Chat #88 – 16 Social Media Best Practices & Tips

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Talk Number 16 in a series that will become the You are a media company course. This is the 2nd of the 4 that I will speak about social media and what it is. In the last chat I spoke about social media and social media advertising and gave some examples and explained some platforms. This chat, I will focus on explaining what social media is and some best practices

Definition of a Social Media: Social media is the media we use to be social (according to The Social Media Bible. 2nd edition). Social media marketing is all about listening first, understanding the conversation and speaking last.

Some best practices

Listen twice as much as you speak
It is primarily a branding tool so you must have a compelling reason/ask or content
Consistency is Key
Develop your voice and show your personality
Experiment on social media platforms and new social media platforms
Leverage video when possible = VIDEO > IMAGES > TEXT
Don’t hesitate to curate and share
Engage with people – join groups, create groups, etc. Join Twitter Chats
Speak the language on the social media network
Claim each social media network but have a unique plan for each
Valuable content is key so make sure someone it is helpful, relevant, entertaining (emotional)
Aim to post natively but leverage social media management tools when necessary. Also, leveraging the internal share options within social networks.
Measure and Analyze – different tools use different metrics
Advertising is not a bad word – Pay to play
Keywords are huge
Jab, jab, right hook (ask for what you’d like – signups, sells)

Meet Dr. Kerry the Dentist and see how she uses social media:

Facebook – With over 2 Billion users, Facebook has been a top social media site since 2004. It combines many of the strengths of many of the other social media sites including Facebook Live, news, content curation, business pages, groups, chat, video, images, hashtags and a lot more. Kerry (K): (1) Does Facebook ads to promote her ebook—The Brightest Smiles in NOVA: The Guide to How Listening to Your Dentist Can Change Your Health” that she offers for free to sign people up for her. (2) Kerry Has a Facebook Group that she launches and give health tips but also invites other health practitioners and shares their info (3) Kerry reshares the content and information from her Facebook page onto her profile. (4) Kerry goes Live on every other Monday after lunchtime to answer any questions she might have received throughout the week (5) She also had her web designer add a chat feature through Facebook on her site.
Twitter – Is a microblogging platform that was originally 140 characters but is now 280. They’ve started doing more curation of posts but it is still strong for having direct interaction and especially during events or news events. K: Hosts a live Twitter Chat at lunch Tuesdays at 5pm #BRITESMILESNOVA (more likely to engage)
Instagram (owned by Facebook) – social media networking app primarily used on mobile devices. It’s really image heavy and has the ability to create stories, go facebook live and upload videos. IGTV is also big as well. K: Adds pictures to Instagram and goes live every other Monday on Instagram. Uses the same hashtag from Twitter.
Snapchat – this is an image messaging social platform that allows people to chat directly with each other, create disappearing messages and live stories. K: Answers questions from children and young demographics on Snapchat.
Pinterest – this is a photo sharing and bookmarking social media app that allows people to create ideas on projects they are working on and save them. Using “board” it’s big amoungst women and many people will use it for home improvement projects, planning travel, cooking ideas, etc. K: She uses Pinterest to create health board but also recipes.
LinkedIn – “The professional Facebook”. It’s idea for professionals and is structured around your “resume” but you can also interact via groups and making updates and “blogging.” K: She uses LinkedIn to build relationships and connections with potential referral partners she might have on her podcast.
WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) – Instant messaging app that allows you to send photos, videos, audio, document, you can also call and do live video calling. It has over 1 billion users.
Google Plus – owned by Alphabet aka Google, this social media site allows you to share messages, photos, status updates, video, video conferencing and more. K: Has a Google My Business Account that she set up