You’ve probably heard numerous times that making the necessary investments in quality content is critical to getting successful results from using social media. And while that statement is completely true, it’s important to understand that quality content is just one factor in a larger equation. In order to maximize results, it’s also important to take factors like social media posting times into consideration. Since when you post can have a major impact on how well content performs, let’s take a look at some social media publishing guidelines:
How Often Should You Post?
In order to optimize your social media posting efforts, the first question you need to answer is how often you should post. As with all the topics we’re going to cover in this post, the answer depends on the specific social network. For Facebook and Google Plus, aim for 3 to 10 posts per week. On Twitter, you should publish at least one update a day. The ideal frequency for LinkedIn is 2 to 5 weekly posts, while Pinterest can be as high as 5 to 10 posts per day.
Just as your business isn’t exactly the same as others, not every social media audience has identical preferences. So while the above guidelines and all the others we’re going to cover are very good starting points, be sure to analyze how well the content is performing and adjust your efforts accordingly.
What Kind of Content Should You Post?
One thing to keep in mind about social media sharing is you don’t want to duplicate the exact same content across every account. So if you’re trying to decide which content to post on each, here are some ideas to help you choose the right social media publishing options:
When Should You Post?
The last element in creating a successful strategy is knowing the best time of posting on social media. For Twitter, 12 PM and 6 PM are the peak times for getting people to click a link you share, while 5 PM has the highest number of retweets. On Facebook, 1 PM is the best hour for shares, while 3 PM is when you can generate the highest number of clicks.
In addition to the major social media platforms, email can play a big part in your online marketing. When it comes to using social media for lead generation, getting users to submit their email addresses can work very well. Once you’re ready to send a promotional email to the people on your list, 6 AM to 10 AM and then 7 PM to 10 PM are the two best times of the day to reach out.
Although this may seem like a lot to remember and implement, if you want a simple way to optimize all of your postings, you can use our social media publishing tool to manage all of your activities. If you’re looking for the simplest way to stay on top of your company’s social media efforts, be sure to take a look at the Send Social Media Dashboard 7-day trial!
Many businesses have discovered that social media is an ideal way to connect and engage with people who are passionate about what the organization does. If your nonprofit is currently using social media but you’re not sure how effective your strategy is, learning about which social media analytics for businesses matter most will allow you to properly analyze your current strategy and make the right adjustments going forward. So to help you get started, here are the five metrics you need to know about:
Conversions
A common misconception about conversions is if a nonprofit isn’t directly selling anything on their website, this metric isn’t relevant. However, since the term “conversions” can refer to anything from enlisting volunteers to getting someone to send a message to their friends, this is actually the most important type of social media analytics for nonprofits. This metric allows you to clearly see how many social media users who visit your website take one or more of the actions that you want.
Overall Traffic
One thing that’s very important to understand about social media analytics is it takes some time to build up a strong following. And in most cases, the direct social traffic to your website will follow the same gradual growth curve. So what you want to keep an eye out for are any sudden spikes or drops in gradual traffic. If you see one, you’ll want to dig into your data to see what caused it. Then this will help you understand what to do more of or avoid in the future.
Sentiment
Even though your organization may not need to provide direct customer support, it’s still helpful to understand whether the majority of social media conversations about your nonprofit are positive or negative. This can be especially useful for understanding if you’re going down the right path with a new initiative.
Engagement
Since it can take time to convert a social media user into someone who donates or does something else for your organization, it’s easy to see why engagement is a key part of effective social media analytics for businesses. By continuously focusing on increasing engagement, you’ll ultimately increase your conversion rate. Measuring engagement can also be helpful for determining what kind of content does best on specific social networks.
Followers
The reason this metric is last on the list is while it can have value, it’s a metric that many businesses emphasize too much. One of the most common social media mistakes that businesses make is only focusing on how many followers they’ve accumulated. If a social media profile has a lot of followers but very few of them are actually engaging on a regular basis, it’s going to be hard to drive meaningful results. So while it’s worth keeping an eye on the number of people following your organization, focusing most of your attention on the other metrics will help you the most.
Even though this may seem like a lot of information to collect and maintain, our social media analytics dashboard can make it easy to stay on top of the metrics that matter most for your nonprofit organization. If you’re looking for the simplest way to stay on top of your company’s social media efforts, be sure to take a look at the Send Social Media Dashboard 7-day trial!
A social media dashboard can be an invaluable tool for businesses that are spending any amount of time utilizing social media platforms for building their brand and marketing to potential & existing customers. And because this type of tool can deliver so much value, there’s no shortage of companies who offer one. However, it’s important to understand that not all social media dashboards are equal in terms of what they can do for your business. Here are 10 features every social media dashboard must have:
Continue reading
If you want your best content to get the social media attention it deserves, you need for it to be noticed by influencers. And since people who fit the profile for being a customer of your business use social media, it’s important to have a way to bring them in as leads. While both of these tasks can seem like major challenges, the good news is you can accomplish each one with the help of social media monitoring.
What’s the Best Way to Find Relevant Influencers?
Just because someone is a social media influencer doesn’t mean they’re going to be interested in your content. In order to find the right influencers, you need to find people within your industry and/or niche. Fortunately, this is something that a quality social media monitoring tool will make easy for you to do.
With the help of the right tool, you’ll be able to identify people who are sharing content that’s related to your business. Next, you’ll be able to see what kind of reach and engagement that content generates. From there, it will be possible for you to start building relationships with the influencers who are originally sharing the content.
Tips for Using Social Media Monitoring to Find Leads
What’s great about the strategy outlined above is not only will you be able to find the influencers who are originally sharing the content, but you’ll also have an opportunity to identify the people who are interacting with that content. Since that interaction is a clear sign that people have an interest in your industry and/or niche, there’s a very good chance that they may be ideal leads for your business.
While this type of identification is a very good starting point that can help you generate leads, it’s just one of many options for social media lead generation. For Facebook, two proven strategies are competitions and customized tabs. On Twitter, Lead Generation Cards can work very well when utilized correctly.
What’s really appealing about Lead Generation Cards is even if you’re in a B2B industry that may present challenges in terms of shareable content, the targeting provided through this program may be exactly what you need to reach the right users. The same can be true for using the various targeting tools that LinkedIn provides.
Finally, while it can take extra effort to create quality videos for YouTube, this platform can be very useful for generating leads. Not only can YouTube videos allow you to target specific search engine result pages, but the format is very conducive to driving leads. By providing an introduction to useful information and then asking viewers to enter their email addresses if they want more, you’ll find that it’s possible to achieve a very strong conversion rate. Having that ability is one of many reasons why YouTube is an excellent social media for business tool.
If you’re ready to start using a tool that will make it possible for you to identify influencers and find leads, take a look at all the features our social media monitoring dashboard has to offer. If you’re looking for the simplest way to stay on top of your company’s social media efforts, be sure to take a look at the Send Social Media Dashboard 7-day trial!
If you want your business to get the most out of social media, it’s important that you know how to use this medium to engage with people. And while there are some social media engagement best practices you can use to get started, it’s important to continuously measure your efforts and adjust accordingly.
Since you want to be sure that you’re using the right metrics to make strategy adjustments, here are the nine metrics you need to know about:
Referral Traffic
If you look at your website’s analytics data, you will be able to see where the visitors are coming from. One of your goals should be to continuously increase the number of visitors who come to your site from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and any other social networks you’re using.
Audience Growth Rate
This metric is specific to Facebook. Because it expresses new followers as a percent-change over time, it’s very useful for seeing which points in your social media for business usage have led to the most growth.
CTR
One way to improve social engagement is by experimenting with different update titles and formats. Then by comparing how many people click the different variations, you’ll be able to learn more about what people respond to best.
Conversion
Although this metric can be a little tricky, the right tool can make it possible for you to get some insight into how many leads or new customers you’re gaining directly from social media.
Customer Service Utilization
This is a very interesting metric. By using the following formula, Avg. Time x Costs Per Hour x Customer Service Inquiries Completed = Savings, you’ll be able to gauge just how effective social media is as a customer support tool.
Potential Reach
This metric refers to the combined followers of the people following you. While it can be useful in certain situations, it can also be misleading. The reason is it can set unrealistic expectations. So if you’re ever looking at this metric or using it in a presentation, be sure to provide the proper context.
Influence
This metric is closely related to potential reach. And as with potential reach, even though there may be a situation where it makes sense to refer to this metric, you’re ultimately going to get much more actionable information by focusing on the other social media engagement metrics on this list.
Bounce Rate
While it’s fairly common for a significant percentage of social media users to view one page of a website and then leave, focusing on this metric can help you come up with new ways to get social media visitors to view more than just one page of your site.
Average Engagement Rate
This metric can be useful for keeping a finger on the pulse of your social media activity. While occasional drops are inevitable, if you notice a continuous drop in social media engagement, it’s probably a sign that you need to rethink what you’re sharing and posting.
If you would like an easy way to view and make decisions based on the most important social media metrics, be sure to take a look at our social media engagement tool. If you’re looking for the simplest way to stay on top of your company’s social media efforts, be sure to take a look at the Send Social Media Dashboard 7-day trial!
Although there was a time when many people questioned the validity of social media for business purposes, that time has passed. Since businesses across countless industries are boosting their bottom lines through different social media strategies, let’s take a look at ten ways you can use social platforms to empower your business:
Learn About Your Target Audience
If you want to know more about people who may be potential customers for your business, social media is a great way to learn that type of information. Because people share so much information through social platforms on a daily basis, all you need is a tool that can help you monitor and analyze the information that’s most relevant to your business.
Target the Right Audience
Not only is social media an excellent tool for gaining insight into your audience, but it can also enable you to directly interact with that audience.
Find New Customers
When it comes to sharing content, you want what you post to get as much exposure as possible throughout your target audience. But just because your target audience is likely wider than strictly potential customers doesn’t mean that social media is only for marketing. One reason so many companies are on board with social media for business purposes is that it’s possible to generate quality leads directly through social media.
Reduce the Cost of Lead Generation
While social media probably isn’t the only option you want to use for lead generation, given the fact that it’s very cost-effective, it should be the main component of your overall strategy for generating new leads.
Get Instant Feedback
One of the great things about using social media for business is if you want to get candid feedback for a new product or any other topic, you can start collecting reactions from your target demographic in a matter of minutes.
Stay Ahead of Competitors
As you start formalizing a social media strategy for your business, be sure to include competitive research. By monitoring your competitors, as well as your industry as a whole, you’ll be able to find many opportunities to stay ahead of the curve.
Increase Website Traffic
Social media for business efforts shouldn’t exist in a bubble. Since platforms like Facebook and Twitter are designed for sharing, that’s exactly what you should do with the content you create for your website.
Give Content the Exposure It Deserves
As mentioned in the last point, social sites can help you drive traffic directly to new blog posts and other content. Additionally, there have been multiple experiments that show when content gets social media attention, it ends up ranking better for relevant terms in Google.
Provide Customer Support
Thanks to the instant nature of social media, it can be a great tool for providing very fast support to customers.
Build An Even Stronger Brand
By implementing a social media marketing strategy, you’ll be able to continually increase brand awareness for your business.
If you want a powerful tool to help manage all of your social activity, our social media dashboard may be the perfect fit for your needs. If you’re looking for the simplest way to stay on top of your company’s social media efforts, be sure to take a look at the Send Social Media Dashboard 7-day trial!
