Social media marketing evolved from something only a few cutting-edge brands did to an integral piece of every company's marketing strategy. It's no longer a question of whether or not your brand should be on social media, but how can you best use sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to grow your business.
Choosing Your Social Networks
If social media marketing hasn't been working for you, the problem could be you're focusing on the wrong channels. Set your strategy up for success right out the gate by choosing the best social networks for your brand.
The first mistake many brands make is believing they need to be everywhere. Covering as much ground as possible seems like a good idea, but the reality is you'll likely end up spreading yourself too thin. A better approach is to set your eyes on two or three main social networks, and commit to growing those profiles as much as possible.
Before you get started, take our quiz below, to find the network best fit for your brand based on demographic data and the type of content you'd share.
You want to make sure you can provide value to each network your join. Signing up for the next hot social network just to have an account is almost useless. Choose social media platforms where you can actively participate and consistently create content.
Once you've narrowed down your focus networks, click any of the tabs below to find out how to be successful.
Twitter is one of the first social networks businesses start with. It's simple to setup, has a large audience and is more developed than newer platforms.
Possibly the biggest challenge companies face with Twitter is figuring out a way to stand out on such a noisy network. Thousands of Tweets are sent out every second, so capturing the attention of your followers can be difficult.
How Social Media Marketers Use Twitter
Twitter is an amazing resource for content discovery. When people want to know what's going on in the world or search for content on a particular topic, they go to Twitter. As a result, one of Twitter's main uses for marketers is curation. Twitter makes it easy to share content with the masses, which makes it perfect for marketers.
The other way businesses and social media marketers use Twitter is for communication. Twitter succeeded because it connects consumers with their favorite brands. Instead of sending out thousands of paper surveys or forcing customers to complete online forms, you can head to Twitter to see how customers feel about your brand. It's the top network for social customer service because users can communicate in real time.
Quick Twitter Stats
310 million
monthly active users.
37%
of Twitter users will buy from a brand they follow.
19%
lift in customer satisfaction for companies using Twitter for customer service.
76%
of consumers are likely to recommend a brand after receiving friendly service.
54%
of users surveyed by Twitter reported they had taken action after seeing a brand mentioned in Tweets.
80%
of Twitter users have mentioned a brand in a Tweet.
What to Share
You can Tweet your blog posts, articles from around the web, industry news and more. The key is to share content that's valuable to your audience. You can also share content that promotes your business, but do it sparingly.
If you're lost on what to share, take a look at your competitors. What type of content do they share? Use that as a starting point to build your own strategy. Also keep in mind a majority of your Tweets should be conversational rather than broadcasts. The most effective way to grow your Twitter account is to engage with others.
Keys to Success
Be Consistent
Since Twitter moves quickly, you need to Tweet consistently or your followers will forget about you. Most of your followers won't see your Tweets when you first share them. This means you need to Tweet multiple times throughout the day to increase your visibility. Avoid long periods of inactivity so your profile looks up to date at all times.
Get Visual
According to Twitter, including photos in your Tweets can boost Retweets by 35%. Adding videos can increase them by 28%. In addition to using visuals directly in your Tweets, it's a good idea to setup Twitter cards on your site as well. Whenever you share a link to your blog post, a featured image will be included in the Tweet to make it stand out.
Plan Ahead
Use your social media dashboard to schedule Tweets ahead of time. This will allow you to Tweet outside of regular business hours and keep your timeline active throughout the day. If your brand is new to Twitter, you can't afford to go days without Tweeting because you forgot. When you're building your initial following, being active gives people a chance to build familiarity with you.
Engage
Twitter is all about communication. Reply, like and Retweet other people as often as possible. Engaging will put you on users' radar who otherwise wouldn't have any idea who you are. Whenever you like, mention, Retweet or reply to someone, they receive a notification. They'll see your Twitter handle in the notification and hopefully click through to view your profile.
Have Personality
Nobody wants to follow dull accounts. Even if you're Tweeting on behalf of your company, it should still feel human. Entertaining Tweets entice people to keep following you. In addition to being famous, many celebrities engage on Twitter successfully because they're entertaining. You don't have to go on rants like Kanye West, but infusing your personality into your Tweets can go a long way.
Be Present
We hate to bring up Twitter's fast pace again, but it's a reality. You need to be up to date on what's happening in Twitter world such as trending topics and popular hashtags. Spend time each day looking through what's trending topics and think of ways to join conversations even if they aren't completely related to your industry.
Tactics
Growing your Twitter audience revolves around your ability to engage and share great content. There are no tricks or gimmicks, but these tactics will get you on the right track:
Optimize Your Profile
The purpose of your profile is to showcase what your business is all about. It could be the first time someone sees your brand on Twitter, so you want to make a lasting impression. Fill out your profile completely including an enticing bio that tells people what your business does.
Resource
How Twitter Profiles Can Support Your Marketing Initiative
Follow Influencers
When you first sign up for Twitter, you'll get a list of suggested people to follow. Most of these accounts are celebrities or not specific to your industry. Instead of limiting yourself to these, look up influencers within your industry and follow them. Engage with users on this list at least once a day.
Resource
How to Identify Your Social Media Influencers
Join Twitter Chats
Twitter chats are organized group conversations where a host asks a series of questions to participants. Twitter chats are a great way to network with new people because everyone is there to engage. You can also stand out by hosting your own Twitter chat. Find two or three active Twitter chats and participate in them this week.
Resource
The Ultimate Guide to Twitter Chats
Twitter Ads
Since Twitter can be a little noisy, it's easy for your Tweets to get overlooked. Twitter Ads let you promote your Tweets so they're seen by more people than you can reach organically. If you have the budget, create your first Twitter Ad and run it for at least one week.
Resource
A Beginner's Guide to Twitter Advertising
Get Shoutouts
A good way to grow your Twitter audience is through mentions from other accounts. You can get mentions by building relationships and networking, as well as guest blogging on other sites. When the host site shares your guest post, they may mention your Twitter handle, which gives you great exposure. Find blogs within your industry with an active Twitter following, reach out to them and try to land at least one guest post for the month.
Resource
How to Find the Best Places to Guest Blog
Use Hashtags
Hashtags make it easier for people to discover your Tweets when searching for specific topics or keywords. Make a list of the top 5-10 hashtags in your industry and schedule at least two Tweets a day that incorporate them. Limit yourself to one hashtag per Tweet.
Metrics to Track
Impressions
The number of times your Tweet appeared in a user's search or feed.
Profile Visits
The number of people who have visited your profile.
Mentions
The number of times you have been tagged (@username) by other users.
Tweets Linking to You
The number of Tweets attributed to you in Tweets that include a URL.
Engagement Rate
Your Tweet's engagement (link clicks, Retweets, likes and replies) divided by the number of impressions.
Referral traffic
The number of visitors your website receives from Twitter. You can track this in Google Analytics.
Advertising on Twitter
Twitter Ads allow brands to reach a wider audience than they can reach organically. Instead of fighting to get your message seen, you have the ability to choose the audience you want your sponsored Tweets to be displayed to. But if you're not careful, your campaigns can quickly become a money pit. Follow these tips to run a successful campaign on Twitter Ads:
- Decide on a goal: Do you want to get more followers, drive traffic or generate leads? Your goals will determine what type of ads you run on Twitter.
- Use a proven Tweet: Why start from scratch? If you have a recent Tweet that picked up some traction, put it in front of even more people with a promoted Tweet campaign.
- Pick the perfect audience: The more targeted your audience is, the better your ads will perform. Instead of trying to select the largest audience possible, filter down to users most likely to resonate with your ad.
- Test: One ad isn't enough to determine whether or not Twitter Ads is working. You need to experiment and test different variations of your ad creatives. Adjust the copy, image and audience to find the sweet spot.
Brands to Learn From
- Responds to customer issues quickly.
- Created a customer commitment team to handle support issues on Twitter.
- Increased its followers from 500,000 to over 1 million in three months. (source)
- Includes eye-catching images in its Tweets.
- Launched #AskOrbitz Twitter Chat to engage with followers.
- Started a friendly Twitter feud with rival Priceline that earned massive media attention. (source)
- Uses an authentic and conversational tone in its Tweets.
- Understands its audience on Twitter and caters its content to them.
- Captured the attention of millennials on Twitter with its #watchthestove mixtape campaign. (source)
Facebook is the largest social network, so it makes sense that over 50 million businesses have signed up. Most brands made the initial step of setting up an account, but with shrinking organic reach and a tricky algorithm, many are fighting to stand out and make Facebook work for them.
How Social Media Marketers Use Facebook
The way businesses use Facebook has changed over the years as new features have been released. Aside from sharing articles, Facebook is great for lead generation through ads and video marketing.
Community building is also an important aspect of social media marketing. Facebook Groups are a great way to get started with this. You can make interest groups for your industry, or brand specific groups like our #SproutChat Facebook group.
Remember that it's critical to know how your audience uses Facebook. Most people use it as a way to interact with friends and family. A lot of interesting and entertaining content is shared on Facebook as a result. Creating Facebook-specific content is a great way to improve your chances of success.
Quick Stats
What to Share
Due to Facebook's algorithm, it's difficult to get a lot of organic engagement from simply posting to your timeline. To expand your reach, you need to get other people to share your post with their friends as well.
To do this, the posts you share on Facebook should be "viral" in nature. For instance, list posts, DIY tips and how-to articles tend to perform well. These types of posts usually entice people to share because it's entertaining and engaging. When you're coming up with content ideas for your blog, think of topics you would share on your personal Facebook page and incorporate them into your schedule.
Keys to Success
Add Images
Image posts get 179% more interactions than the average Facebook post. Although Facebook wasn't built on visuals like Instagram or Snapchat, it has become an important part of the network.
Monitor Facebook Insights
Facebook Insights gives you valuable data about who your audience is, what content they're engaging with and how your page is performing.
Facebook Video
Facebook video has exploded recently. Users have watched over 100 million hours of video on Facebook. Videos even outperform photos on the social network. Videos also have 135% greater organic reach than photos. If you want to capture the attention of Facebook users, start using videos.
Don't Be Afraid to Pay
Everyone knows Facebook's organic reach is down. Many of the companies that have had continued success are using Facebook Ads to improve their reach. Facebook Ads are a great option because you get in-depth targeting and the cost is affordable for most businesses.
Tactics
Tag People & Brands
This is a quick tactic most brands completely overlook because it's not as common as Twitter's mention feature. However, you can tag people and pages on Facebook. They'll receive a notification and may come and engage on your post. Choose a week to share blog posts from 5-10 sites in your niche industry with a Facebook presence. Tag their Facebook page in your status update by typing @ and the page's username on Facebook. You can also tag Facebook Groups or individuals.
Resource
9 Facebook Hacks to Grow Your Audience
Comment on Other Pages
Who says you can only post to your own page? Facebook allows brands to comment and reply on other posts, which is an awesome way to engage and spread awareness for your company. Find pages in your industry that post regularly and comment on at least one post every day. Instead of leaving generic comments like "cool," take a couple of minutes to write a genuine comment that adds to the conversation.
Resource
Your Go-To-Guide for Facebook Marketing
Target Organic Posts
Most marketers are aware of Facebook's great ad targeting, but did you know you can also target your organic posts as well? Sprout Social lets you target who your posts are displayed to based on:
- Interests
- gender
- Relationship status
- Educational status
- Age
- Location
- Language
- Resources
Narrowing your audience allows you to share content that's filtered down to your target demographic.
Resource
Your Guide to Social Media Targeting Via Sprout
Use Your CTA Button
In 2014 Facebook unveiled a new call-to-action button for businesses. The button appears on your timeline and you can choose from seven different messages such as "Contact Us" or "Sign Up." Unfortunately there are several businesses that haven't taken advantage of this feature yet. If you're one of them, add a Facebook CTA button to your page.
Metrics to Track
Post Reach
The number of unique people that have seen your page's posts.
Engagement
The number of people who have liked, commented, shared or clicked your posts.
Impressions
The number of times posts from your page are displayed, regardless of whether or not they were clicked.
Unlikes
The number of people who have unliked your page.
Organic Likes
The number of Likes your page has received that are not a result of paid campaigns.
Average % Completion
The portion of a video viewed in an average watch session.
Advertising on Facebook
Facebook has the most robust advertising platform of any social network. It offers advanced targeting, retargeting, custom audience building and much more. The affordable prices make it perfect for companies of any size from small businesses to agencies or enterprise. Improve your chances of success with these tips for Facebook Ads.
- Split test: Facebook Ads makes it easy to create duplicates of your existing ad creatives and edit the headline, copy or image. You can group similar ads together and compare the stats for each variation.
- Choose your image carefully: The image you use in your ad is arguably the most important part. It needs to catch the eye of people browsing Facebook who can sometimes be blind to ads and banners. Avoid using colors like blue, grey and black because they can blend in with Facebook's brand colors.
- Retarget: If you want to dramatically increase the click-through rate of your ads, start retargeting. Retargeting uses a tracking pixel to allow you to display ads to people that have visited your website in the past. Since these visitors are more familiar with your brand, they are 70% more likely to convert with you.
- Analyze: In addition to analyzing which ads perform better, dig deeper and look into which device types convert the best and which demographics have the most success. Use the data to adjust the target audience for your current and future campaigns. Having a more targeted audience will improve your CTR and ultimately drive down your costs.
Brands to Learn From
- Highlights its T-Shirt designers by featuring their designs on its Facebook cover.
- Uses images and videos to keep the page visually appealing.
- Grows its Facebook page by encouraging designers to promote their own designs to their friends. (source)
- Uses Facebook video to creatively showcase its product.
- Its feed is filled with bright and colorful images and video thumbnails that capture your attention.
- Ran a Facebook Ad campaign that reached 30% of Germany's online population and outperformed its own TV campaign. (source)
- Posts consistently.
- Uses eye-catching photos in the feed.
- Increased Facebook clicks 8.5 times with a boosted post campaign. (source)
LinkedIn is known as the social network for business. If you're in the B2B space, LinkedIn is a must. However, even B2C companies can get value from LinkedIn depending on your target audience. Since LinkedIn's audience and purpose is fairly different from most social networks, the way businesses approach it needs to be different as well.
How Social Media Marketers Use LinkedIn
The way you use LinkedIn will depend on your goals. For instance, many companies use it purely for sales, while others rely on it for social recruiting or content curation. LinkedIn is a powerful lead generation platform, especially if you're implementing paid ads.
Other companies use it as a branding platform. With LinkedIn groups and Pulse, brands have a great opportunity to showcase executives and team members as thought leaders and authorities in their industry.
Quick Stats
What to Share
Since the audience on LinkedIn sways toward professionals, the content you share should match. Generally people are on LinkedIn like to see industry related articles, job opportunities or content related to their own groups. The content you share will depend on your goals and how you plan to use LinkedIn. The more industry-specific you can get, the better.
Here are some examples of the type of content you should post on LinkedIn depending on your goals:
- Sales: If your goal is to get leads and sales, your content will primarily be industry articles. Curate quality content to share on your feed.
- PR & recruitment: PR and recruitment content is often related. They both have to do with highlighting your company's culture and achievements. This content should should consist of company news, behind the scenes peeks of your company and other content that shows your brand in a positive light.
- Groups: The content you post in your groups should be specific to that audience, not necessarily your industry. For instance if you're a payroll software com
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