The only social media guide you’ll ever need
In the past ten years, social media has transformed from a mere hobby to a massive global force. It’s estimated that one in four people on Earth have active social media accounts!
As a creator, how can you develop a solid social presence to complement your videos and engage your fans? There’s no magic pill to make you a social media guru overnight—but a few guiding principles can get you on the right track.
Produce quality content
Quality content makes or breaks your social media presence. When drafting a post, always ask yourself, “Why would my audience care about this?” It’s a no-brainer, but often overlooked. You can also raise quality by including calls to action (CTAs) and images—and if you’re writing a longer-form post, get the basics (like spelling and grammar) right.
Know your audience
Your social media efforts will fall short if you don’t know your audience—so do your research! What’s your audience’s demographic? Where are they located? What time of day are they online? What type of posts excite them? Simply Measured offers tons of tools to stalk your audience and get to know them better.
Use the right social media platform
Each social media platform is different—which likely means not every platform is right for you. For example, Pinterest’s audience is 80% women, and 23% of them are age 50+. So if your audience is mostly male gamers, Pinterest isn’t a good fit.
So do your research before devoting too much time to a specific platform. Marketing Charts provides a great detailed breakdown of social media platform audiences and other useful info.
Be consistent
Repetition is key: if your fans see consistent, high-quality posts, they’re more likely to come back. Just make sure you choose a time of day that’ll give you the biggest chance to reach your audience. Buffer and Hootsuite are perfect for scheduling your posts and managing your accounts.
Social media is most effective when you combine forces! For example, if you have a strong Twitter audience but want to grow your Instagram fan base, it doesn’t hurt to tweet out something like, “Want to see the world through my eyes? Follow me on IG via . . . .”Cross-promote
Stay educated
To kickstart your journey to greatness, become a social media sponge. Always be in the know about new platform features, successful tactics, and terminology. The internet is an open sea of information, so take advantage of it. For social media expertise, you can’t go wrong with sites like Mashable and Social Media Examiner.
Don’t go overboard
Promoting yourself too much is like of spraying yourself with social follower repellent. Would you want to hang out with someone who just talked about himself 24/7? Your fans want to be entertained or informed, not spammed—so always have a good mix of content.
Track link performance
When including links in a post, always use a link shortener service—that way you can track the clickthrough rate (CTR) of your links and see how well they perform. Fullscreen offers a great link shortener on our Creator Platform!
Be patient!
Last but not least: be patient! It takes time to build a solid social media presence. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither were the world’s top social media accounts. Good luck—now start racking up followers! Read more here
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