Social Media Success; Learn how to use Trends, Hashtags & Yourself and have Real Conversations

All people, in business and personal life, prefer to be talked to than at. Live interactions can define your reputation as a friend, foe, pro or troll to your communities far more so than the scheduled content you create and distribute across your “strategic #social channels.”

Want to use social media to grow your online presence?

Be a “friendly professional,” someone who has all the answers and others want to use as a resource, but don’t forget to also just be human.

#Marketers and other communications specialist use countless strategies, tools and working hours trying to start “human conversations” when real conversations are happening at a rate of +/- 10,000 tweets/minute, all day, every day.

#TBH –  I am an opinionated person, but most of what I share from my public accounts  is non-combative.

#SocialMedia is a huge part of my personal #brand and I make a concerted effort to reduce spamming my social #networks. I used to believe an objective, quantified tone helps combat the stigmas that all #WomenInBiz, tech, #finance, etc., face, and that if I showed human emotion, somehow humans would like me less.

But that changed a few nights weeks months ago (ah the joys of personal #blogging). I was scrolling through my social feeds when, percolating through the #software community, a newly trending hashtag caught my eye.

It was a #poetry challenge. Comical, casual and lacking any real reward besides community #BrowniePoints. The contributions coming in from other users inspired me.

He said

He said “quick,” and I was. Getting in on the trend early is important for maximizing the impressions and engagements you receive. Also, being the early bird to a trending worm makes you seem totally on top of your industry/topic’s game.

Their off-the-cuff #haiku[s] legitimately made me #LOL and helped inspire the oh-so-clever ideas (#imho) in my head that demanded to be written, shared and smirked at – at least I thought so.

A few ideas popped into my head right away, one of them actually exited my fingers and appeared in my #twitter text box. The #tweet was ready to be sent to strangers and appreciated by new friends. I took a quick glance for typos and without any further consideration hit send. I’d done it, I’d shared my own #DevOpsHaiku and tagged an #IndustryLeader or two I hoped (without expectation) I could stir a chuckle from.

I just couldn't stay away. I had the taste for a trend and my personal brand was getting unprecedented awareness through the mentions, retweets and replies of those far highter up the social latter than I.

I just couldn’t stay away. I had the taste for a trend and my personal brand was getting great awareness through the mentions, retweets and replies of those far higher up the social ladder than I – for making them laugh.

The rewards for actually drafting and responding publicly with my own #creative content, without first suffocating myself in doubt and revisions, blew away my expectations

I almost immediately found myself engaging with two of the very personalities I, plus tens-of-thousands of others in the #SoftwareDelivery/#Development world, avidly follow – @joshcorman & @RealGeneKim. Not only them, but C-levels from my #PR clients engaged with my posts positively and we were able to humanize each other a bit more – something that can be difficult when in #B2B relationships separated by time zones.

Restricting yourself to strictly content creation and distribution may allow you to reach the customers you’re targeting but not the humans want to talk to.

TL;DR: Find a trending hashtag that interest you, explore the conversation and speak up when you’re inspired to: Throughout this blog post I provided several #hashtags, hyperlinked for your convenience. There are also a variety of tools available for tracking current trends.

If you want to get social on social media, don’t blindly use keywords, hashtags or #SEO strategies to get placed into conversations you’re not present in. You’re perceived as legitimate when you provide a unique, individualized perspective. It may be as simple as hashtagging your location (e.g. #SanFrancisco, #Austin & #Boulder) and joining the local chatter happening around you; attending a live event and using its hashtag to connect with others there, or contributing to an online #TwitterChat.

Entering any conversation is the first step to leading it.

[Infographic] & [Useful Reminder] – How to Write & Create Content for Publication

This is an infographic on tactics I already know, have known my entire writing life, but never have the time (or patience) to carry out –

Fear not the ugly rough draft, sleep on it and always have another pair of human eyes review your final copy. 

One piece of advice not previously articulated to me stood out, tip no. 5: “Write to one person.” This is an incredibly insightful manner to avoid the “idea clutter” that often builds up in a writer’s mind and creative processes. Identifying one person as the reader allows better focus on the main message you are trying to convey.

You can’t write content that’s valuable to everyone, so figure out one person/identity that embodies the audience your objective is to reach. Tell a story to that person catered to their tastes and designed to invoke your desired reaction.

If I had to select one person this post would be for… it’s someone just like me – New-ish to the game, trying to produce quality content that compels in a business environment.

That tip and the content in the below infographic come from the amazing Everybody Writes by Anne Handley, a great guide to writing “coherent, useful pieces of content that engage audiences.”

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There’s No Value in Disingenuous Social Media

When people talk about social media used for branding/PR/marketing, you always hear that it’s finally a chance for organizations to “have a voice, and open a dialog with their audiences.” Yet, as I scroll through my endless feeds on countless profiles, all I see are strategies that clearly view people as stats, never look beyond their own proliferation and entirely miss the unique value offered by social media.

Hamlet Quotes

So what’s the point?

If you’re trying to humanize your brand, what kind of person would your brand be based on the content you tweet and the practices you keep? We all have that friend (or those friends) that only talks about themself, is blatantly uninterested in what anyone else has to say, and worse, is always repeating the same, played-out stories.

Don’t be that person, but…do be a person. 

Automation and social technologies are key and necessary evils  lifeboats when managing large and/or multiple brands on social media. Social content’s shelf life is seconds-to-minutes max. In order to reach more of your audience, whenever they may choose to check their feeds, it’s necessary to schedule out evergreen content at a multitude and variety of times.

Big Data and analytics are a huge help when trying to optimize and guide your social strategy. When managing highly active social profiles that demand almost constant proliferation to meet business goals, tools that recommend and aggregate content can help drastically cut down the time. However, there should always be a human touch to your accounts.

I use countless tools for a variety of tasks: Content generation/aggregation, social listening, social media management and scheduling, analytics, competitor monitoring, influencer relations etc.

I’m not saying don’t follow back those who follow you. I’m saying follow back those you encounter who share things of value to you and your brand. Personally, I follow about 65% of those that follow me on Twitter. Once a person follows me, I check out what they’ve tweeted recently. If something catches my eye, I’ll follow.

Don’t follow blindly, your twitter feed should be a resource to you, an aggregation of thoughts/ideas/news that you have deemed relevant to the conversations you want to be a part of.

Also, don’t follow someone only in the hope that they will follow you back. I once had a client ask me, “is a week-long enough to wait before unfollowing those that didn’t follow us back?”

… … … no. Again, be genuine.

Follow those who share interests with your brand. If they don’t follow you back, that’s fine. All your “follows” need not be requited.

If you blindly follow back all those who follow you, or like pages and posts in an irreverent land grab of impressions, you lose sight of the new value social media offers. 

What’s 10,000 impressions on an audience that has no interest in you or what your brand has to say vs. 1,000 impressions that followed you organically and will actually digest, react and potentially “buy in” to what you’re saying?

Build more than an audience, but a community. Be a voice to your brand's customers, partners, fans  and employees and listen to what they have to say back. Don't worry about reaching those that add nothing to this dynamic.

Build more than an audience, but a community. Be a voice to your brand’s customers, partners, fans and employees and listen to what they have to say back. Don’t worry about reaching those that add nothing to this dynamic.

…It’s like a man drowning of thirst opting for an ocean of salt water vs. a small, fresh-water creek…

Sure you have all these followers and your impression number is up, but you’re hard-thought content is being ignored by those who see it and unseen by those would have found the most value in what you have to share.

If you do successfully develop a community of followers genuinely interested in what your brand has to share, don’t punish them with endless self-promotional content. Your following has already “liked” (“followed”/”1+’d”/”connected”/ etc.) your profile, reward them by having something of use or entertaining for them in return.

Before you post: “Will this content be appreciated by my targeted audience(s) and is it inline with the campaign’s overall objective(s)?”

Yes, each of your posts, on any given platform will should immediately increase your profile’s impression count, but if your audience feels spammed, you’ve made the wrong impression.

Large followings of randomly construed interest groups and scatter-shooting dull, lead-generation posts may give you the numbers you (your board/investors/bosses) want to see, but through content no one else wants to be shown. Personally, I am far more concerned with stats like “engagement rating” and clicks than I am impressions. Getting content in front of someone is easy, making them care is the challenge.

Look at the brands you follow. What compelled you to do so in the first place? If it wasn’t just an attempt to cajole the brand into following you, identify what type of content attracted you. In general, (consumer) audiences are likely to start following a brand’s social profile in order to be in the know of company updates, discounts and promotions, thought-leadership in your areas of expertise and/or my personal favorite strategy, because you “surprised them with delight.”

Give your brand a real personality. In the virtual world, just as in the physical world, no one likes a fake.

Give your brand a real personality. In the virtual world, just as in the physical world, no one likes a fake.

Chances are if you’re not having fun creating the content, no one’s having fun reading it.

If you know there’s no value in what you put out, your readership will too. If even you’re bored reposting the same, dull lead generation posts, your audience probably tuned you out a while ago. If you disingenuously follow(back) profiles with no intention of listening to what they have to say, you’ve become the egotistical, attempt.

Having digested my thoughts spelling them out here, it’s clear to me what the no.1 guiding commandment for using social media in brand PR/marketing is: The Golden Rule.

Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.

Optimize not only your following’s experience, but that of your brand’s by listening closely and engaging thoughtfully.