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Top Tips to Become a Social Media Expert

Date:
By Sami
Category: Our Clients

How to use social media to your advantage?

Social media can be viewed by people in two different ways... If you're like my parents, you would view it as a strange alien form of communication or if you're like myself, you would find social media to be an exciting, everchanging and useful device of communication.

Neither opinion is wrong as it is a little bit of both... Social media may be scary but once you understand how to use it, so many doors are opened! It isn't only about staying up to date with friends and family, there are actually many opportunties to advertise and promote your products through the numerous social media platforms.  

In this article, I am going to break it all down for you by evaluating my six favourite forms of social media and my top tricks to use to ensure your products are being seen on those media platforms. The best thing about using social media is that these platforms are FREE to use. Advertising costs can range but I will explain later. 


Social media

Facebook:

According to the Social Media Statistics Australia - April 2018, Facebook is still the number one form of social media with 15,000,000 monthly active Australian users. For a large amount of people, it's hard to even imagine life without this network being available at the touch of a button... This is why you need to be apart of this evergrowing chain. 

Facebook is about content and engaging posts. I personally tested the difference between posting a 'status' with an image and another without. Can you guess which one got the most attention? The one with the image. The one without an image was equally as informative but people get captured more often by their eyes than their brains. 

With this in mind, you can capture people with an interesting profile picture and a well organised profile. Take advantage of the 'About' section and how the page is laid out. Include as much relevant information you can on there. On Facebook pages, you can now create a slideshow cover photo so when someone clicks into your page, they can see your profile picture along with up to five great photos representing your business. 

Facebook ads are relatively easy to understand as you completely control the information advertised, the audience (including age groups and location), the length your ad will run for and how much you pay for your ads by setting an amount. 

Like anything, when you're paying money, please ensure that you have read all the fine print and clicked all the right buttons so your ad does stop when you want it to. 

Find out more about advertising with Facebook below:

https://www.facebook.com/business

 

My Top Tips:

Facebook is all about the hook. With literally millions of users in Australia alone, you need to draw peoples attention from the previous thing they read to your advertisement.

People don't like to be told what to do. They want to feel like it was their own decision to read something so the more you make your ad look and sound less like an ad, the more response you'll receive. 

Don't overpost. Posting reguarly and consistantly is the biggest key to making your business known however don't go overboard. Some companies will post around 6 to 8 times a day. This is too much and can overwhelm your followers. Once you gain traction on your page, you want to keep those people so posting reguarly (1 - 3 times a day) with quality content is the best way to go. Remember that old saying; Quality over Quantity.  

Keep your content fresh. You don't need to spend a lot of money to have intreguing posts on social media. I personally take advantage of the free software online such as Canva or Infranveiw to help create visually engaging posters to share on my networks. 

Building relationships with your followers is crucial. If someone takes time out of their day to comment on your post, take the time out of your day to reply to them. This builds a relationship with your followers and makes it more likely that they will spread the word to their friends. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising. 

Oh, most importantly... PLEASE use correct grammar!!


Photos

Instagram:

What is this trendy new social media network that all these people are getting famous off? That would be Instagram. Remember the days of polaroids and everyone wanting to be a professional photographer? Well, that is kind of back in trend!

Instagram was created not too long ago in 2010 to be used as the newest mode for sharing photos and videos. I personally remember when it first came out and since then it continues to improve by adding photo filters and allowing other apps to be used through the program to create really interesting videos. 9,000,000 monthly active Australian users can't be wrong. 

It's just like a simplified version of Facebook with the emphasis being on the images or videos shared. Just like other networks, you have a news feed and can interact with other members by following them. 

When advertising with Instagram, when people scroll down through their news feed, the advertsiment will pop up as a normal post. Like I said when talking about Facebook, people like things that don't look like advertisements. 

Since Facebook is Instagrams parent company, you don't actually need an account to advertise however, I would recommend that you get your business amongst all the important social media platforms. The more 'In your face' you are, the more people will remember you. My Mum always uses this saying; "A squeaky door gets oiled". 

Find more out about Instagram for Business by following the below link:

https://business.instagram.com/getting-started?ref=igb_carousel

 

My Top Tips:

Hashtags are not only for Twitter... Take advantage of these by targeting people interested in what you post. If you don't know much about #hashtags then all you really need to know to understand what they do is this: Say I tagged #Newcastle in my post. Anyone who searches for Newcastle in Instagram, can see my post.

You want to use hashtags but don't overdo them either as people don't like reading something and seeing heaps of leftover hashtags. Try to incorporate them into your writing. 

Get creative with your posts. Bring out your inner child and take photos and videos. Make them look exciting by using the instagram tools. Instagram is not really about the content. Images are everything. 


Youtube

Youtube:

Alike Facebook, Youtube is seen as the largest social media platform in Australia with the Social Media Statistics Australia - April 2018 showing that the average Australian visitors per month is also 15,000,000. That's a lot of viewers!

So how do you get your product viewed on this network? Easy... All you need to do is start. 

There are a couple of ways you could use Youtube:

1. You can take videos with no specific audience in mind. This actually does work. Be flexible. 

OR

2. Create engaging content and really market it to your particular audience. Say you want to get known for teaching guitar tutorials. Make sure you post reguarly your content relating to people wanting to learn guitar. The more videos you have, the more views you get. The better your content, the more regular people will view it and the higher your videos get up when people search. 

Video blogs are such a clever way to keep your content engaging and informative while still being upbeat and fresh. You can share these across all your socials which draw people back to your page, giving your videos more views. 

Advertising on Youtube is quite smart. Think about what people are doing when using Youtube. They are literally watching videos. Now that their eyes are already glued to the screen, you can take advantage of the hard work being done for you. You can set up your advertisements so that when someone decides to watch your ad for more than 30 seconds, you pay for it but if they click 'skip' you don't pay for it. It's kind of a win, win situation. 

Find out more information about advertising on Youtube via the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/yt/advertise

 

My Top Tips:

Don't be afraid to ask for subscribers. Start with your family and friends (You've got to start somewhere). 

Consistency is the key! To get known on Youtube, like other networks, you can't be lazy. Set yourself goals and aim for them. For example, you can say to yourself that in two years you want to be the most known guitar tutorial person on Youtube. To get there you need to create a following and to create a following you need to be consitent and post engaging content. 

With Youtube, you can spruce up your channel to make it look engaging. You can create a heading, set a particular colour to your profile and organise your videos so your best one is played when people come to your channel. 

Play around with writing, links and annotations while uploading your video. You can add your website, other video links or even your other social media networks. 

A small tip: It's actually proven that people remember things better when they are exposed to the same information in varied ways so you don't always need to change what you're posting but just the way you post it. Keep that in mind. 


Twitter

Twitter:

Twitter is a treasure trove of information that similar to Facebook lets people post and interact with other users. It is quite different to other forms of social media though in the way that your information is limited. When you write a post on twitter (called a 'Tweet') you are only given a maximum of 140 characters to type in your post- including links and photo codes. Why is this good then?

Twitter is for those who don't want to have to read a heap of information to get to the point. It's straight forward and is very easy to use. Twitter is one of the largest and most popular forms of social media.

Twitter is famous for #Hashtags being the ones that created the idea. Hashtags as used to categorise tweets into the correct area when searched. As I mentioned above in Instagram, people can search for a specific word and if that word was hashtagged in a tweet, the tweet will be shown. 

Twitter sells promoted tweets to marketers which are viewed in Twitter users' news feeds. They use an algorithm to ensure promoted tweets make it into the correct users' timelines. With promoted tweets, you'll only pay when a user retweets (shares), comments, favorites or likes your post. 

Find out more about Twitter for business by following the below link:

https://business.twitter.com/en/solutions/twitter-ads.html

 

My Top Tips:

When using Twitter, you have to be smart in what you say and how you say it as you only have a certain amount of characters you can use. You still need to use hashtags so what people have been doing is incorporating their hashtags into their information.

Use links for more information and images to draw attention to your post. 


Professional

Linkedin:

Linkedin is a brilliant form of social media that connects businesses and business-minded professionals with each other. If you want to find members to your organisation or connect with like-minded people, this is the network you want to be in.

Linkedin advertising is a little different to other networks as it works like an auction. When you create an ad, you filter it into categories which then show you who is competing against you for a top position. Linkedin will show a minimum bid and a top bid (ie. Min. $1, Max. $9) so the higher you bid, the more chance you have to outbid your competition and have your advertisement viewed more. It's a strange system but it does work. 

Find out more about Linkedin advertising with the below link:

https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions 

 

My Top Tips:

With Linkedin, you need to be smart about what you post. The people and atmosphere on this network are different to the others as it has more of a professional vibe. When writing posts on here, keep them engaging and friendly but also professional and informative.

Don't worry about posting every single day like the other platforms as Linkedin demographics show that posting once or twice a week has more of an impact than every day. As Linkedin feed flows slower, you don't want to be spamming your contacts. 

Grammar is important here so try to keep your emogies and hashtags for the other platforms.


Snapchat

Snapchat:

Quick, Let me take a selfie!
I know that Snapchat doesn't seem like the best way to advertise your product but that's where we're wrong. Think about it... What do people do when they use Snapchat? Are they running or shopping? No. They are sitting down (or walking slowly) with their eyes transfixed on their screen watching their friends, groups, and celebrities post about their lives. 

Companies have begun to recognise this new trend in advertising and by posting ads in between Snapchat stories, they are taking advantage of people already viewing the app.

You can find more information about Snapchat advertising by following this link:

https://forbusiness.snapchat.com/ 

 


WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO POST?

Now, it would be nice for me to tell you exactly when the right time for you to post each day would be for all your networks but unfortunately, I can't. The best times for you to post depends on what network/s you're posting on, what your post is and who your audience is.

By researching each platform's demographics, the most accurate answer many websites can give is to post during the most active times, ie. 7am - 9am, 12pm - 1pm, and 3pm - 5pm. This sounds like an obvious answer but what if everyone had the same idea? Out of those 15,000,000 people on Facebook, imagine how many businesses want to get peoples' attention too - just like you.

I believe the right answer for this question is to tell you to write out and really understand who your audience is, research the demographics individually and make a plan on when you will post. 

 


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Where to go from here?

It's always one thing for someone to tell you what to do and how to do it but it's only up to you to succeed. Now that you have all the information I have given you, along with links to more advertisment information, it's over to you to begin. My last bit of advice to you is to not overthink, just do it. You have to start somewhere and it's never too late!

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