How people view social media has made a real shift in recent months. People and companies largely viewed this “fun” medium as entertainment when it first started up, but now social media means business. Literally. According to a recent Shareaholic study that tracked 300,000 websites over a four-month period, social media referrals now lead to 30 percent of overall traffic to websites.
Is your company hitting that mark with social media?
If you fall short, it might be time to employ a new strategy. Or, are you just hungry to improve your already-great sales and growth numbers? Either way, it’s time to make social media go the distance for your organization.
In his Entrepreneur article, Firas Kittaneh explores “11 Unusual Social Media Tips to Drive Branding, Clicks and Conversions,” generalized and summarized (not in entirety) below.
Develop custom-formatted tweets. It’s hard to stand out in live feeds with the same tried and true formatting. So, mix it up! Use exciting fonts, colors, graphics, or even line breaks to get people to notice your message.
Create longer posts. While Twitter is a perfect home for short and sweet messages, consider doing lengthier and content-packed posts on different platforms such as a blog.
Make Facebook groups. This is a perfect forum to bring together your diehard fans and members of your organization. Here, they can choose to receive updates, notifications, and the latest and greatest offers from your organization.
Prioritize calls-to-action. With a simple call-to-action button in a Facebook post, you can easily maximize the number of customer leads without much effort.
Put yourself everywhere. Make sure your fans are present across all your social media homes. Give people reasons to follow you on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and make sure your content is not copied and pasted on all the channels. Keep it unique and interesting in all the places where you live.
Play matchmaker. If you facilitate interactions between your customers, with your company as the common interest and shared link, you are strengthening the bond between your people and your company. Start up the conversation with a question and let your most loyal and engaged fans enjoy the comradery with like-minded people.
Crowdsource user-generated (visual!) content. Capture those moments that truly speak to the heart of your company and make sure that everyone sees them. (Pixlee is a popular platform to help make this happen).
Don’t be cookie cutter. Predictability and by the book content is boring. Don’t be who you think you are expected to be, but instead be who you are. Be funny, take calculated risks, and let your true self shine through.
Be honest. Whatever actions you take, even if it’s with forward and brutal honesty, hold your chin high. Customers appreciate when you are authentic, so always put your brand integrity in the spotlight.
Be positive. No one wants a Debbie Downer on social media, so portray happiness and optimism in your content. If the issue is difficult, be constructive and as uplifting as you can be. Positivity is contagious.
Provide structure. If you ask a question to your followers, give them context to how you want it answered. With a little guidance and structure (as opposed to an open-ended format), you will get more usable feedback.
And, if you don’t succeed…
Try and try again. There really is no such thing as a “failed” social media strategy. If it doesn’t work, you restructure, and you try different things. With a little tweaking and creativity, you will discover the social media strategy that will get you the most sales, new customer acquisitions, and overall brand strength. Keep at it and don’t give up.
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Reference: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235596