This guest post is by Drew Hudson, of Grovo.com.
Social media is now more popular than porn on the internet. I know, I know. I didn’t believe it either. Standing out in the fray that is social media can be as mystifying as it is necessary.
Knowing what sites to promote your business on, and how to manage them all isn’t easy. At Grovo, an online learning platform that trains people on leading cloud apps, social media tools and Internet trends, we put together the top 10 tips that will help make your social efforts not only more manageable but also more streamlined.
1. GET TO KNOW THE A/S/L OF YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA BFFs
If you don’t know who your fans are, you won’t know what content to publish. Posting the wrong content will help you lose likes instead of drive them. The “people” tab will help you better understand the users who share and engage with your page’s content. Here you can view key demographic data of your fans and how they engage (or don’t) your posts. Learn what types of posts get seen and shared the most along with optimal post times. You can also see check-in, age, sex, and location comparison reports, and detailed explanations.
This video will help you better understand how you can get to know your fans better, in order to target them with the right content and drive likes:
2. GIVE YOUR VIRAL VIDEOS A FACEBOOK AND TWITTER SHOUTOUT
One of the major differences between regular SEO and video SEO is the social aspect, particularly on YouTube. Video SEO relies almost wholly on the number of views and shares. Because Google owns YouTube, they have much more information about what happens there than what happens anywhere else on the Web. Adding a social call to action and having viewers share the video with their friends and networks will help your video get more views. As Google Plus becomes more and more prevalent, it’s going to be important to see Google Plus shares on all videos. This social sharing can help your video rank for the title of the video, even in regular search results. Video is competitive in search results because buzz on videos is easy for Google to track. This Grovo video shows you how to connect your social media accounts on YouTube
3. IT’S OK TO LET OTHERS SEE YOUR GOOGLE
Google Places for Business allows you to manage the information Google displays about your business in search results, your Google+ profile page, your Adwords account, and Google offers all from a single dashboard making your presence on Google uniform and more professional.
To get started on Google Places for Business, go to google.com/places and click “Get started for free.” Log in with your Google Account or Google apps username and password. In the popup, choose whether you’d like to be notified about future release information, agree to the terms of service, and hit “Okay, got it!”
Type your business name, location information, business phone number, and business type. On the next page, verify your account to prove you really own the address, or “Continue and verify later.”Note that your page won’t be displayed on Google until you verify it. Next, click “Edit information” and add your business’s hours, a description, and photos. Your changes will be saved automatically.
4. THIS ISN’T ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, IT’S OK TO PAY FOR FRIENDS
Setting up your Twitter ads account allows you to promote your brand or company through Twitter. To sign up, go to ads.twitter.com and sign in with your brand’s Twitter account.
Once you get started, add the locations and interests of people you’d like to target. Under “More targeting options” you will be able to better precisely and accurately you target your ads. If you do this, the more likely it is that someone who views it will click on it, so choose carefully. Check out the video for setup instructions.
5. BADGES AREN’T JUST FOR SELLING COOKIES ANYMORE
While tips can be a good way to reach people passively, gamifying (yes it’s a word) your social media with badges takes the interaction one step further and actually draw people to the places you designate. Badges act as social incentives that are attainable by checking in at different locations that are connected by a certain theme. For example, Zagat’s offers a foodie badge to users who check in at five Zagat rated restaurants and VH1 offers the fanatic badge for users who have checked in at three music venues.
Unlike the other features of Foursquare’s brand pages, partner badges have a fee, which varies, and they must be submitted for approval. Foursquare looks for “check-in ubiquity” when evaluating your submission, so aim to create a campaign accessible to residents of multiple cities. Make the redemption process unique and exciting. Have a clear link between what users will be doing and what they will unlock. Your campaign is more likely to succeed if you market or promote it outside of Foursquare. More guidelines for badges are available on the Foursquare.com/business/brands page. Successful applicants usually hear back within two weeks, and it will take an additional six to eight weeks before your campaign is ready to launch.
6. WHY HAVE A BLOG IF IT’S FYEO?
Promoting a Tumblr blog post allows you to pay for your posts to have better placement in front of your audience or highlights a post to stand out on users’ dashboards.From the post creation page, click “Promote this post” then select either “Pin this post” for $5 or “Highlight this post” for $2.
When you pin a post, it remains pinned to the top of your followers’ dashboards until they remove the pin. Highlighting a post means the post will have a glow around it to stand out from other posts, and include a tag to the right of the post.
Select a message for the tag using the dropdown below, after you select the “Highlight this post” radio button. Select the icon and color to the right. If you’ve already entered your credit card information, you can either confirm the payment, change your card, or cancel the order. Otherwise, type in your credit card information and click “Next” or use PayPal to pay for your promoted post.
7. PIN THE TAIL ON YOUR COMPANY
Pinterest now allows businesses to have official accounts. These accounts allow companies to more effectively interact with their audiences on Pinterest.
By visiting business.pinterest.com, you can either create a new business profile or convert an existing profile to a business account. To create a new business profile, click “Join as a business.” You’ll then be prompted to fill out a form with such information as: your business type; your contact info and password; the business name and logo; and a description and website.
Business accounts, you only need to provide a single name, rather than first and last name with personal accounts. To convert an existing profile, select “Convert your Existing Account” on the Pinterest Business page. Log in to your account, provide the required information, accept the terms of service and click “Convert Account.” After creating or converting your account, you’ll see a Get Started page that can help you Verify your website, install a pinterest widget on your site, drive traffic back to your site, and grow your audience.
8. TRACK YOUR MOST POPULAR LINKEDIN UPDATES
LinkedIn page analytics allow you to keep track of which of your company’s updates are the most popular,and see how your LinkedIn page has grown over time. To access your company’s analytics page, go to your company’s page, then click “Analytics” at the top. Here, you’ll see your company’s most recent updates, with more information about each post to the right. To better understand your LInkedIn Reach, Engagement, Clicks, Likes, COmments, Shares, Range AND More… Grovo’s 1minute LInkedIn Analytics Overview will help:
9. HAVE A SOCIAL MEDIA LOVE TRIANGLE
You don’t need to be faithful to just Twitter or Facebook. Expand your social media identity to the networks that make sense for you business. But be aware juggling all of them could burn you. Use HootSuite to post to multiple networks at once and save your sanity.
First, select the profiles you want to send this message to in the box to the right of the compose box at the top of any page. You can select as many profiles as you have connected. Deselect a profile by clicking its icon again. Click into the “Compose” window and type the message you want to send.You can type up to the most lenient character limit of the networks that you selected. You’ll see each limit decrease to the bottom left as you type.
If you exceed the limit of one of your networks, the number will turn red and go into the negatives. This lets you know how much of your message will be cut off with an ellipsis on that network. Click the location icon to add location data to your message, and the lock to adjust your privacy settings. Click “Send Now,” and your message will be posted to all the profiles you selected.
10. PEOPLE LIKE YOU IF YOU COST LESS
Social sales and promotions is a great way to reach your customers without expensive coupon inserts, and an easy way to make your customers look like they know something special and brag to their friends about it (WOM!) Creating an offer on your Facebook Page allows you to promote a sale you’re having on your product or service, either online or at your store’s physical location, to all of your Facebook fans. Everyone likes a deal, and everyone likes to be in the know. When a Facebook fan claims your offer, it’s easy for them to share the deal with their friends. The only catch is your page must have at least 100 likes to create an offer.
To create and schedule an offer, Grovo’s latest Facebook tutorial video has you covered:
———
About the Author
Drew Hudson is a Product Analyst and Writer for Grovo Learning, Inc. specializing in social media, cloud computing, and mobile apps. Since the turn of the decade, he has entrenched himself in the evolution of Web services and digital strategies and is an authority on the business impact of new Internet tools and trends. He writes several tutorial scripts each day, with tips on how to better use the Internet, and is a lead writer for the Grovo Blog. Besides keeping up with what’s going on in the tech world and writing about it, Drew loves music, sports, and exploring the best of everything New York has to offer.
