Five Things You're Probably Not Doing With Your Social Campaign

1. You’re probably not utilizing automation tools. Tweet This

Social media doesn’t close, so why should you stop posting when you’re not at work? Chances are your audience is more active on social in the evenings and weekends. I know, I know, you don’t want to spend personal time making social posts for work…..good thing there are tools for that now! Did you know you can schedule posts directly in Facebook now?? Note: this only applies to Pages, not personal profiles. If you’re on platforms other than Facebook, fear not, HootSuite has both paid and free subscriptions which allow you to schedule posts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and more. Work smarter, not harder: Utilize this tool (or one of the many others like it) to help you out with your social media postings.

2. You’re probably not monitoring brand mentions. Tweet This

Want to know how people feel about that new product you just launched? Is there a social media influencer out there talking up your brand or product? These are questions that many businesses want to know the answer to but don’t know how to go about getting it. Enter social monitoring. ‘Listening’ is an essential part of understanding your target market and is a great way to get candid information from people already familiar with your brand. Check out socialmention for a base level, free tool.

3. You’re probably tracking followers/likes, not engagement. Tweet This

Don’t get me wrong, Likes and Follows are awesome, but not the most important metric in your social campaign. Engagement is the key though. Having a ton of followers that don’t engage with your brand is like screaming from the top of a mountain; your voice is traveling, but no one can hear it. Focus on creating and curating compelling content that people want to like, comment on, and share with their circle. If you’ve been running a social campaign for a while, take a look back through your previous posts and see what types of posts had the best engagement. If you’re just starting out, pay attention to what gets the most attention. And don’t forget timing! A post at 2am isn’t likely to yield a high engagement rate (unless you’re Taco Bell).

4: You’re probably not maintaining a consistent ‘voice’. Tweet This

Create a persona to represent your brand on social media outlets. Just the same as you want to create consistent brand image throughout your marketing efforts, it’s important that your social messaging carries a similar consistency. Understanding your audience will go a long way in determining what this persona should be. Is your audience mostly female or male? Are they Boomers, Gen X or Gen Y? Is your relationship with the audience professional (B2B), or mostly consumers? These are all questions that will help develop your social personality and help deliver consistent tone throughout all social platforms and among your social team.

5. You’re probably not posting the right mix of content. Tweet This

This is a big one. A lot of companies are great at posting on a regular basis. What a lot of companies are not good at is mixing up the types of posts they’re making. I’m a big fan of the 4-1-1- rule. The premise behind this rule is that for every 6 posts you make on social, four of them should be new pieces of content, one should be a re-share and one should be a self-serving post. Confused? Here’s an example, let’s say you run social media for Burton Snowboards. Your four new pieces of content could be ‘Proper Snowboard Care’, ‘Best Mountains for Riding Powder’, ‘Getting Started: Making Turns’ & ‘Best Cameras for On-Hill Use’. See how these are all relevant to the audience but not necessarily trying to sell a product? Now for your re-share, a photo from Shaun White’s page of him practicing that new ridiculous trick. And finally, for your self-serving post, ‘Want to ride what the gold medal winner rides? Check out his/her setup on our website!’ By mixing up the types of content you post, you’re keeping things interesting for your audience and staying top of mind with them.

Five Things You're Probably Not Doing With Your Social Campaign

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