Untweeps: a free tool to help you remove dead wood from your Twitter account.
A short guide to making social media work for you
Target audience: Marketing professionals, PR pros, brand managers, businesses, educators, Web publishers, journalists.
For business owners and marketers, social media is much more than just a place to post pictures of your kids and gripe about politics. For us, it’s a powerful tool that brings customers closer and keeps them coming back. It can, however, also be a tedious time drain that wastes precious resources or that can even damage your online reputation.
A few key hacks, however, can make social media the jet fuel in your online marketing strategy. Follow this guide to making social media work for you.
Connections are key
1Remember when you only had a MySpace or Friendster page to worry about, at most? That was great, wasn’t it? If we’re using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and a dozen other social media platforms that all serve different purposes and draw different demographics, when will we have any time to work?
The key is connections. Link all of your accounts. When you take a pic on Instagram, push it through to your other platforms. Link your Twitter and Facebook so your tweets wind up in your news feed. Connectivity is key to saving time.
Pick your moments
2Generally, Twitter is more active on weekdays in the morning before most people get to work, around noon when people break for lunch, and again in the early evening when they get home. Go in even deeper with resources like PostPlanner. Apps like these find out when your specific followers are most active and suggest you tweet then.
Get help
3Social media platforms have third-party apps that spring up constantly to enhance your experience with that specific social media site. Use UnTweeps to clear the dead wood of inactive followers. Use the unique “seed” system of Twiends to categorize your Twitter feed and promote your business to a specific audience.
Don’t over-automate
4There are a million programs that automate your Twitter and other social media updates. They get the right info out at the right times of day. They’re also, however, obvious. There is a fine line between spamming and having bots autotweeting on your behalf. Walk it carefully.
Don’t buy followers
5It’s better to have more followers than fewer – unless you bought them. The secret is out. Anyone can buy followers. If you follow 28 people on Twitter, have 93,000 followers, and aren’t a celebrity, something is fishy. It doesn’t impress anyone. It’s obvious what you’re doing, it looks contrived, and it makes you come off as a swindler who’s trying to sell an image of himself that doesn’t exist.
Keep them separated
6You have a Facebook page and you have a Twitter account. You also have a business. Don’t mix the two. Your business needs its own Facebook account and its own Twitter handle. People looking for your business should not stumble over pictures of you spilling eggnog on your bad Christmas sweater because you update your business and personal life in the same place.
Thank them
7Use Facebook and Twitter to thank your customers by name. People love getting @ mentions on Twitter and getting tagged in posts on Facebook. By using the public platform that is social media to engage your customers in a positive way, you show all of your other friends and followers that you care about your customers.
Bring traffic to your business with social media marketing.
There are literally billions of people on social media networks. Most of them aren’t potential customers — but many are, and they’re there for the taking. Unlike virtually every inferior business marketing tool that came before, Twitter and Facebook are free. Social media can drive traffic to your website, drive dollars toward your business, and provide you with a gateway of communication with your customers unlike any the world has ever seen. Use it and make it your own.
Thanks for the guest post, Andrew, good tips!