Actionable Social Media Strategies You Can Implement Today

Social media platforms are some of the most integral components of the marketing plan for any business, large and small. In fact there are a myriad of ways that you can leverage your online presence to increase your visibility and drive the marketing plans for your organization. However, the Internet is constantly evolving and changing; this means that the tried-and-true social media strategies that you have used in years past or even just social media marketing statistics a few months ago might not work as effectively as they once did. In order to help companies cope with the constantly shifting landscape of the Internet – and in particular the social media market – here are 22 actionable social media strategies that you can implement immediately in order to begin building your own brand awareness. If it’s been some time since you’ve updated the profile pictures on your various social media accounts, be sure to do so immediately. Since followers and fans will be alerted when you change or update the image on your profile, it’s an excellent way to remind them that you’re still active; this can lead to some organic top social media marketing companies traffic increases from curious individuals to see what your new picture looks like. You can use tools like Facebook Insights to look back over the last quarter, the last six months, or the last year to see what kind of content has been the most popular. This will give you valuable information on how to approach subsequent content in the future, as you can concentrate on content that has proven popular in the past while avoiding content that was less than awe-inspiring.

Burn It Down, Start From Scratch And Build a Social Media Strategy That Works

There are times you simply need to destroy what exists in order to replace it with something better. Such is the case for social media. The past seven years have been so full of mistaken beliefs, poor assumptions and outright misinformation that the time has come to reassess completely what social media is, how it works, how consumers use it and what it means for brands. The fact is that much of the social media dogma we take as gospel has been social media marketing training wrong from the start. As a result, brands are wasting good money to chase irrelevant or even damaging social media outcomes, and the required improvements are not minor adjustments. In many cases, the wrong departments have hired the wrong people to do the wrong things evaluated with the wrong measures. Together we will burn social media to the ground and rebuild it from scratch. We will do this with data. Data will provide the spark and accelerant that destroys today's social media strategies, and data will also be the bricks and mortar to build a credible and accurate understanding of consumers' social behaviors and the legitimate opportunities available to business. Every social media marketer and pundit knows case studies that tease the promise of organic content success. They share and reference the same ones time and again, building false hope that marketers' next social campaign will be Oreo Dunk, #LikeAGirl or Real Beauty. But tear yourself away social media marketing classes from the rare and apocryphal stories of success and focus instead on broad, unbiased data, and a different picture emerges. "Organic social media stopped working." Those words are from the latest Forrester report, "It's Time to Separate the 'Social' From the 'Media.'" This is the same Forrester that in the 1990s counseled IT leaders to pay attention to "Social Computing" and whose 2008 book, Groundswell, introduced many business executives to the ways social media was changing consumers and the marketplace. Today, Forrester is again ahead of the curve, making the case that brand organic opportunities have disappeared and social media marketing has become entirely a paid game. As a result, the research firm recommends that marketing leaders assign their social budgets not to the social team but the media team because, as Forrester notes, "Social ads aren’t social; they’re just ads."

Essential Social Media Strategies for a Bad Economy

Everywhere you turn someone is talking about how bad the economy is. From the housing markets to the stock market, optimism is a trait that you would be hard pressed to find. Depending on which news channel you watch and what economist you listen to, the prognosis is that before it gets better it probably will get worse. With the job market shrinking and budgets becoming tighter, it’s vital that you have a strategy in place especially social media marketing news if you’re hoping that social media will play a role in career advancement or new business. As social media has become the mainstream buzzword, individuals and corporations are looking at social media as a tool to find jobs as well as provide new business opportunities. However, approaching social media without any knowledge or strategy could be more harmful then helpful. Make sure that before you jump out and “go for it” that you have a plan in place. Know what communities you’re going to engage in as well as what that engagement will social media marketing network look like. Having a blueprint in place will keep you from wasting time, money and energy as well as serve as a reference point if you find the interactive space to be intimidating. Utilize this time to maximize conversations. Don’t be anxious to promote yourself or business at first, find ways that you can add value and expertise to the conversations going on around you. I guarantee that if you provide value and expertise it will open opportunities for your voice or pitch to be heard.