Here are some must-incorporate ideas to grow your social media presence and clout, and your followers for any size firm and individual in any industry.
- Only focus on the social platforms where your clients and prospects are (don’t waste your time thinking you need to be on all of the social channels – it’s better to do two channels really well than four channels just okay)
- Incorporate video and podcasts into your social strategy
- Never sell yourself or be boastful in a post – just be helpful and provide value
- Post consistently and often (once a day)
- Post at the right time (in the morning, lunch time and between 4 and 7pm). Skip Monday mornings and Friday afternoons as well as weekends for the most part when it comes to business content.
- Invest in a content syndicator like JD Supra to extend the reach of your content
- Repurpose your content (each piece of content can become 3-6 different posts)
- Inject your personality into your posts – BE YOU!
- Engage with your followers’ comments
- Be generous by posting about others – share their content, like and comment on their posts (give back)
- Use an editorial calendar to plan out your posts
- Use hashtag holidays to fill in your content schedule
- Find a niche (even if you can do everything, you can’t be everything to everyone)
- Share only value-added content – if you share award or matter wins, write it in a client-centric way
- Use correctly sized visuals to bring posts to life (I use Canva)
- Use (the right) hashtags to become more discoverable
- Find content inspiration from your competitors
- Always link posts back to your web site and use bitly links to track engagement
- Use analytics to refine content and social strategy (track success of posts)
- Include a link to your social accounts in your email signature
- Create products such as infographics, white papers or webinars and brand your company on them
- Use email marketing to supplement your social efforts as it is the most direct way to reach your target audience
I’d love to hear what’s working for you in building your social strategy and followers.