Social Media Tools and Methods to Increase your Following and Internet Presence

Social media is an excellent outlet to develop an internet presence and branding. Here are some methods on how to use social media to effectively increase your following and brand your business or company in a way that will influence shopping and increase sales.

Facebook & Twitter

1. Content
   1. Product Relevant Postings: Link a product from your website so that the image and the link to your website are present, then make a comment about or ask a question about the product. This increases your followers’ interest and interaction.
   2. Industry Relevant Postings: This category of content should consist of the majority of your posts. With industry relevant postings, you don’t necessarily have to link one of your products, but you can post an image or an article relevant to your industry. For example, if you sell pressure gauges for the oil industry, then the majority of your posts should be oilfield news related, and not necessarily about pressure gauges.
   3. Memes and Inspirational Quotes: Memes and inspirational quotes are known to go viral very quickly. These are the posts that are most likely to increase your following, and should always contain a photo of the meme or quote. You should post no more than two of these per week.
   4. Posting Schedule
      1. It is important that you organize a weekly posting schedule for your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Posts are most effective during the week at lunchtime (12pm – 1pm) and in the evening (4pm – 6pm). It would be most beneficial to organize your schedule appropriately. Once you have your schedule organized, it is best to manage this schedule with a social media tool.

i.      Best Posting Times

1. 12pm – 1pm
2. 4pm – 5pm

ii.      Weekly Frequency

1. Three posts minimum
2. Five posts maximum

Find a Secondary site with User-Generated Content

1. Pinterest “Gifts”
   1. A great example of this is Pinterest “Gifts”. These “Gifts” are synonymous with posting products which link to your website. Of course, Pinterest will only work with certain industries, but there will always be a site similar to Pinterest that is right for your industry. It is very important that you pin ALL of your products from your website onto Pinterest. Essentially what this does is it creates an online store on Pinterest (where thousands of women shoppers go to find fashion items) which links directly back to your website. By pinning your products on Pinterest, you gain organic search results for your website, as well as a huge addition to your online shopping audience. Additionally, from an SEO perspective, sites like Pinterest also serves as a tremendous boost to your organic search result rankings.

Social Media Tools

Social media tools will help you to manage all of your accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc.) by using one interface, and will allow you to schedule future posts for all of your social media outlets simultaneously. With social media tools, you will be able to handle your Facebook and Twitter posts in one location, and be able to organize your posting schedule. Here are the social media tools that I recommend to you:

• Social Made Simple (https://www.socialmadesimple.com/)
  • • Social Made Simple is a $20 per month subscription, and will allow you to manage your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Blog accounts.

   

  • Viral Heat
    • Viral Heat allows you to manage more social media outlets than Social Made Simple, such as YouTube and Google+. However, it costs $50 per month. For your purposes, I would recommend Social Made Simple. If in the future you decide to create and manage a Google+ and YouTube page, then Viral Heat may be a better fit for you.

   

   

   

   

   

  I hope this overview will assist you with your social media goals.