Social Media Marketing: 4 Tips to Create a Great Social Media Marketing Campaign

If you post links here and there, you won’t get the engagement that you need to build your traffic and increase your sales. You need to give people a reason to click on your links, read your content or watch your videos and then leave a comment. Without the reason, people will scroll paste your link and check out their friends’ posts or checkout the page below.

I often use introductions like “did you know…” or “have you ever…” These help to draw people in and make them want to read the rest of it. I’ll also often use “do you wonder why…” to start a sentence and link to a post. This shows that I’m going to answer a question that many readers have and they’ll click to find out the answer.

Avoid using the popular method of "if I get 1 million likes..." or "like if you...or share if you..." These are annoying and it is easy to lose credibility. If you have a photo to share that is within the topic of your page or something that you have done, by all means, share it but don't be a sheep and follow everyone else. A great way to use a photo is to find a funny one that matches the topic of your page and ask people to create a caption - as you become more established you could offer prizes for the best caption.

Image by: Stuart Miles/Freedigitalphotos.net

There are many different accounts and they all work in different ways.

Pinterest is excellent if you have a graphic that you want to share. I’ve often used it for arts and crafts and photography pieces that I find interesting. I also use it for my history pieces but I’m not sure how successful they are yet. You need to make sure that you use Pinterest properly though – the idea is to create boards and group your postings together. This helps people follow your specific boards for something that interests them so they’re more likely to click on new postings.

Facebook and Twitter are the most commonly used social networking sites for a social media marketing campaign. They are easy to use and allow you to introduce your topic with a brief sentence or two. The trick is to offer something that works for those accounts. Twitter is a micro-blogging website and you need short, sweet intros preferably with a couple of hashtags through in there – although be wary not to use too many. Facebook will allow you to write longer posts to introduce your piece and you could include a snippet to entice your traffic but only short sections will appear at first and you need to give people the reason to click the “continue reading” link.

Google+ and LinkedIn are the other two more popular options, although there are other slike Reddit, Tumblr and StumbleUpon. Use as many as you like but check out the type of posts that are popular and how people interact with them. You could also check out various blogs about using the different types of social media - look out for those by established internet marketing to really help boost your social media marketing campaign.

It will take some time to develop a campaign that is successful but that time is worth the investment. You need to interact with the people on your page, answer their questions or concerns and encourage them to join in with debates. Facebook offers a great way of doing this by creating polls and adding events. I’ve been experimenting with different types of posts and find that the ones where I share insights from my personal life and just have a conversation with people reaches more than sharing links – I’ve found the same on Twitter too!

As people realise that your page, feed or other social networking page is busy, they will want to join in with the fun. They will share the posts with their friends and encourage them to join in too. I’ve seen many pages grow because of small posts that encourage people to share and join in with the conversation.

It can take hours to build up your separate pages but you don’t have to do it all yourself. There are various programmes that will allow you to schedule your posts so that they go out automatically. If you have a topic that is specifically for a time zone, you can make sure it goes out within their working day or when they’re more likely to see it, even if you are in bed! It will take just a few minutes to set up a schedule for a week for each of the social media accounts and then you just have to check in to answer questions and reply to comments.

My final tip for now (I’ve got plenty more for the future!) is to stop spamming people with your sales pitches. People don’t want to see that. Remember when I said that conversational posts are my most popular? People like seeing information but they don’t want to feel pressured into buying from you. It’ll just lead to them clicking the unfollow button or hiding your posts on their newsfeed. Of course, if you have a new product or service that may interest them, create a press release and share that – they’re designed to market without selling too much.

So, how do you sell if you can’t use a sales pitch? Find a way to integrate your products or services into a post. I opened my history Twitter feed with a brief note about the books I already have on offer and shared the topics that I’d like to cover in the future. I opened my Facebook history page with the chance for people to tell me what they were interested in. I kept it conversational and offered a link without making people feel pressured into buying.

Your social media marketing campaign will work as long as you are willing to give it time. You need to make your posts more conversational and give people a reason to chat back, ask questions or share their experiences. By becoming more engaging, others will want to join in and your posts will be shared. It can help your content go viral – I’ve had it happen with a couple of posts in the past.

Remember that your posts don’t always have to be about selling you or your business. You can just share insights into your day – my last one on my Facebook writer’s page was how I’ve switched my degree program so I don’t have a module to study until October, giving me more time to look at my WIP! That has been my most popular post all week!

What methods have you tried on social media? Have you found them to be successful? I’d love to hear others’ views and tips on how a social media marketing campaign has helped them.

Image by: Stuart Miles/Freedigitalphotos.net