business.

Staying on top of your social media presence is vital if you want to make sure that you are doing things right. If you see a decline in conversion rates, for example, you can adjust your networking strategy to make sure that you get the publicity necessary to boost the number of visitors and to increase conversion rates, as well.

Happy Monday

Tagged with: Social Media • Strategy

Oct 20

How to Stay Focused On Twitter

Intermediate Track, Social Media Classroom 3 Comments »

Twitter is arguably one of the most popular social networking sites around and has enjoyed increasing popularity over the past year, as more and more celebrities get into the spirit. Despite only having 144 characters to work with, many Twitter users are adept at getting their message out. However, there can be a lot of distractions there, as well.

From people tweeting their favorite links, photos and even playing online games through their tweets, there is more than enough to keep you busy doing everything but what you should be working on. Not to mention the chat factor. With the ability to talk to hundreds or even thousands of people at a time, it’s extremely easy to find yourself spending entirely too much time on Twitter.

So, how do you manage to stay focused while still using one of the most powerful social media sites around?

Set a time limit. If you have a limited time to use Twitter each day, chances are you’ll avoid being sucked into inane conversations or looking at pictures of someone’s new television. Use a timer to make sure you keep accurate track.
Tweet regularly throughout the day. In conjunction with the time limit, you can try to tweet 3-6 times a day for 5 min. each time. This lets you stay in regular communication with others, but doesn’t give you enough time to get too distracted.
Get rid of useless tweets. Are you getting a ton of automated tweets from someone you follow? Dump them. You don’t need to bother with following people who aren’t even going to contribute to the conversation, so get them off your Twitter timeline and stay focused.
Use a program to stay organized. There are many applications that can help you manage Twitter better, but one of the best for managing multiple interests and conversation streams is TweetDeck or even the one I use Seesmic. By setting up various columns for your different Twitter searches, you’ll find that you can stay much better organized.
Make a social media plan. By writing down what your goals are and keeping them nearby, you’ll be able to stick to getting results on Twitter. You should know exactly how you’re going to reach those social media goals and then execute the plan.

Twitter can be a huge distraction and for this reason many people don’t use it. There’s no reason to miss out on an excellent way to gain more publicity, however. You’ll find that you get far better results if you start with a plan, put it into action and limit the amount of time that you use Twitter, to keep things moving.

What are your tips for not wasting time on Twitter?

Tagged with: focus • plan • Social Media • Strategy • tweet • twitter