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You’ve heard it a million times.
Entrepreneurs and solopreneurs need to use social media to grow their audience and interact with prospects and clients.
It’s true. Social media is one of the most effective ways to get in front of the people you want to serve.
But so many entrepreneurs are doing it wrong.
If you’re not succeeding at social media, chances are…
- You’re not using the right social media platforms.
- You’re not effectively using each social media platforms.
- You’re using social media just to deliver annoying sales pitches.
Of course, there could be other reasons, but these are some of the most common. That’s why you have to make sure you’re making the best use of each social media platform you work with.
This post is going to discuss some of the best ways to use the most popular social media platforms. When you put these tips into action, you will notice how much easier it will be to grow your audience.
How Businesses Use Social Media to Crush It
With over 313 million active monthly users, Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms for business. As a matter of fact, 29 percent of Twitter users have tweeted about a brand. It’s a great way to connect with customers and promote your brand.
It’s a great social media platform to use if your target audience is younger people. It’s also great if you plan to market to other entrepreneurs.
Here’s some tips on using Twitter to grow your business:
Find the Right Frequency
There’s no magic number for the amount of tweets you should post in a day. But unlike other social media platforms, Twitter’s timeline flows pretty quickly. The average life of a tweet is 2 hours. If you only post once or twice per day, then you’re not going to get the amount of exposure you want.
The average Twitter user tweets 22 times per day. I’ve seen many people recommend 4-5 tweets per day. If this works for you, then have at it!
For my business, I’ve tried a slightly different strategy. Since I saw how quickly a tweet disappears into oblivion, I decided to up my number of tweets. I probably tweet between 15-20 times per day.
Yes, I know. Sounds kinda crazy, right?
But it helped! When I started doing it that way, I started gaining more and more followers. I also noticed that I was getting more engagement on my content.
Also, don’t be afraid to tweet the same tweet more than once. Again, since each tweet has a shorter life, you can afford to repeat sometimes.
The key here is to figure out the amount of tweets that work best for your business. You want to find your sweet spot and then stay with it.
Use Twitter as a Listening Tool
You shouldn’t spend all your time sending out tweets. It’s a good idea to look at what others are tweeting as well. If you see a certain topic trending, you might want to contribute to the conversation.
Following hashtags is a great way to do this. Find out what the most relevant hashtags are for your industry and join in. Marketing expert Neil Patel recommends using hashtags to gain more exposure for your brand.
Here’s what he has to say:
“About a million to two million tweets include hash tags…meaning your tweets are more likely to be seen if you include a hashtag, thus generating more retweets.”
Hashtags are a great way to stay ahead of the trends in your industry.
Give Influencers Some Love
Want to get retweeted? Of course you do. You want more exposure. One of the most effective ways to get retweeted is to draw some attention to the influencers who create the content you’re sharing.
When you read a piece of content that you want to share, don’t just tweet it out. Include the influencer’s Twitter handle in the tweet. In many cases, the influencer will retweet the post to their followers.
Also, if you’re creating content — and you should be — try mentioning some insights from influencers you follow. After you publish the piece of content, send a quick tweet to the influencer letting them know that you mentioned them in your article.
Want an example? Remember when I quoted Neil Patel when I mentioned hashtags? Well, after this article posts, I’m going to let him know that I gave him some love on my post.
Not all influencers will retweet your post, but even if you’re able to get some of them to share it, it will still benefit your brand.
As you already know, Facebook is the most popular social media platform. With over 1.71 billion monthly active users, it is one of the best places to gain exposure for your brand. 41% of businesses use Facebook for marketing purposes.
If you understand how to leverage Facebook for your business, you can build a stronger audience and earn more clients.
Here’s some tips on using Facebook to grow your audience:
Use Facebook Ads
If it’s in your budget, taking advantage of Facebook’s paid advertising can help you get in front of more people. If you adopt a viable Facebook ad strategy, it can help you drive more traffic to your website, get more subscribers and earn more customers.
John G. Mullen, founder and head personal trainer at TrainingCor has found Facebook to be a great resource for connecting with his audience.
“We produce content that helps our readers learn more about training and physical fitness. We promote this content on Facebook and it’s enabled us to engage more with our audience. Also, our current customers use Facebook to talk about the benefit we have provided them with.”
Facebook Ads allows you to make sure you’re targeting the right people with your content. This is important because you don’t want to be reaching out to people who aren’t interested in what you’re offering.
Monitor Your Engagement
If you’re going to gain more of an audience, you need to know what type of content resonates most with your readers. You can do this by paying attention to Facebook Insight. It’s a tool that allows you to see how people are interacting with your content.
Using Facebook Insight, you can see which posts are performance the best and which are not. This gives you a better idea of the type of content you should be creating and sharing. It’s a valuable tool that will help you create content that is the most relevant to your readers.
Google Plus
Okay, I get it. You’ve probably heard it said that Google Plus is basically dead. Many people scoff at Google’s social media platform.
It’s understandable.
They don’t have as many active users as the other social media platforms. But this doesn’t mean that Google Plus is a waste of time. As a matter of fact, Business Insider says that Google Plus is starting to increase the number of its active users. Google Plus can still be a valuable social media platform if you know how to use it.
In an article entitled “Why You Should Stop Asking Is Google Plus Dead,” Sprout Social’s Jennifer Beese says this:
“Instead of dismissing the platform and asking is Google Plus dead, let’s not forget that you always want to think in terms of quality and not quantity when it comes to successful social media marketing. So whether there are 22 million or 343 million people posting consistently on Google+, there are still millions of opportunities to engage.”
It’s true. Google Plus is great for connecting with others and forming relationships. It’s helped me form some great relationships with people I wouldn’t have connected with otherwise.
Here’s some tips on using Google Plus:
Engage Your Community
This is probably my favorite thing about Google Plus. There are various communities that you can join. There are several different types of communities for people with shared interests.
You can join as many communities as you like, although some might need to approve your membership in their community. What I really like about communities is that people are very interactive.
It’s easy to connect with the types of people you want to connect with. I’ve learned quite a bit from the connections I’ve made on Google Plus’ communities. It’s led to some wonderful opportunities for me. I’d highly recommend that you try it out.
Use Hangouts for More Than Just Chatting!
If you’re like most people, you only use Google Hangouts for chatting with friends, right? But that’s not all this tool can do. Google Hangouts. It’s a great way to record video content for your audience.
Maybe you want to record a short instructional video on how to achieve an objective. Or maybe you just want to say “hi” to your audience. Whatever your purpose is, Hangouts will allow you to record your video and upload it to YouTube. It’s quick and easy!
If you leverage Google Plus’ features the right way, you will be able to develop relationships that can help you move your business forward.
Instagram is a great social media platform for those who create a large amount of visual content. It currently has about 77 million active users and is expected to surpass 100 million by 2019. If your business targets teens and younger millennials, you should be using Instagram.
Like Google Plus, Instagram is a great way to form relationships with others. It’s also a great way to get more exposure for your brand.
Here’s some tips on using Instagram for your business:
Build a Tribe
The key to succeeding on Instagram is to build a tribe. You want to earn followers and develop relationships with them. This will take some time, but when you have a relationship with your audience, you will have evangelists who are willing to share your content with their connections.
Over time, more people will see and share your content. When you invest time in building a thriving community around your brand, it will be much easier to turn your prospects into paying customers.
Connect With Influencers
Just like Twitter, Instagram is a great way to connect with those who already have a strong following. It’s a good idea to start interacting with influencers by commenting on their posts, sharing their posts, and mentioning them in the content you create.
When influencers see that you’re mentioning them often, they will be more likely to interact with you. You also want to connect with these influencers on Twitter because people who use Instagram typically use Twitter as well.
Conclusion
As you already know, social media is essential to the success of your brand. When you use social media the right way, it makes it easier to grow your audience and generate more leads.
If you’re using the social media platforms discussed in this article — and you should be — start implementing these tips. It will help you engage with your audience and earn more business.
Crushing Glass Photo via Shutterstock