I just read a great article. You read them all the time yourself. But what can you do with the great content you just consumed? Do you wish you could work SMARTER, not HARDER, at social media? Here are 7 ways to get better at social media:
- Future blog – I opened up a draft blog post and posted the article’s URL into the body. Depending on the topic (in the subject line), I may already have several similar articles. This is how I will put together new blog posts. For example, I have draft blog posts on topics related to SEO, email marketing, and many more. When I sit down to write a blog post, I can easily open up the post in my DRAFT folder and I have a head start on a great article with resource links already in place!
- Twitter #1 – I will immediately tweet the article. Usually, I can accomplish this by clicking on the “Tweet this” button at the bottom of the article. If you are logged into Twitter, it is an easy way to share what you just read.
- Twitter #2 – I love Buffer! Using the Buffer app, I can add this good article to my schedule of tweets this week. Perhaps I tweet it the first time on Monday morning, but in my queue of tweets, it will go out again on Thursday. Perhaps people do not see the article the first time around, but they will catch it later int he week. Check out Buffer to help you manage your tweets in an amazing way!
- Twitter #3 – Because many articles are good enough that I want my followers to see even a third time, I will then schedule a tweet to go out much later. I can do this via HootSuite, which allows me to schedule my tweets almost down to the very minute I want. So if Twitter #1 goes out on Monday morning, I could schedule a second tweet to go out sometime on a Friday at the end of the month afternoon around 3:15pm (when I think people’s minds start drifting toward the weekend). Or I could schedule the tweet out as far as 3 weeks (great for having high-quality tweets go out while you are away on summer vacation!) Or if I know an article will be timely around a specific event or holiday, I can schedule it to go out then. I have found past Valentine’s Day marketing articles in December that I can schedule to post around the first part of February.
- Facebook Page – because I can schedule posting on our Marketing Twins Facebook Page as well, I will sometimes copy the URL into the status update box and schedule it to post when I want. Again, during a busy season or vacation/holiday period, scheduling your social media posts just makes sense. You can also link your Facebook page to your Buffer account (see No. 3 above) but I rarely do this because with just a few more minutes of work, I can space out my content instead of blanketing my social club of followers with the same content on several different channels. Plus, since our Marketing Twins Facebook Page is automatically linked to tweet out anything posted on Facebook, I actually get a 4th tweet on this same article.
- Pinterest – because I have uploaded the “Pin It” bookmarklet on to my desktop AND to my iPhone bookmarks, I can also pin articles to board in a split second. One of our other divisions helps private Christian schools with ideas for marketing their school – check out the Pinterest boards for our School Marketing division. If you don’t know how to get these tools, read: “Do you use these Pinterest shortcuts?”
- Linkedin – why not share this article with your Linkedin followers, too? Or better, hop into a targeted Linkedin group talking about things your audience is interested in and post this article to the group. Being a resource person is a rare find in social media – help out your audience and they will love you for it!
There are other things as well but these are 7 ways I just took one single article and took my social media to another level! There will be people who see the activity when it happens, but others will return to the Linkedin group, the Pinterest boards, my Twitter history or our Facebook page and find that useful article. And this all takes maybe 10 minutes at most!
-Randy
If we can help you be 7x better at social media, set up a free social media consultation with Donny!
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