Although social media has been around for a significant amount of time now (in internet years), there’s still a lot of confusion surrounding it.

At this point, marketers and business owners understand that social media is important. But how do we really capitalize on it? How do we turn our social media from a blank page with zero likes to a booming social hub? 

In today’s article, we’ll be looking at few ways you can do this.

Attracting “Likes” “Tweets” and “Follows

This is where most people get stuck. Sure, we could talk all day about the benefits of having a large following, but until you get that following, all these benefits are meaningless.

In reality, attracting likes is a lot more straightforward than most people think. Essentially, it’s about driving traffic to your site, then converting that traffic to “likes” and “follows”. Therefore, instead of worrying about how you can attract followers on the platform itself, it’s best to focus on increasing conversion rates on your site.

Now, if you really want to stick to the platform, you can use the ad networks on each platform. Facebook ads in particular are a great way to quickly get a large number of likes. That being said, in many cases, you’ll be spending a large amount of money to get a good following.

We ran a test on one of our sites and ended up spending $2,000 for about 5,000 likes. Now, there are a lot of variables at play here, but as we discovered, spending our time and resources on optimizing the homepage is—in most cases—more economically feasible.

It’s a great idea to include a box showing all the people who follow you on the sidebar of your site. Facebook supplies these… it’s a simple matter of copy and paste.

Additionally, putting “like” and “tweet” buttons on top and below your posts is a great way to get your content shared on Facebook.

Methods of Interaction

Once you have a decent number of Facebook fans or Twitter followers, you can start growing them exponentially. At this point, you should focus on interaction, as this will help you build your profile more than your website.

Just like optimizing conversions is a great way to get started, once you hit a certain point, investing your time in Facebook and Twitter interaction will be more beneficial than spending resources on flooding your site with new traffic (this is after you already have a decent following).

On both Facebook and Twitter, you should be following like-minded individuals or businesses. The more people you have on your page that is interested in your brand, message or product, the more likely you are to become an influencer on that platform.

There are a few ways you can really get interaction going on your Facebook page…

One way is to share branded pictures and quotes with your audience, and say “if you like this, please share!” This way, if you post a quote that really resonates with people, they’ll be willing to share it with people they know. If those people like it, there’s a good chance they’ll like your page.

If you’re going to do this, do it consistently!

You should be sharing on your social media platforms frequently, and with a system. Each one is different, so pay attention to your followers. If you get more likes, shares or tweets during a specific part of the day, keep that marked in your schedule. You can use platforms such as Hootsuite to help manage your posts, so at least you are not sitting in front of the computer all day, it only looks like you are.

Another great way to engage your audience is to ask a question. If you combine this with a picture of a quote, you’ve got a great recipe for awesome interaction. If you don’t ask your followers for anything, chances are you won’t get anything. So, why not step outside of the box and interact with them? Ask them what they think, what they would do, if they have anything to share, anything really, just involved them and tempt them to respond. The more interaction you get, the more likely you are to be seen by others as worthy.

I should make a note here about using posting tools. There are many businesses that decide to spend a few hours a week loading the tool up with posts and schedule them throughout the week. These businesses that go overboard don’t think your audience doesn’t notice that. Keep the postings consistent, and don’t just throw outbursts of posts all at once. One of the large problems with business owners using the scheduling tools is outdated material. Yeah, that story may have been groundbreaking on Tuesday, but by the time you schedule it to post on Friday, no one is talking about it. Use the tool to post your unique content instead, and spend some real-time on the social media platforms to share others' content, make comments, or like postings.

Keep your posts informative, useful, or at the very least, entertaining. You want people to remember who you are and what you had to say. The goal of social media is to establish yourself as an expert in a specific arena, so when people need to know something about your industry, they ask you, and when they need to make a purchase, they buy from you!

There’s nothing wrong with being funny, just don’t lose your professionalism. A little humor in your post can go a long way to humanize your business but keep in mind, you have a large audience, and not everyone will find your humor tasteful if you’re not careful. Don’t eliminate an entire demographic, just to make a small portion of your audience chuckle.

So, how much should you be tweeting or posting?

There is no magic number for your amount of Tweets or posts on any of the social network platforms, at least not one that fits everyone. The best way to gauge your audience is to learn who they are. Look at how often they post, when they comment the most, and what they actually share. If your content is good, and you post frequently enough for them to keep you in their minds, your golden, but not all audiences are the same.

Start with a few posts a week. Try different days, different times, until you find which ones are getting noticed the most. If your audience is a professional community, most likely filled with people behind desks at a large office, consider posting before office hours, during lunch breaks, and right after office hours for the most attention. Chances are, they are not browsing social media platforms throughout the day, not if they are successful at their job anyway.

Offer Exclusive Deals

When you are posting for your business, which should be minimal, offer, something exclusive to the viewers who like, share, or retweet what you had to say. Sales pitches should be kept to a bare minimum; otherwise, your audience will feel as though you are spamming them. So, when you do post about your business, make sure you are offering something to the audience, and not just shoving sales copy down their throats.

Lastly, when you’re sharing on Facebook, always keep Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm in mind. 

Simply put, the more interaction your posts are getting, the more people Facebook will show them to. So if you’re only getting 1-2 likes a post and you have 1,000 fans, it’s likely only 100 or so will see them. On the other hand, if you’re getting 15+ likes on a post with 1,000 fans, a significant amount will see them.

Hey, and when you see someone respond to your post….acknowledge them! Anytime someone shares, likes, or comments on your posts, you NEED to be responsive. Of course, you can’t be on your computer all the time, but with mobile phones and other devices, there is no reason why you couldn’t respond quickly. Say a quick thank you, like something of theirs, or respond to the comment with something complimentary and appreciative. Don’t leave them hanging in cyberspace like a lonely high five that went unsmacked, otherwise, they are likely to never stick their hand up in the hair for you again.

Therefore, when posting something on Facebook, do your best to get as many likes, comments, and shares. This ensures that more and more people will see the post.

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