While most of us make New Year resolutions to eat healthier, travel more or simply spend quality time with family, the New Year is also a perfect opportunity to take your business to the next level. We know building a brand online isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do. In our hyper connected world–consistently engaging with a targeted audience and setting your business apart from competitors is a challenge.
But, with a fresh perspective and social media at your fingertips, 2015 is your year to improve your social media engagement. Check out the top 10 social media resolutions to keep your business on track from the business-to-business community:
Use More Visuals
Guess what? They visual age of marketing isn’t going anywhere. With Pinterest’s valuation at $5 billion, Instagram’s at $35 billion and Tumblr’s $1.1 billion acquisition, these visual sharing platforms proved themselves to be business giants. With visual platforms being a multi-billion dollar industry, it’s incredibly important for your business to be making a show of itself with visual, sharable content.
If your business is less-than visually inclined, never fear. There are many simple image creator apps, like Canva and Share As Image with Tailwind integration, that can make anyone into a graphic designer.
Create Content
Like visual marketing, content marketing is here to stay. By creating sharable blogs, infographics, white papers, webinars, etc. you’re not just pushing your product in people faces — you’re teaching them about your industry and how your company can help. Plus, content marketing provides the opportunity to use different keywords to help boost your site’s SEO power.
Engage Users
Talk to your fans! Now, this might sound simple, but you would be amazed at how few businesses actually do it. By building a relationship with your users on social media, you’re building a lasting customer. They’ll see you as a confidant rather than a hollow business. It can be as simple as thanking a fan for sharing your content, or sending them a congratulatory tweet on their new engagement. Whatever it is, get your fans talking.
Find Your Perfect Timing
Similarly to a tree falling in an empty forest, a social media post going out when no one is online might as well not exist. Catching users when they’re online will increase the chance of your messages being seen. Social media scheduling makes it super simple to automatically post at the right times. Even if you’re not sure when the perfect time is, apps like Tailwind and HootSuite will figure that out for you.
Test Using Social Advertisements
Social media allows for inexpensive advertising tests. Try targeting a new audience, or tweaking your copy, or even try a whole new advertising network, like Pinterest’s. Although there is still a waitlist to try their new advertising product, the consumer-driven nature of Pinterest will pack a serious punch for paid media in 2015.
Make Your Posts Move
Instagram videos, autoplay Facebook videos and the popularity of hilarious .gif’s have proven the power of motion pictures in social media. Whether you’re making explainer videos or just pinning amazing cat .gif’s, it’s time to get your brand moving.
Use Hashtags Right
Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and now even Facebook all support the use of hashtags. While they can be a great way to find information and people with similar interests, or even to rally behind social movements, you must understand how to use hashtags correctly. Most importantly: #don’t #use #them #excessively.
Optimize Posts for Different Platforms
Not all social media is created equal. What works on Facebook won’t necessarily work on Pinterest. Each platform has different requirements for image size and description length, as well as different styles of posts that will work best. Sprout Social’s “Always Up To Date†Social Media Image Size Guide can help set you straight.
Post Less About Yourself
Sure, someone will follow you on social media because they’re interested in your brand. However, they do not want to see tons of posts boasting about how wonderful you are — they already know that! Instead of constantly posting about yourself, try only using 20% of your posts to talk about yourself and the other 80% to talk about things your audience would be interested in. Fans will also be more likely to share useful or interesting information on their social pages, letting your name go further.
Master Mobile Marketing
Whether your loyal to Apple, or a fan of Android, it’s safe to say that most American’s are carrying around a computer in their pocket. In fact, mobile usage surpassed PC usage for the first time in 2014. Because the likelihood of someone hitting your site from a mobile device, rather than on a PC, it’s more important than ever to have a responsive website. If your site’s hard to navigate on a phone, you could be loosing sales.