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6 Tips to Increase Your Social Media Marketing Success

If you want to improve your social media marketing, you'll want to implement all or some of the best tips used by successful companies.

#1 Add Hashtags That are Related

Make your posts instantly recognizable to your followers/fans use a hashtag ties to your product or brand. Use the same hashtag consistently. For example, Samsung uses the hashtag #samsungtips anytime it shares product information. You can create a dozen or so hashtags that you use. Assign each to a specific type of post.

#2 Build Communities That are Branded

According to a recent Facebook announcement in 2015 users are going to see fewer posts on their newsfeeds that are promotional. They recommend that instead brands take the time to build communities on their websites where they can offer followers bonuses that aren't available elsewhere. In this manner you can effectively control the content your followers see while offering them incentives.

#3 Create a Regular YouTube Posting

Video is a key component in every social media strategy and you should add a new video to your YouTube channel on a regular basis. Top brands will add around 8 new videos every 14 days that are on average just over 3 minutes long. So, you see they don't have to be long and time consuming, but they do have to be consistently presented.

#4 For Your Events Create a Facebook Cover

Did you know you have prime real estate on Facebook? If you answered no, you aren't alone. Many don't see their cover photo for the important role it plays. You can leave your cover photo the same all the time to create consistency and brand recognition or you can change it on a regular basis to promote events, sales, season changes, etc. Think of your cover photo as a billboard that reaches your audience.

#5 Fullfill the Requests of Your Followers

Today's customers depend on social media for product support. It's important that you check your Twitter notifications and Facebook pages often so you can provide a timely response to any questions or comments. Quickly replying will have a very positive effect on your business.

#6 Regularly Evaluate How You Approach Your Social Media

What works for one business might not work for another. What works for one product may not work for another. That's why you should evaluate how you approach your social media on a regular basis. Know whether your approach is working or not.

Maximize Your Pinterest Marketing

Are you looking to get more pins and repins? Do you want more traffic? Do you want to see your pins pinned more often? Here are some excellent tips to help you maximize your Pinterest marketing.

#1 Make Sure You Include the Pin It Button

Take advantage of Pinterest's free widget to add a 'Pin It' button to your Tumblr, WordPress, etc. images. You can also add the widget to your Android or iOS app. You can customize it and it's easy to get it up and working.

It makes it much easier for your visitors to share the content you have posted. They just have to click the button and choose which board they want to pin it to. Simple translates to more posts. You should keep track of the images that you use for your pin it button to see which ones do the best. It's a proven fact that the 'Pin It' button will increase your pins.

#2 Create Pin Descriptions for Your Visitors

Visitors want simple and seamless. If you want to increase your repins and pins then give them that by pre-populating pin descriptions for them. Make sure your description is inspiring and interesting. Avoid those generic descriptions nobody reads or wants to post. Take advantage of the description space and watch your repins grow.

#3 Do What Pinners Do

If you want to be sure that your custom pin descriptions are used and that your pin buttons are taken advantage of, then you need to do what pinners do. Watch and learn. Checkout what pinners are doing and saying. Are they using keywords? Which ones? Are they promoting brands or giving helpful advice? The insight you gain from pinners can be very helpful in ensuring success for you.

#4 Take Your Popular Pins and Show Them Off!

Why not showcase your most popular pins? When your visitors pin your images, what they are saying is what you have to offer, your product, matters to them. Because of this trending images have become a good way to predict what will be most engaging on your site. You can leverage the best performing pins by sorting your images by the number of interactions and creating a top pin board on your Pinterest account.

Put these 4 tips into practice on your Pinterest account and you'll get to enjoy the benefits real soon.

4 Things You Should Do With Social Media

If you want to get the most out of your social media campaigns you should incorporate these 4 things.

#1 Optimize YouTube Videos

The second largest search engine next to Google is YouTube. If you want the best exposure you need to make sure that you optimize your YouTube video titles and descriptions with your keywords. For Example, Nike Runners would be detailed using a strong introductory sentence that focuses on your keyword Nike runners.

#2 Daily by Buffer

If you aren't familiar with 'Daily by Buffer' then it's time you were. If you want a quick way to find new content and then share it with your audience this is it. This free iOS app is the creation of Buffer who is one of the most used social media management and scheduling tools. Buffer makes it easy to share content with its latest app.

#3 Value Your Fans Taking Time to Vote

There are tons of ways you can use social media to discover more about your audience. Creating a poll where you ask your followers to vote is one way and it's a good way. Asking your followers for their opinion is a win-win because you gain information you need and your followers feel like they have a say.

#3 All You Want is a Wish List

Social media is a great way to tap into your audiences needs and to encourage them to add something to their wish list. This call to action helps excite your customers about something you are offering. It's a tool that you really should learn to use to its fullest ability.

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Chapter 4: Creating High Quality, Effective E-Mails

Once you've put all that work into creating a mailing list and growing it to include thousands of e-mails, the next step is to actually send out great quality e-mails that your subscribers will actually read and that will help to drive sales. Otherwise, the entire exercise has been pointless.

Writing great quality e-mail copy in many ways is just the same as writing any good content - and all the same rules of engaging and persuasive writing apply. At the same time though, there will also be some considerations that are unique to the format. Let's take a look at both.

Writing Engaging Copy

The goals of your newsletters/e-mails should be the same as the goals of your blog posts. This is content marketing and as such you want to provide real value in your content that builds the trust of your visitors. This means sharing useful and actionable advice in a way that's entertaining - such that they will be more likely to trust you when you deliver your service and that they will be more likely to want to open your next e-mail.

To achieve this, consider the following things:

Tone: The tone of your e-mails is going to depend largely on the nature of your niche/industry and of course a B2B company will use a much more professional tone than a single blogger. With that said, remember that e-mail is the method that most of us use to converse with friends and we generally expect a more conversational tone as a result. Talk as though you're talking to a friend and take advantage of the more personal format of an e-mail versus a blog post. This will help you with building trust too.

Getting to the Point: Most people who are checking their e-mails will be in a hurry. This is just an unfortunate fact of life that you need to take into account when you write your copy. Remember they have a thousand other things they need to be doing and don't have time for your waffle - get to the point quickly, or tease the value of your message early on in the message.

Uniqueness: Top ten posts of the best exercises and great apps have been done to death. If you want people to read your content then you need to offer something that no-one else is offering. Provide exclusive information, in-depth guides, powerful tips and stimulating debate. Remember that these people have asked for more of your content - so give them the VIP treatment and make sure they're getting your very best stuff.

Of course you also need to ensure that your content is well-written, as near-to-error-free as possible and generally effective at showing you in a good light. If you don't consider yourself a good writer then hire someone that is!

Subject Headings

The most important part of your e-mails though is undoubtedly the subject heading. Remember we said earlier that 1/3rd of consumers decide whether or not to read their e-mails based on the subject heading alone - so make yours stand out as compelling.

Now you might be expecting me to list a number of 'tricks' you can use to get people to open their e-mails here. Many bloggers and 'gurus' advise writing subject headings with 'Re:' in the title so that people think they're responses to previous e-mails, others might advocate asking for the reader's 'help' with something.

Do these strategies work in getting people to open e-mails? Sure they do. But they also frustrate and aggravate readers, they damage any trust you've built and they prevent them from opening future e-mails.

So what do you do instead? Simple: you use compelling titles that describe the value of the content within. This is just the same as writing titles for your blog posts. If you can tell your readers what you're offering and why they should listen and if they're genuinely interested in the subject, then they will want to read more.

Note: As a final tip, make sure you are sending your e-mails regularly but not so regularly that you get on everyone's nerves. Try to stick largely to a routine of once a week or once a month and get to the point where your readers are actively looking forward to getting your mails.

Chapter 5: Monetization

Finally, you need to ensure that you're monetizing your mailing list and that it's actually providing a return on investment.

The number one way to do this is by promoting your products and services regularly in each message. Again, most people will ignore that promotion the first and second time but as they come to know you and respect your opinion, they will become increasingly likely to bite.

Of course once you've built this trust there are then tried and tested ways of capitalizing on that work. Here your objective is to motivate your captive audience to go from loyal readers to buyers and this requires a little 'nudge' with perfect timing.

The good news is that once someone has bought from you once, they become much more likely to do so again in the future. The reason for that is that they'll have overcome any uncertainty they have about dealing with you, their details will likely be saved with your checkout system and buying again will require much less of a psychological hurdle as a result.

So how do you give that 'nudge' that will make first time buyers out of your readers?

Calls to Action

The most important factor in your strategy here is your call to action. Each message that you're intending to sell from needs to feature a message at some point which should tell people why they should take action and then make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

An example might sound something like this:

But why wait? Click PRE-ORDER now and you can be among the first to take advantage of this great offer!

Or

See why so many customers choose COMPANY/PRODUCT NAME. Click BUY now and get your hands on this fantastic product!

Removing Barriers to Sale

Included in your call-to-action should be a direct link to your checkout page which should be designed to make it as easy as possible for people to enter their details and secure a purchase.