UPDATED social media stats as of 2019.
The number of social media users increased by 176 million in one year according to an article at Social Media Today. Kadie Regan, Social Media Executive for iSocialUK, says “it has become clear that social media really is #TheFutureOfMarketing.” In addition to a website and traditional marketing, solopreneurs and small businesses need to build a strong brand using focused social media and content marketing strategies.
It can be overwhelming to manage your social media marketing while starting and growing a business. It takes a lot of time and effort. If you choose to focus your time on your business, you may want to invest in having someone manage your social media marketing.
Here are some of the strategies we at Ausoma implement to set social media platforms on fire:
- Make quality connections. Susan Gunelius, CEO of KeySplash Creative Inc. in an Entrepreneur article states, “It’s better to have 1,000 online connections who read, share and talk about your content with their own audiences than 10,000 connections who disappear after connecting with you the first time.” Focus on connections with people who are specifically interested in your message.
- Consistently deliver content using systems. Consistent posting is vital. If you don’t share anything for a week or a month, your audience may stop following you altogether. We follow John Lee Dumas’ advice: “One of the best ways to grow your following and increase engagement on social media is to be there consistently. The first step is to put the right systems in place to keep your posts relevant, interesting and valuable for your audience.” Our team has specific processes they follow to ensure that valuable messages go out to your audience on a regular, consistent schedule.
- Create and implement content marketing strategies. We analyze drafted blog posts and ensure they each have appropriate images and SEO, including titles, keywords, and descriptions. We create several messages for each post and push them out on all social networks over an extended period of time.
- Share content from other sources. If you want your audience to share your content, you need to share from other sources also. We monitor our client’s social media accounts, regularly share and retweet relevant content published by others, and thank followers when they share and retweet.
- Create a consistent appearance and descriptions across all networks.
- Track your results and adjust strategies. Keep track of how many connections you have on each network and how many website visits come from social media links. Determine which networks drive the most traffic to your website and adjust strategies as needed. If you are outsourcing your social media marketing, ask your team to provide a monthly analytics report tracking the increase in website hits and social media connections and has a monthly phone call with each client to discuss adjusting strategies.
It takes time and effort to regularly and consistently create the quality content and personal touch of a top-notch social media presence.