Modern Social media has given people the power to share and stay connected. Every person can be an active contributor as opposed to the traditional media where only a handful of celebrities had a fan-following. Facebook has seen a phenomenal growth in the last 10 years and changed the way people ‘connect’. The advent of Facebook paved the way for Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Modern Social media is not just about connecting with people anymore. It has become a major social platform for activities like shopping, cooking, marketing, and dating, to expressing political, social and economical views.
On a lighter note, we can safely say that social media has the power to make or break businesses and even relationships. So powerful is the impact of social media that it can be effectively used for marketing, commercial activities, and a forum for expressing views. And hence, we need to influence the modern social media to derive optimum results out of it.
As per above statistics, 23% of brand marketers are making strategies to influence the social media but are in the struggling phase. About 15% of consumers use social media for searching local businesses. Can these figures go up? Will brand marketers find success in their ventures?
We will discuss the ways in which social media is effectively influenced and how we can further use the social media platform to connect with the target audience.
1. Share What You Love Or Provide Valuable Content For Audience
You have spent hours creating a great article, revised the content thousands of times before the final piece is ready. But alas, you still have miles to go. You have to promote your content where the real crowd is. Go online and upload your work. And yes, click ”share”. The share button has magical powers. It can share your work across a wide network that goes beyond your network of social followers. And if the content is compelling, people will share it across their networks and it will reach out to a greater audience.
We cannot force anybody to share our content. Our work will have to speak for itself. Therefore the content has to be meaningful and relevant. While sharing the content always take heed of the target audience. The content/ brand have to be shared in the relevant network.
As per a global survey, 56% of content sharing mechanism takes place on Facebook. The most active sharing groups are the teenagers and youngsters.
Quick tips to encourage ‘shares’ of your social media content:
- Make your content accessible – Organize your website and make sure that the ’share’ button is prominent. No user will search for it.
- Write catchy titles – Use keywords and specific and crisp headlines.
- Make ‘numbered’ lists and ‘why’ posts to generate the consumer’s interest and curiosity.
2. Use SocialPilot to Post Consistently
The social media is flooded by countless social networks like Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Google Plus, Twitter, and more. Just logging in and out could be a mammoth task. While posting content, sometimes we miss out on the important networks.
SocialPilot is an amazing app where you can sync all your social networking accounts. All you have to do is to create an account in SocialPilot and ‘connect’ all social media profiles. You can schedule all your media posts well in advance, create a single post, and post it on various forums.
Its custom Facebook branding features an eloquent feature that improves the visibility of your blog post on Facebook. You can replace the “published by SocialPilot” by “Published by your Brand name”. This not only boosts your fan following, it gives an authentic image to your brand. SocialPilot is ranked at #692 for Internet and telecom /social networking.
You can monitor your posts manage different social networks, and schedule content posting in different time zones. Posting content at the correct time greatly enhances its impact. SocialPilot comes to your rescue when you are running out of unique content ideas. It is a great online tool for bloggers and content marketers who want to create a lasting impact on the audience.
3. Focus on One Social Media Marketing Strategy
It’s wonderful to churn out posts and share them consistently on social media platforms. But doing too many things together might make you look over enthusiastic. Do not operate in a vacuum. Understand what your audience wants, create quality content, device a marketing plan, and take the plunge. Do not switch your marketing strategy from one to the other. We have forever heard the term “Content is King”. So concentrate on your content. Add value to the content by adding statistics, citations, images, links, infographics, and other references.
Top three things that make content effective:
- Relevance to the target audience (58%)
- Interesting and Compelling Storytelling (57%)
- Triggers a Response/comments/discussions (54%)
Concentrate on these three factors to influence the social media. Make a social media channel plan and produce content for relevant channels only. As an influencer, you should know exactly what your audience wants and shape your content in a way that people take notice. Instagram may be the trendiest and fastest growing site around, but you cannot use it to build your job connections. For that, LinkedIn is the best option. Therefore, do your homework and stick to a single plan of action.
4. Make a Strong Network Within Your Community
As per the report issued by eMarketer, “Worldwide Social Network Users: 2013 Forecast and Comparative Estimates” – Out of the 2.7 billion of the total internet population, around 1.73 billion are expected to be on social media networks by the end of 2013. By 2017, this figure will reach 2.55 billion. Wow! So all bloggers, marketers, and content curators, stay online, social networks are the place where all the action is set to take place.
Celebrities, authors, and other eminent personalities send out public responses to their followers on twitter and Facebook. Using special applications on twitter, you can also send out personalized messages, to connect more closely to your fans.
Generate impeccable social media content to develop a fan following. Engage with your audience and listen to their suggestions. Incorporate their ideas at relevant places. Come up with better content as per their demands and requests. A good fan base will be the best marketers of your brand. Trying to establish a base at random places might lead you to dead ends.
As we see in the image above, if you manage to win the trust of your followers, they will share your content to networks beyond your community. They will be the best advocates of your content.
5. Give Due Credit And Acknowledgment to People
Your target audience loves you. They eagerly wait for your next launch/release. But do you give them due recognition?
In the above screenshots, two giant companies Walmart and KitKat, instantly reply and acknowledge their customers and develop the ‘personal bond’.
A social media influencer will not just influence his audience, but stay in their minds. Always express your gratitude for their words of praise. Build relationships and trust with your audience. As a brand promoter, you can run online contests to engage the audience. Provide genuine and authentic gifts to the winners. Conduct activities on a personal level so that your fans develop an ardent network around you. Behavioral tools are available online that allow influencers to judge the behavioral aspects of their audience.
6. Subscribe Feed of Top Blogs
The most important social media activity might have absolutely no link with you, but if you are ‘socially listening’; you could sway the situation in your favor.
Tumblr is one the most aggressive blogging platforms. Enthusiasts from all spheres come together to publish and share their creativities. You can subscribe to any of these blogs as per your suitability and observe them.
The top blogs have the largest traffic, which in turn paves way for comments, discussions, complaints and exchange of ideas. If you are subscribed to the feed, you can monitor the blog, and who knows, grab an opportunity before anybody else does! We have heard the phrase ‘right person, at the right place, and at the right time’.
The use of a blog for B2B marketing has increased tremendously in 2016. Websites that have a blog are 434% more likely to get indexed pages and companies with blogs have a very high chance of getting links to their websites.
With blogs driving such enormous traffic towards their websites, influencers must subscribe feeds to top ranking blogs. Some top online marketing blogs are not just restricted to a niche they cover a bit of everything. So if you are subscribed to a top-notch blog like HubSpot, BlueGlass, or KISSmetrics, you can influence the social media in a significant way.
7. Persistence
The internet is flooded with a bizarre amount of data. And human attention span is as short as 8 seconds. So, it’s like the survival of the fittest. As a brand/content marketer, you have to constantly come up with interesting blogs and articles to hold on to the reader’s attention. Brands and marketing experts have to keep re-connecting with their clients by producing lots of content. This content, of course, should be relevant to the community of fans.
Post your content on channels like Youtube and Instagram, though Facebook still reigns in the number game. It is the most visited social media platform and has 1.5 billion monthly users. So keep posting till people are compelled to sit up and notice!!
8. Participate in Local and National Events
It’s incredible to see how some people have thousands of followers on Twitter and innumerable friends on Facebook. With the social networks becoming stronger, the ability of a person to influence the audience has increased. So if we become active participants, we can strongly influence modern social media.
SouthbayPavillion uses the concept of integrating live tweets to its events. It uses funky and attractive writing style to become a ‘trending topic’ on Twitter.
Social events like contests go viral if promoted in a proper fashion. Join forums, discussion hubs, and attend online seminars. These events could be strategic in changing the dynamics of your brand. The idea is to get noticed by the right strata of people.
9. Be Updated, Savvy and Use Word Terminologies# Hashtags, Emojis, and More#
Emojis were the sweetest thing created for the net. Funny, vibrant, and happy, these icons started gaining popularity with the online audience.
Bridget Harvey, senior manager, Twitter brand strategy, recognized the emoji craze and evolved the hashtag emoji. Ever since the first #hashtag# was posted on twitter, no conversations among youngsters, friends, and fans are complete without the hashtag.
Red Bull and Coke came up with exciting Hashtag campaigns. These campaigns were highly effective in influencing the social media. People shared successful stories with a hashtag #Share a coke on Twitter. It was a rage which eventually caught on with one and all.
#Hashtags, #emojis, and other internet acronyms (#hundreds of them#) are a great way of posting amazing content that influences the modern social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Google+.
10. Be Authentic
The best way to influence the audience is by first earning their respect. Always be unique, creative, and original in posting social media content.
In the above screenshot, we see people appreciating Jenny- Lyn Allen on launching an intergenerational eating program. Relevant, genuine, and positive work is always met with great appreciation on social media.
Modern Social Media has become a bigger aspect of our lives than we actually realize. Add frills to your post by including images, videos, and snippets. If you churn out interesting articles which are free of plagiarism and grasp the client’s attention, you are on the right path. It’s your personal voice that will leave a lasting impression on your target audience.
