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13 Effective Ways to Build a Consistent Social Media Presence

13 Effective Ways to Build a Consistent Social Media Presence

Oct 7, 2020 | Social Media

Maintaining an active and consistent presence on social media is crucial for any business nowadays, as that is often its first point of contact with potential customers. Posting quality content and thoughtful comments is a good way to start engaging with your audience, but it’s hardly enough if you want to stand out among a sea of competing businesses.

To expand your reach, grow your visibility, develop stronger relationships and increase your authority, you need to build and maintain a consistent presence on all of your social channels and share quality, engaging content multiple times a day. This will ultimately lead to enhanced brand recognition and higher ROI.

Below, 13 entrepreneurs from YEC share their top tips on how to achieve a consistent social media presence.

1. Try IFTTT

There are many social tools that allow you to automate posts. However, a lot of them require premeditated scheduling. If you do not have the time to create an editorial calendar at the beginning of every month, IFTTT is the tool for you. Create a chain on IFTTT to automatically push your blog posts onto your desired social platforms once they have been published on your site.

– Duran Inci, Optimum7

2. Schedule Everything

I like to do things on the fly, but social media is not the way to communicate like that. Instead, for me and my team to be consistent, we schedule all social media content. If there are situations when we need to respond to a breaking issue, we will discuss how we can immediately respond and get guidance from all to make sure it reflects our philosophy and core messaging.

– Murray Newlands, Sighted

3. Complete Your Social Media Schedule in Q1

The beauty of social is that it can be scheduled, so get a year’s worth of content scheduled by the end of Q1. Why? Because then you are free to focus on immediate trends, manage customer support and build out new and focused materials. You will grow your social media presence tenfold with this strategy.

– Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now

4. Use Buffer

Buffer is an incredible social media scheduling tool. You can schedule posts for all of your platforms, customize for each and shuffle so that all of your newsfeeds are different. It keeps you organized and your posting consistent — you can’t do social media without it.

– Kevin Conner, BroadbandSearch

5. Plan Ahead, But Keep Your Schedule Fluid

As in any area of your business, you need to plan, and plan ahead in advance. However, social media is one area that’s constantly changing by the hour or even minute. Your plan needs to be flexible to allow you to jump into trending topics as necessary. Planning a month ahead simply doesn’t give you proper insight into important social trends that pop up constantly.

– Andy Karuza, FenSens

6. Make Sure You Have a Social Media Strategy

Automation tools and services can help. Another option is outsourcing. However, what’s most important is to have a coherent social media strategy. Once you identify your goals and the kind of content you want to publish, it’s easier to create and implement a schedule for posting. For example, you may want to curate and comment on a certain type of tech news.

– Shawn Porat, Scorely

7. Use BuzzSumo

We use BuzzSumo to help us find the best content to share on our social media platforms. You can find out what news is trending in your industry to always be on top of the game. We usually post around 50/50 original content vs. industry news and retweets.

– Syed Balkhi, OptinMonster

8. Invite Audience Participation

One effective way I’ve found to generate consistent and engaging content is to regularly seek feedback from your followers and subscribers. Something as simple as a weekly opinion poll or a regular column inviting letters to the editor can go a long way toward building a social media presence and improving communication with your audience. This is a successful strategy used by YouTube creators.

– Bryce Welker, Beat The CPA

9. Use Meet Edgar

Meet Edgar is nice because you just have to load up the posts once and the software recycles through the content as often as you want. I’ve seen a notable increase in my social media traffic and I haven’t manually made a post in months.

– Ajay Paghdal, OutreachMama

10. Build Up a Reservoir

Make a routine, every week or month, of creating a lot of high-quality content ahead of time, then posting it as a slow drip. It’s much easier to post consistently when you have a repository of content to pull from. I have a habit of busting out all my LinkedIn content on Sunday mornings — it’s a time when I can write without distractions and create plenty of ammo for the week.

– Ben Lee, Neon Roots

11. Focus on Only a Few Key Platforms

Focus only on those social media platforms that provide you with good ROI. Some people get distracted by trying to be active on every social media site. This ends up diluting your efforts, as you can only keep up with so many accounts. Use Facebook and Twitter at least and then maybe one or two others with proven value. Set up a schedule for posting and stick with it.

– Kalin Kassabov, ProTexting

12. Try Facebook Publishing Tools

Although third-party apps such as Buffer are great for scheduling upcoming content, our social media team schedules all Facebook content natively. Publishing directly through Facebook allows you to see what your post will look like when it goes live and gives you clear insights on how each post did, which is great information to use when it comes to creating future content.

– Dave Nevogt, Hubstaff.com

13. Hire Freelancers

When it come to blogging consistently, it’s difficult to do it all on your own. Hire some freelancers to write a couple articles a week and post them on social media to stay consistent. Once you’ve developed a reputation for consistency, people will start coming to your blog to see what’s new, and you’ll even start getting some guest blogging inquiries.

– Jared Atchison, WPForms

How to Get the Most Out of Your Social Media Marketing Efforts

Social media is now more oversaturated then ever before. If you really want to find success, you need to select a niche audience and cater to them as best as possible. It’s no longer a winning formula to just create content and send out as many social updates as possible.

If you enjoyed this expert roundup, I highly recommend you check out another one which asks 83 online marketing experts the question “How Do I Start a Successful Blog?“. If you don’t already have a website or blog of your own, follow my guide to get started with one today.

7 Ways an Effective Social Media and SEO Strategy Can Grow Your Brand

7 Ways an Effective Social Media and SEO Strategy Can Grow Your Brand

Oct 7, 2020 | Social Media

If you’ve been on the internet long enough, there is a good chance that you’ve stumbled across the term search engine optimization at some point or another. You’ve probably used Google or another search engine millions of times. The goal of SEO is to ensure that your website shows up on the first page of Google’s results. In return, your company’s website will gain more visibility, additional traffic and your revenue will eventually soar to new heights.

For most of us, the concept here is nothing new. What is different however, are the methods being used to rank higher in Google, while also pushing the competition lower. Within this guide, you will learn how the right strategy that can empower your company to achieve growth through the use of both SEO and social media.

Helps Build Your Reputation

First and foremost, you should realize that consumers think highly of companies that Google likes. People tend to trust Google and Microsoft, more than other brands they may not have heard of. If you’re able to get your website on the first page of Google and Bing, consumers will see that these companies trust and respect your website and company. In return, they’ll feel much more confident about doing business with you. They’ll realize that they’re going to get a great deal by working with your business.

When it comes to SEO and content creation, you should definitely consider your options with starting a blog. This is something I recently talked about in my ORM blogging article, where I highlighted the following data points.

  • Put a Face and Personality with Your Blog
  • Get Out There and Engage with Your Audience
  • Create Content that Gets People Talking and Sharing

Cost-Effective

Many forms of marketing and advertising are immensely expensive, and in most cases — dry up after your budget is spent. With the right SEO strategy, you’ll be able to push your website to new heights without spending excessively. In fact, it is possible to get ahead in the SEO world without spending anything whatsoever. Nevertheless, some companies may want to invest in pay-per-click ads or media buying. Regardless, you can rest assured knowing that your SEO venture will be relatively inexpensive compared to starting any other type of business or using other marketing techniques.

The following methods work perfectly for SEO when you are working on a small budget.

  • Creating your own content and doing competitor SEO analysis
  • Guest blogging on other sites within your niche market
  • Putting in the time and effort to creative expert roundups

Catering To Your Goals

Each company will have a unique set of goals. Some companies want to compete on the international level and conquer the world. Others will be happy gaining a footing in the local market or within a small niche market. SEO is truly very diverse and it can be customized to suit your individualistic needs and goals at the given time. With local SEO, you’ll be able to reach customers in your geographical location. Or, you can expand your base and market to customers all around the world. With SEO, the possibilities are truly endless.

In addition to having your own personal goals, it’s important that you not just have a marketing plan in place, but also a way to measure your success and results over time. I personally use and recommend SEMRush. Not only will their platform allow you to check on the latest rankings for your own site, they also provided competitor analysis and site audits as well.

Social Media and SEO are a Great Mix

As important as natural SEO is, it would be a big mistake to discount the power and viral marketing that social media can bring into the equations as well. For example, more people are accessing the internet through their mobile devices and social media than ever before. This is where big-name fashion bloggers are seeing the most of their growth and revenue come in — mainly through visual social platforms like Instagram.

With that being said, be sure to not just have a presence on social media, but also to actively gain more followers across all platforms — whether that be Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest. At the same time, be sure to syndicate your best content as well. The more followers and eyes you get your content in front of, the more likely it is to get shared and picked up on other sites. In many cases, this can be automated, but will also help improve social awareness, shares, and SEO back to your main sites as well.

Reach Legitimately Interested Customers

When using other forms of advertising, you’re truly taking a gamble. You never know who is going to read your ad in the newspaper and you don’t know who will hear it on the radio. Radio and newspaper ads might be very effective or they could be a complete bust. In the world of advertising and SEO, you always need to stay updated with the latest trends and what’s working today. The same can actually be said of other media buying methods online as well. Sure, you might be getting traffic and ad impressions, but does that audience really have an interest in what you have to offer?

With SEO, you can actually reach legitimately interested customers. After all, these individuals will have to search for specific keywords to find your company. This ensures that they’re somewhat interested in the goods and services that you have to offer. Just think about the last time you went to Google and searched for something… you were definitely interested in and probably ready to take action or make a purchase as well.

Social Media Builds Quick and Reliable Relationships

One of the most important things to remember about social media and finding success on various platforms is that you not only need to increase your follower count, but you need to have a great reputation as well. This includes promoting and sharing content with others (and not just your own) and also giving people a reason to follow you or your brand in the first place.

At the same time, social media is a great way to build new relationships with other site owners and bloggers who might offer guest blogging, interview opportunities, or social sharing groups. Spend some time on Facebook and look for active blogger groups, and you will know what I mean. Use social media to promote your content, but also to build new relationships and opportunities as well.

You can learn more about this process and see some examples here.

SEO is Great for Long-Term Growth

Finally, you should realize that SEO is going nowhere. In fact, the internet has grown more and more popular during the past few years, and even more so with technology and mobile devices making their way into third world countries. If you’re able to achieve success in SEO, you will be able to also achieve long-term growth. As long as people continue using the internet, they’ll continue finding your site and your revenue will continuously climb higher and higher.

A great way to look at this is if you had $100 to spend. You can either blow through $100 in Google PPC ad spend and be out of traffic when the campaign is over, or use that $100 towards content creation, social promotion, link building outreach and more. Both methods work, but when trying to start a business or online site with a small budget, SEO is a great way to go.

How to Create the Best SEO Results for Your Efforts in 2018

When it comes to SEO and social media, there are many ways to improve your site rankings and reach. The most important thing is that you actually put in the time and effort to get started. Unfortunately, way too many people will focus on how many different things there are to do, and never really take action.

Start with any of the methods or elements above, then scale out over time. Most importantly, make sure you track your results so you can always see where your efforts are paying off.

13 Smart Ways to Use Social Media for Customer Service

13 Smart Ways to Use Social Media for Customer Service

Oct 7, 2020 | Social Media

You and your business are likely already on all of the major social networking platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, but are you using them to their full potential? One of the latest trends in the world of social media and business, is connecting with customers and audiences through social media to provide better customer support and services.

Social media has become a huge part of nearly every company’s marketing strategy, but it’s not enough to simply share content. Today’s consumers want brands to offer efficient customer service through their social platforms. In fact, according to Social Media Today, nearly 85 percent of consumers expect a company to respond to social media inquiries within 24 hours, and 72 percent expect answers within an hour when they reach out on Twitter.

To best serve your customers, it’s important to meet them where they are and give them the care and attention they need, on whatever platform they’re using. We asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council to share tips on how brands should be using social media for customer service.

1. Pay Attention to How Customers Interact With One Another

The best way to create a great customer experience is to allow your users to interact freely on social media. Your company should be aware of these comments as they give you the best opportunity to provide customer service. If an individual posts a complaint, step in to address that comment and either fix it right away or let the user know why it can’t be implemented.

– Julian Montoya, JM11 Investments

2. Offer an Interactive Experience to Collect Feedback

Social media platforms like Instagram are adding more features to make the experience interactive, such as adding polls to Instagram Stories. We’ve taken advantage of this feature to share new episodes of our podcast. We’ve gathered valuable information about listener interest and have seen our downloads spike as a result.

– Mark Krassner, Expectful

3. Monitor Your Business Name on Social Media

Not everyone who has a problem will contact you directly. Some people will just tweet about it or mention it on another social media site. That’s why it’s important to monitor your name, whether you use Google Alerts or a reputation management tool. This helps you stay informed if anyone has a complaint and shows that you care about satisfying your customers.

– Shawn Porat, Scorely

4. Implement Messenger Bots

Messenger bots are growing ever more sophisticated. It’s a great tool if implemented correctly. People can get their immediate concerns and common questions addressed. When it becomes more complicated, you must have an immediate measure to connect them to a live person. It also helps to mitigate harmful review posts on the public domain itself.

– Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now

5. Encourage Customers to Take the Conversation Offline When Necessary

Social media as a customer service tool cannot be applied to all business cases. A quick phone call via social media messenger can provide good support to a customer in need. Social media tools can be used effectively in offering information about your product and services.

– Sachin Narode, Xeniapp Inc.

6. Use Twitter as a Q&A Tool

Avoid paying for third-party AI tools and utilize Twitter as a way to answer questions for your customers. This is also a savvy way to implement subtle advertising, as customers will scan your Twitter page to see if any of their unasked questions have been answered.

– Patrick Barnhill, Specialist ID, Inc.

7. Turn Upset Customers Into Advocates

In my experience, consumers are talking about products on social media more than companies can feasibly get involved. The most effective social media work you do will be serving your upset customers. By owning your mistakes and reaching out to make it right, you can turn loud complaints into praise.

Your audience will appreciate that you care to fix mistakes.

– Alexander Mistakidis, Gamelynx

8. Make It a Conversation

I always compare how you manage social media to how you’re having a conversation with a person in real life. If you’re just making statements about yourself, but not listening or responding to others, it doesn’t work. Make sure you’re listening and engaging with your peers and customers on social media. It can’t just be about you.

– Cassie Petrey, Crowd Surf

9. Foster a Community

Social media has been a very effective customer service tool for us thus far. Having quick response rates is a great way to encourage users to use your product when they may not want to deal with official customer service channels. Reddit can foster discussion between customers and employees, which can develop as a customer service guide for customers in need of a simple fix.

– Zohar Steinberg, token payments

10. Always Respond to Brand Mentions

Consumers use social media platforms for many different purposes. It’s essential to always acknowledge a brand mention or question on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There are many automated tools that provide alerts for specific brand mentions. It’s good practice to set up these alerts and engage with your audience when you see a brand mention.

– Michael Hsu, DeepSky

11. Enable the Facebook Messenger Pop-Up Window and Use a Chatbot

On Facebook, you can have a message window pop up as soon as someone comes to your page and ask if they can help you. Having that around-the-clock availability to help can be a welcome sign to customers and potential customers.

– Serenity Gibbons, Calendar

12. Share Customer-Centric Content

Don’t solely use social media as a self-promotional marketing platform, but also as a platform to have meaningful conversations with your customers. We often encourage people to tweet us with their questions and concerns. It’s an easy, actionable way of getting in touch rather than emailing or calling. It also helps us put out information that is useful to our customers, such as product tips and tricks.

– Stan Garber, Scout RFP

13. Find a Tool That Integrates All Your Social Channels

Make it clear what channels your company has a presence on and understand that if you post on Facebook and Instagram, you’re going to get direct messages there and customers will expect you to reply just like you reply to emails. Good software that allows your team to see all emails and social messages in one place is the way to go.

– Jeff Cayley, Worldwide Cyclery

How to Make the Most of Your Social Media Efforts

With chatbots and social media now combining powers, it’s likely going to be easier and more effective than ever for brands to start using social media for customer support and user feedback. If this is something of interest to you, be sure to consider each of the options mentioned in our expert answers above.

To see more expert roundups like this one, be sure to view our previous articles on improved Facebook marketing and the best tools for monitoring your brand online.