Check out these five, easy-to-implement social media hacks that will help your business to grow faster online and keep you front of mind with your followers, prospects and customers.
1. Reply to every single comment
When you take the time to share something on social media and someone else takes the time to comment on it, you're probably pretty flattered (I know I am). That's just good manners, right?
Well, you'll be pleased to know that your good manners also have a real business upside: Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram value comments more than they do likes.
So, when someone takes the time to add an actual comment to your post rather than just click "like", they're doing you a big favour. You, in turn, should then take the time to reply to their comment.
But don't just stop there. Try to keep the momentum going by asking them a question in your comment that will then hopefully spur them on to comment further.
You'll be surprised how big of a positive impact this will have on the algorithms on these platforms.
2. Open LinkedIn posts with short sentences
Whenever you post anything on LinkedIn, be sure to make the first 2 to 4 sentences very short - only 3 to 4 words long. And ensure that each of the sentences is on its own separate line.
Why? Because once your content has been posted, the reader will have to click on a "see more" link to view the rest of your post.
Doing this tells LinkedIn that people want to engage with your content and see more of it. And because this counts as engagement, it means that your post will be seen by more people and reach a wider audience.
3. It's not all about you
One of the biggest mistakes people make starting out with social media is thinking that because they have a business and want to make it successful, they have to be constantly promoting all of their products and services all the time.
This couldn't be further from the truth.
If all you ever do is sell, sell, sell, you will quickly bore your followers to tears and they will simply stop coming back to see you.
Instead, make sure at least two of your posts each week are about something that's interesting to your followers but has nothing to do with your business.
Choose a positive quote, an amusing or stunning picture, an inspiring story or local interest item. Any of these things would be a good place to start.
Remember, it's not called social media for nothing. People want to see that you're social, that you are engaged with your audience and want to share material you feel is useful or interesting to them. This also increases your page authority and will make you stand out more via the algorithms with your future posts.
4. Make good use of Facebook and Instagram Stories
These typically get an incredible amount of interest from viewers and it wouldn't be a bad idea, if you can do it, to share multiple stories each day.
And on Instagram, don't be bashful - explicitly ask your followers to swipe up on your stories. You will get so much more engagement this way.
If you're not familiar with this feature of Instagram, the kind folks at sprout social have produced this article that you'll want to read.
5. Cross-promote
And last but not least, if you're on multiple different social platforms, be sure to invite people from each platform to follow you on your other platforms.
So, for instance, if you're on Twitter and Facebook, why not send out a tweet asking your Twitter followers to visit and follow you on Facebook? And the next time you write a LinkedIn article, be sure to ask your readers to follow you on Instagram and your other social platforms.
In this way, when you post and promote content about your business, it's more likely that all of your different followers and readers will see it.
Because let's face it: One of the big open secrets about social media is that regardless of the number of followers you have on any given platform, whenever you post something, only a very small percentage of them will ever see it.
And this is by design. Particularly on Facebook.
Facebook says that they do this so that people will see authentic content and not be sold to too often or too heavily. But for us as business owners, the bottom line is that Facebook wants us to pay for ads.
It's that simple. And fair enough.
After all, we don't have to pay a fee when we set up our Facebook page and the platform affords us at least the potential to reach many thousands of people. It's kinda hard to complain when you think of it that way.
I hope you have found these 5 social media hacks to be useful.
If you have any questions about any of these points or about anything to do with social media in general, please do visit the Contact Page of my website and drop me a line or take the opportunity to book a free, no-obligation 30 minute chat with me. I'll be happy to discuss all your social media options with you and even give you some free advice about what you've been doing up to this point.
All the best,
Will