Using Social Media to promote your business

[Robin Bull]

I would say to make sure that you're posting where ever your target market can be found, but it's more than posting regularly. You have to actually interact with them. You have to provide valuable information of some sort. Not everything that you post on any site should say, "Hey, I have awesome stuff and you should buy it."

From your name, I'm presuming you sell jewelry...so, that's going to be my example. Maybe you curate posts about taking care of gold, taking care of silver, taking care of platinum. Maybe you curate posts about jewelry for children.

On Twitter, I've found it helpful to search people out. When I published a book on debt, I did searches on things like "in debt," "debt," "bankruptcy," and other related terms. When I found actual people, I'd talk to them about those subjects from my experience as a paralegal...a legitimate conversation. This builds trust. When the time was right, I pointed them to where they could find my book, but I also made it clear that I'd be around if they had questions. In a single night, I sold several copies from that method.

For Facebook, hashtags are your friend. I also use a lot of amusing pictures. I have about 574 fans, but I have a consistent reach of more than 3,000 people each week without buying ads.

Oh, and Periscope. Get on Periscope. I have friends who use it and swear by it. I don't use it often, but it's been pretty good to me.

HTH.

[TheLaakGroup]

Look for similar pages that have the same products/niche. You especially want to do this in Instagram/Pinterest as this can give you exposure to followers of that particular page to then follow yours as well. Be consistent, updating your information almost daily. Post shareable content that engage people. Respond to inquiries and concerns. Once you get the hang of how it works you will find that not only is Social Media Marketing easy, it is probably one of the best tools out there for promoting your business.

[LashGirlsRock]

I have been studying this myself, thankfully I can listen to Audible and various podcasts during my regular work day. I am on facebook which I do post daily unless I have an online FB party going on as me being the host, then I just post in the party because many of the same people are in my party. I make sure my content is relative and every 5th post or so I promote my business. Twitter gives me a headache because it moves so fast but I use "Buffer" to load up 10 tweets for free and I make one of those product related, the other 9 content. I also think about my hashtags and make sure they are relevant. Instagram is interesting to me because it is all about the hash tags. I use an app called Top Tags and I paid the dollar to be able to create my own. My business is makeup and skin care so to have those 30 tags loaded up where I can just hit copy, it's worth the dollar. I am not as consistent on instagram but I do post almost daily, again content for a few days, then a product. I love Pinterest for business. The analytics are pretty good but I think the organization is what helps people. I learned a TON about Pinterest from -http://www.mcngmarketing.com/

I worked hard on my Pinterest but now it's just maintaining. It think it seems like a lot of time to set things up, but once you do and get into a pattern of consistency, things will level out.

Irene

[Chilly Barlow Zoretic]

I am a little late on this post, but I did want to provide some input. I really think you need to figure out your ideal customer and then go where they are hanging out. If I read your profile correctly - you sell jewelry?
Pinterest and Instagram could be great because of the visual of the right accessories with an outfit.
I really think it is best to only start with one or two social media platforms and build a good following. Then you can expand. It is hard to be consistent on every platform or an expert - so when you start small you are setting yourself up for a more achievable goal.

[kathw]

Originally Posted by PlunderJewelry

I have already reserved names for Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest & Twitter...

But, I'm not really sure how to best utilize this apps to promote my DS business. Any advice would be appreciated. Please share any pros/cons, tips, etc.

Thanks!

Hi you have done the right thing in reserving names for all of the social media accounts as you can work on one at a time. A friend of mine set up an instagram shop and did really well from it. I have done the same and will gladly talk you through it if you would like? It is just another string to you bow and it is all automated. Just let me know,

Thanks

Kath

[Fitnessdad]

Action - Trial and error is the way to go. Social media is hard work takes time and effort to see results. Look into some automation software to help out at-least use hootsuite. There is a lot of social bots out there and some violate the social sites terms so be careful.

Good luck :-)

[clg671]

Headlines matter

You’re writing great content, but are you writing a title worthy of grabbing someone’s attention in social media? If not you either need to create better titles that help your posts to be more promotable in social media or create a new title specifically for sharing your content in social media. Don’t just settle for one title. You should be posting your content multiple times, so you should be creating multiple titles, and even doing A/B testing to see which headlines are more effective to promote your content on which social networks. You might also want to use a tool like BuzzSumo to help you research effective titles for the same type of content per social network.

[jay42]

The only tip I can give you is to avoid looking like click-bate because people hate that and it looks very unprofessional. I use a Chrome extension to follow people on twitter related to my niche. I end up following a few hundred at a time and around 35-40% follow back.

[inspired.robyn]

My personal favourites are Facebook and Instagram
Am just getting into LinkedIn now
Also play on Pinterest but this is just playing

[bchandler29]

Originally Posted by willainfo

Consistency will be key and also consider answering this question anytime you post to social media - "What problem is my product solving?" Once you have the answer to this, you can work your post around that mindset.

Love that advice! Great to keep focus.