How to focus your creative energy and optimise your social media: Carmella shares our best tips, tricks and hacks to help take your online brand to the next level.

Whether you’re running a well-established business or just getting your company off the ground – finding your niche in the realm of social media can prove to be a daunting task. The fact is, social networks are here to stay and it’s no longer simply about presenting a product to your target demographic. From now on,  it’s about creating a customer experience!

As of 2016, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest were listed as the top seven platforms used by marketers. Certainly, that is a lot of different avenues to navigate and what’s more is that a recent study done by M. Stelzner, Founder of Social Media Examiner, showed that: “40% of marketers themselves found that social media marketing has become more difficult in the last 12 months.”

With all this in mind, the social media mavens of Carmella Consulting have carved out a path that will help you get (and stay) on the road to social media success:

1. Your Strategic Start

• Make a plan.
• Set goals.
• Know your audience.

Be specific and honest with yourself during this first phase. Just like creating an all-important, highly-detailed business plan, taking the time to map out exactly what and who you are looking for in the social media world is crucial to your forward momentum down the road.

2. Content is King/Queen

Once you have your strategy – show it off!
When published on a regular basis, quality content serves to attract new leads, inform customers and encourage repeat visitors.

Bonus Item:

Here is a list of 10 key messages every business should create and continue to use (as needed) across their social platforms:

• The Hard Sell – a message or campaign that uses a more direct, forceful, and over sales message.

• The Soft Sell – a message or campaign that uses a more subtle, casual, or friendly sales message

• Industry Experience – these posts help generate credibility in your field of expertise.

• Brand Essence – as your essence is often stated in two to three words, these posts demonstrate the heart and soul of your brand.

• Tips/ Tricks –  posts that help the reader learn or discover a new DIY

• Links – to your website, a blog post on your site, or some other piece of helpful information.

• Blog posts or The Influencer – posts that support your business model, and your personal comments on that. (Humour can always be used here)

• Insider Posts – give the audience an inside look into your business

• Testimonials/ Reviews – from any of your satisfied, return, positive customers.

• Community Support – posts supporting another member of the community (ie: businesses, non-profits, or social superhuman you follow )

3. Tools, Widgets & 3rd Party Apps are Your Friends

There is an endless list of incredible tools online (desktop & mobile) that can help take your content to the next level. Do your research, ask around but ultimately don’t feel like you have to do everything the hard way. Here are some examples we endorse: automatic grammar checks that go beyond spell check (grammarly.com), design help – purchasing or finding stock photos (stocksy.com), always shrinking your links (bit.ly), and considering the implementation of social media managing platforms (hootsuite.com). Each app/ tool serves as a little worker-bee to help you get more done, and we could all use a little extra help, right? Right!

 

No matter what stage of content creation you’ve achieved to-date, we know these tips and tricks will not only build some extra traction for your brand and future sales but get you and your target audience much better connected in lasting and authentic ways.

Happy socialising!

– The Carmella Crew

phone screen image credit: Jason Howie