Top Tips to Boost Your Social Media Marketing Game
There’s no denying that social media came into our lives and completely took over. For both personal and business use, 7 in 10 Americans are on some form of social media platform.
Businesses are turning to social media as their main source of traffic with most solely focusing their marketing efforts on platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. I mean, can you blame them? Just take a look at the numbers.
Facebook has 2.5 billion active users every month.
335 million people are using Pinterest each month.
1 billion people are active on Instagram every month.
That’s a LOT of people and a huge pond to swim in that will only continue to grow , but that just means that nailing down your social media marketing game is as important as ever. Luckily for you, you have us!
If you want to learn how to boost your social media marketing game, we’re here to give you our top tips and a little surprise at the end!
Create Goals and Objectives
We preach a lot here at Boss Project about creating goals, so this should be no surprise. If you don’t lay out what you wish to achieve, how are you going to know where to start? We personally map out everything inside Trello (if you’re new to the tool be sure to check out our most popular program,Trello for Business!).
Aside from the fact that this will help you develop a solid plan, keeping track of your goals and objectives will allow you to measure your progress and evolve your strategies over time. You’ll be able to more easily identify what seems to be working and what isn’t so that you can keep tweaking until you have a solid strategy.
Be sure to keep them realistic and attainable. If your business is brand new to social media, it might not be such a good idea to have a goal of 10,000 followers by the end of the month. Try 1,000 or 500, whatever seems doable to you. Always set a deadline to those numbers, and add actionable steps that will help you reach them. If you want to reach 500 followers in 30 days, what steps will you need to take to get there? Want more help with defining smart goals? Be sure to check out this post.
Get Familiar With and Understand Your Audience
This is super super important, of course. Who are you expecting to keep the lights on in your business? Your audience, A.K.A. your potential customers or clients. You should be able to answer these questions:
What are their pain points?
What are their needs and desires?
What will they benefit from your product or service?
What is their ideal age, gender, employment status, etc?
Maybe your product or service will help a busy stay-at-home mom between the ages of 25-30 who’s longing to help her partner with finances but isn’t able to get a corporate job, or maybe it will help an undergraduate college student who’s working a part-time job for pennies and is looking for a way to make a few extra dollars on the side will finishing his/her education. See how specific that is? That’s how specific you need to be, too.
Pay attention to the analytics tools on your social media platforms. Most will have that information available and tell you exactly what age, gender, location, and what times they’re most active. This is all imperative information, especially when you get ready to run ads.
THEN, ENGAGE WITH THEM
Find online forums or Facebook groups where your target audience is hanging out, and start networking. Join the conversation on other Instagram accounts that have a similar target audience as you. Encourage your followers to DM you or spark up a conversation, and be sure to reply to every one of your comments. You want to be showing up for your audience.
Another way to engage with your audience is by creating a Facebook group of your own. This works in a similar way to an email list. Your readers subscribed because they want to hear and learn more from you. By creating a Facebook group, those who join obviously want to keep hearing from you, as well! These are the people who are most likely to purchase something from you. They’re your own personal following to nurture and, ultimately, sell to.
Create Captivating Copy for Your Content
Whew, talk about a tongue-twister! For every single piece of content that you post on social media, your copy should be well thought-out. Never post something just to post it. You should spend the time to sit down and really think about what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it.
It all starts with the hook. This is the make it or break it line at the very beginning that can either entice someone to keep reading or not. Make it snappy, witty, bold, or intriguing. It also helps to address your audience specifically in your copy. They should feel like you’re speaking directly to them. The goal is to get them to think, “Wow, are they in my brain right now?”
Add a call-to-action to every post. Try varying your CTA as a question, link, command, etc. to encourage them to engage with you in some way. Questions are the most popular and the easiest as it takes almost no time to just leave a quick comment.
DON’T JUST SELL, SELL, SELL
While we’re on the topic of copy, we need to take this time to remind you not to sell in every single one of your posts. It’s gross and feels inauthentic. Over half of social media users just find it outright annoying, and it’s the quickest way to see your follower count drop. Focus on establishing real connections, relationships, and trust between you and your audience, and you’ll see the results you’re hoping for. Don’t read this as “don’t sell” - that’s not what we’re saying. But DO focus on how to add value and be a human that also has an offer.
AUTOMATE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA SCHEDULE
First off, you should have a schedule for when you’re going to post. Once you establish that, then you can work on creating content in bulk and scheduling it out. We use Later, but there are other tools like Tailwind, Buffer, Hootsuite, Planoly, SproutSocial, and the list goes on. Look around and see which one seems like the best fit for you. This will save you so much time in the long run!
Try Running a Giveaway
Giveaways can give a huge boost to your social media accounts, especially if the prize is of great value. Once you establish what you’re going to give away, you need to identify the goal you’re hoping to achieve. Do you want more followers or likes? Do you want more traffic to your Pinterest account or website?
You can do this by having the rules be something like “Make sure you’re following us and tag 3 friends” or “Pin on Pinterest” with the more friends they tag and the more times they Pin counting as extra entries.
You also need to decide which channel you’re going to host your giveaway on, and then a deadline for when it will end. Then, create the giveaway, promote the heck out of it, and let it work its magic!
Time to Show That Beautiful Face on Video
Sure, pictures are great, but showing up on video will make your audience feel like they know you a little better. Try going live. It’s the perfect way to connect with your audience and literally speak to them, even if you can’t see their face, too. If you’re on Instagram, post videos and talk on your Stories! Just be sure to add captions as a huge number of people keep the sound off when scrolling through Stories. You want them to be able to still know what you’re saying even if they can’t hear you.
We understand that it can be nerve wracking if you’ve never gone live before. A couple ways to get around this are by just videoing yourself speaking as if you’re talking to your audience. It’s a great tactic to help you get around being camera shy. You can also try going live on your personal page with people who know you. You don’t have to talk business, but just be yourself. Once you’re in front of your audience, pretend they’re just your everyday friends (because you want them to be!)
Create Eye-Catching Images
It’s important to have some kind of captivating imagery along with your posts (that is, when you aren’t posting pictures of yourself or your products). You don’t need to be an award-winning graphic designer, nor do you need to have even taken a course in graphic design. There are tools like Canva and Creative Template Shop to help you craft alluring graphics.
The kinds of graphics you’ll most likely end up creating are social media posts, cover photos, graphics to promote your opt-in, Pinterest graphics, and infographics, which are also huge on Pinterest. The key is to find a style that feels most on-brand to you and stick with it! Having consistent and beautiful graphics helps you stand out from the noise.
STILL STUCK?
We have pre-made social media templates for you if you’re still struggling with designing graphics for your business. At The Creative Template Shop, we carry square templates for your Instagram or Facebook posts, templates for your Stories (including a sales sequence!), and Pinterest templates.
Each set of templates comes in three color variations– bright, neutral, and soft– and were carefully crafted by our amazing graphic designer. All you have to do is download them to your Canva account, change up any photos, colors, and fonts if you want to, and voila! In 15 or 30 minutes max, you have social media graphics that are ready to go.
You can purchase these templates one-off, but can we let you in on a secret? You can become a member of The Shop for only $47 a month, and have unlimited downloads to all current templates and future new releases, plus 10% off merch and the ability to request designs! Once you add up the value of all of the templates you’ll want, the membership is a total no-brainer.
Go ahead and browse The Shop to check out what we have to offer, and then start rocking your social media marketing game!
