Bring your social media strategies up to speed with this useful list of unique tips.
When it comes to helping you out with social media, we often like to categorize things. For example, we’d write about the optimal timing of your posts, or how to come up with the best headlines, and the like.
What happened over the last few weeks though is that we collected a number of awesome tips to post on social media, that didn’t quite all fit together. So we thought, why not create a list of unique tips, that might not have that much in common, but are hopefully still very useful for you!
So, here we go, a list of six rather random social media tips to help you improve your marketing today:
1. Stop making the most common Twitter mistake
Here’s a quick tip about a mistake that is made all the time on Twitter. In a HubSpot post, Jay Acunzo was kind enough to offer up his own experience with this for us to learn from. Here’s Jay’s Tweet, which he used as an example:
The mistake is an easy one to miss, but it all comes down to the very start of the Tweet. Starting a Tweet with a username (this one starts with @HubSpot) means that only the sender, the person mentioned and anyone who follows them both will see it.
In this case, Jay and HubSpot will both see the Tweet in their timelines, and anyone who happens to follow both Jay and HubSpot will see it in their timelines. Of course, anyone who scrolls through Jay’s whole Twitter profile would see it as well, but we want to focus on getting your Tweets into the timelines of your followers.
So, how do we solve this? If you really want to start your Tweet with a username, add a period to the beginning, like this:
So next time you want to Tweet about someone, don’t forget to add a period at the beginning if you want all of your followers to see it!
2. Schedule your updates to post just before or after the hour
Convince & Convert founder Jay Baer shared a great tip in this Social Media Examiner post for scheduling your updates at just the right time. For example:
Meeting is scheduled from 1-2 pm. Meeting lets out slightly early at 1:57 pm, and attendees check Twitter on the way back to their desk. Meeting goes a little long, and that dip into social media occurs at 2:03 pm.
Jay also makes a note that scheduling Tweets around common lunch and dinner times (if you can—time zones can make this a bit difficult) is a good way to make sure more of your posts are seen.
3. Follow or favorite all people retweeting your articles to grow your audience
Just by monitoring mentions of my username, I can find people who are interested in the posts I write, and then quickly follow them or favorite their Tweet. This is a good way to gather more followers who enjoy your content.
You can also use a Twitter search to find people who aren’t mentioning you by name. Try searching for your website’s name or URL, your full name and any specific keywords or hashtags that you use. If you don’t have time to reply to all of the matching Tweets, a quick favorite can help you make contact with those users.
Being able to get more Twitter followers with a number of tips that simply show gratitude are my favorite, since they’re completely non-intrusive and build on your previous efforts.
4. Keep an eye on Facebook’s changing guidelines
Facebook has had some pretty strict guidelines for running promotions on your Page in the past, and it’s always a good idea to make sure you’re not in breach of any of them. Check them out here: Facebook guidelines. Being in the know of Facebook’s policies is crucial, especially as they’re changing things so often and frequently.
5. Add a complete business address to FB so people can check in
If you have a local business, or you manage the Facebook Page for one, this tip can improve engagement. If you add a full address in your Page’s settings, your fans and local visitors can check-in to your business on Facebook. You’ll need to make sure your Page is registered as a local business in the business type section for this to work, so it’s not for everyone. If you are a local business though, why not take advantage of this feature!
6. Get more YouTube subscribers with this pop-up
For those of you who use YouTube as a main marketing channel, this is a great tip. It’s a really simple, easy way to increase subscribers to your channel. Add a small light-box pop-up to your YouTube page, encouraging visitors to subscribe. All it takes is adding this extra bit of text to the end of your YouTube URL whenever you share it:
http://www.youtube.com/user/S2Games?sub_confirmation=1
Pretty easy, right? What other social media tips do you have that I missed? Let us know in the comments.
