5 Small Changes That Will Make A Big Difference To Your Social Media

When used strategically, social media is a way to connect directly with your customers and generate leads. However, just being on LinkedIn or Twitter isn’t enough to deliver commercial results.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not the time you invest in your social media that matters. Yes, a time commitment is required. But ultimately, it’s having a smart strategy that makes the real difference.

How do you improve your presence social media without spending lots more time online?

Here are 5 simple changes that will make your social media strategy more effective:

1. Transform your tweets into testimonials

Do you have happy customers who’ve tweeted about their experience? Search for references to your company’s @username to find positive tweets, and then use these testimonials in your marketing.

2. Share more third party content

Social media should be a two-way conversation. It should ideally follow the 50/50 rule in which you spend 50% of your time talking about yourself and the other half, sharing other people’s content. This way, you start to create constructive relationships that result in more ‘shares’ and ‘retweets’ of your content, generating wider exposure.

3. Always drive traffic to your website

Ensure your social media activity increases the volume of traffic that your website receives. If you aren’t already doing so, make sure you regularly include links to point people back to your website.

4. Cater for common search terms

Before you embark on drafting a blog or Google+ post, make sure you know the phrases and words people are actually using to search for your services. Once you’ve identified these keywords incorporate them into your posts. Don’t forget that hashtags, tags and labels are also excellent ways to find and attract a wider audience – it’s good practice to use them where you can.

5. Add photos

As simple as it sounds, use pictures. Tweets using Pic.Twitter,com are 94% more likely to be retweeted, according to inbound marketing specialists, HubSpot. Plus, people like images (a staggering 350 million photos are uploaded to Facebook each day), so use them when you can to break up your content and make your messages more eye-catching.

By Lindsey Witcherley, Cognition Agency

You can get more tips on digital marketing by downloading Cognition’s free eguide,  Making The Most Of Online Channels To Generate Leads

Cognition is a full-service marketing agency and a Funding Circle borrower. It’s known for its commercial approach, linking marketing activity to revenue and growth.

If you’re interested in taking out a Funding Circle business loan, you can apply online at anytime.