some of these can be automated.
by becky livingston
the accountant’s social media handbook
social media should be a major part of your business marketing plan.
related: four rules for setting boundaries in a social and mobile world | maximizing social media: the importance of people | the cloud at work | a legacy of leadership must extend to diversity | the persona: a closer look | 3 challenges in shifting to product management | tips from a veteran product manager
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here are 20 ideas to help you build your small business.
you can use many of these ideas on one or more platforms; they are all designed to help increase engagement, develop leads and grow your brand.
- use hashtags. hashtagify.me is a great tool to help you find relevant hashtags for your client industries, your service lines and your content topics. it can also help you find influencers and see the conversations already taking place around a hashtag. remember, when you’re creating a hashtag, look it up first to make sure it’s not being used in a conversation you do not want your brand associated with.
- boost your productivity with scheduling tools. hootsuite, buffer and dlvr.it help you preschedule posts so you’re not tied to your computer. social media is not a set-it-and-forget-it tool. you must engage, comment, share and post to be effective.
- generate new content ideas with answerthepublic.com, where you can see what questions the public is asking about a given topic. for example, if you enter “business audit,” you will see questions like “what does a business audit mean?”, “what is audit business risk?”, and “what does a business audit consist of?” all of these are great topics for blog content and white papers.
- use graphics in all social media posts. canva (canva.com) is a free, easy-to-use way to create beautiful graphics for the major social media platforms. it’s also great for presentation graphics, booklet covers, brochures, online ads and more.
- spend a few dollars to increase your social media reach on facebook, twitter and linkedin posts. some platforms charge as little as $5 to boost your posts, expanding your reach outside your existing follower base.
- increase twitter’s 140-character limit using this trick: type a tweet as you normally would, but end it with an ellipse (…) or cliffhanger of some kind. then reply to your own tweet in your twitter stream, but remove the mention of your name, and keep typing. watch this video for more on this tip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojrp22ixqxy.
- avoid the dreaded linkedin blocked profile with this google search hack. let’s say you’re looking for leads located in indiana who mention “restaurant” in their profiles. go to google’s search box and type in site:linkedin.com “restaurant” indiana. you should get search results of people who’ve mentioned the term in their profile, as well as other linkedin content and groups associated with that term.
- get handwritten social content. it can be tedious to create multiple tweets from the same blog article; missinglettr.com offers you a solution. for just $15/month for a personal account, or $40/month for a business account, the tool will create social media content based on your blog content – and it will schedule that content over the course of the year. it integrates with twitter, linkedin, googleplus and facebook.
- install the click to tweet plugin on your wordpress site. then when writing content, you can add clickable moments that your readers can share quickly. no typing is needed on their part, and your handle is included in the repost.
- listen in on others’ social conversations. this is just as important as posting. if you’re not listening to the conversation, how do you get involved? hootsuite, tweetreach, social mention, howsociable and other tools will help you discover the who, what, where, why, when and how around the topics others are talking about.
- filter comments based on keywords in instagram. this is a great way to organize comments by keyword, particularly if you’ve experienced trolls on your account. you can filter by comments or even turn off offenders. here’s how: in your account, click on the gear icon; choose comments; then toggle the hide inappropriate comments option.
- use utm parameters in your urls to track clicks from various media to your website. do this by searching for url builders. then complete the website url by adding campaign source (such as blog), campaign medium (such as facebook) and campaign content, which is the main phrase for your content. here’s an example: http://www.newvisioncpagroup.com/services/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=facebook&utm_content=radical-services. then put the long url in a url shortener or your social media scheduling tool. later, in your analytics, you’ll be able to see from where people are entering your site and from which piece of content, not just from which platform.
- save time with social media robot if this, then that (ifttt). here’s how it works: connect your social media profiles, blog, cell phone, etc. then create the array of things you want to happen. you can have it simultaneously update your twitter profile image whenever you update your facebook profile image. or, you can have it email you your favorite tweets. or, you can tell it to store your instagram photos in your dropbox account.
- create twitter lists targeting your posts to industry influencers, thought leaders who might share your content, and/or your target audience. once you create a list, your targeted tweet would look like this: @username/listname (make sure there are no spaces in your list name; you can use dashes).
- rather than simply posting your firm videos to youtube, create a channel, so that when someone views your videos, they do not see other users’ video content on the sidebar.
- keep track of your firm’s content posts in excel or another tool, then repurpose those posts throughout the year to draw in new readers and potential leads. this helps you save time because it’s content you’ve already created.
- tie a blog to a trending topic or television show. for example, as mother’s day or father’s day approaches, ask staff about the best advice their parents gave them and then make a blog or video from their responses. haiku deck and slideteam.net have some stunning visuals you can use to create slide decks that you can then easily transform into a video.
- use listening streams to stay on top of trending topics relevant to your clients and firm. if you’re using a social media scheduling tool, such as hootsuite, create a stream just for an industry, like #construction. that stream will collect any posts containing that hashtag, which saves you time when you’re looking for content to share. it also helps you find both your influencers and your competition.
- implement contests, sweepstakes and landing pages into your facebook marketing initiative with 22social (22social.com). this fee-based tool connects to your company page and helps you create professional-looking events, promo pages, giveaway and sweepstakes pages, podcast promo pages, digital courses and more.
- extend your firm’s seo and personal influence ranking using the linkedin publishing platform. first, make sure your firm is listed as your employer on your linkedin profile. next, write original content on the publish page. remember to use a keyword in the title, in the image filename you load with the piece and in the copy. this is most helpful if you’re creating blog content for your firm already and repurposing that on your linkedin profile. then share it in groups where your target audience hangs out and on your personal profile.