15 Days of Social Media Tips for December
Deck the halls with boughs of holly, social media la la la. With the hubbub of the busy holiday season, wouldn’t it be nice if someone could dish out 15 social media tips, say, one a day for 15 days?! Santa BlogPaws has a few social media surprises in his bag, and here they are:
Days 15 and 14 Use a Facebook Call to Action Button Coupled with a Cover Photo Lead
You know that little Call to Action (CTA) bottom that appears beneath your Facebook cover photo? Use it to drive traffic to your blog or for some other actionable task. Facebook recently added a fun new element to this button: The Get in Touch With Us option allows you to customize to any of these actions:
Your business Facebook cover photo should reflect your brand messaging and style, but it can also include a call to action, such as:
- Snag Your Free Cat Litterbox Training Tips
- Free eBook with Purchase
When visitors click your cover photo, you would include the step-by-step of actions to take for fulfillment, including a link to your email signup if desired.
13 How One Dot Can Make a Difference on Twitter
Want more impressions?
Tweet like this:
My cat looks so cute in her new pajamas @BlogPaws #BlogPawsChat
Total Impressions = your number of followers.
Not like this:
@BlogPaws My cat looks cute in her new pajamas #BlogPawsChat
Total Impressions =1
If you want a tweet to reach ALL your followers while replying to @BlogPaws, for example, you would tweet this:
.@BlogPaws My cat looks cute in her new pajamas #BlogPawsChat
Total impressions= your number of followers
Let’s break it down:
When you Tweet directly at someone (by putting their @handle as the beginning of your tweet), that tweet only comes up in the feeds of users who follow both you and the person you are directly @tweeting. Why? It’s pretty much so you don’t flood other people’s streams when you are tweeting back and forth with someone. But, if you put a dot before you @mention, your tweet shows up in the feeds of all of your followers.
I am going to add one more thing in here, and I am excerpting this from a trusted resource (Social Control). The use of a period before the @ at the start of a tweet:
If you start off a tweet with the @ symbol, the only person who will be notified about it is the username the tweet is targeting. The only users who will see this tweet are the accounts you’re referencing and anyone who visits your profile, but the tweet won’t be automatically pushed out to everyone who follows you. If your brand has thousands of followers, this can be a big problem. By adding in another word or a period before the @ symbol, your tweet will be pushed out to all of your followers because the @ symbol is not the first character.
12 What Are Others Thinking Of You?
Do you ever wonder what others think of you and how your tweets are perceived? Go to your LISTS page on Twitter and click “Member Of.” From there, you’ll see what public lists you are on. If you don’t like the results, get to changing that with Twitter messaging more reflective of your expertise and goals.
11 Descriptions Matter on Pinterest
Are you aware of the “Data Pin Description” on Pinterest? One of the blogs I visit regularly is the Pinterest Business Blog. Any time a sentence pops up that says, “We’ve made it easier for pinners to get their pins looking how they want,” my ears perk up. Click this: Learn to Make More Searchable Pins.
10 Find Out What People Are Pinning
Ever wonder what’s being pinned from a website, including your own? Use this URL: http://www.pinterest.com/source/websitedomainname.com/
Instead of typing “websitedomainname” just replace with the website or blog of your choice. Look at all those lovely pins being shared!
9 Revive Old Posts
If you are on WordPress, there is a plugin called Revive Old Posts. You can set it up to tweet content up to every 15 minutes all day, every day. Just be sure to be specific about which posts you want shared and which ones you don’t. You can set it to tweet posts all the way back to when you started your blog or only pull posts from the last few months or weeks. (Felissa Elfenbein, BlogPaws Director of Director of Influencer Marketing, TwoLittleCavaliers.com)
8 Build Instagram Social Time Into Your Calendar
Want to grow on Instagram? Engage with followers and those you want to follow you. Find accounts in your niche using specific hashtags. Like and comment on their images, and tag them in your posts without being intrusive and constant. Read how one BlogPawser grew Instagram by 25 percent in one month.
7 Social Media Challenge
A holiday gift to you: The BlogPaws 2016 Holiday Social Media Challenge. This course is broken out into the following lessons with topics that include actionable challenges:
Week 1: Facebook
Week 2: Twitter
Week 3: Instagram
Week 4: Pinterest
Week 5: Recap and launch plan for 2017
6 Grow a YouTube Account
Knowing how to grow a YouTube account is something many pet and other bloggers strive to do. Jessica Hatch, the brains behind Gone to the Snow Dogs, shares tips on making that happen in this action-oriented YouTube growth blog post.
5 Define Your Why
In an article for the Future Simple blog, BlogPaws’ co-founder, Yvonne DiVita, says, “There is no way around it – you must first understand why: Why are you venturing into blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc. Is it primarily to increase sales or leads? Is it for branding purposes? Is it to learn the tools as you go? The goal of social media is to be social. If you are not prepared to make friends and connect with your customers on a real-time basis, you will find social media frustrating and time-consuming. To be most effective, learn everything you can about the tools – test them over time – and devote an hour or two a day to participating, without worrying about ROI. The ROI will be apparent, over time. To put that in perspective – what’s the ROI of your cell phone? Apply your answer to social media.”
4 Define a Social Media Strategy for 2017
We suggest a purposeful social media strategy for every blogger. Learn how to build a social media strategy here.
3 Get to Know Twitter Hacks Like These
Hashtag Help: Some helpful sites are http://hashtagify.me and https://tagboard.com
TWITTER HACK: To search for Twitter lists from your browser, use this string: site:twitter.com inurl:lists <your search term>
2 Grow an Email List
If social media were to disappear tomorrow, how comfortable are you that your email list captures all your current fans? MySpace anyone? Here are expert tips to grow an email list.
1 Get Savvy on LinkedIn
How often do you use LinkedIn to help with growing your blog traffic? LinkedIn is a powerful tool, if used to your blog’s advantage. It can help you define yourself as an expert, more effectively grow profile views, and help build your blog’s brand. Here are eight ways to use LinkedIn to Grow Your Blog
Bonus: What Bloggers Must Know About Branded Content
What is your biggest social media obstacle? How can BlogPaws help?
Don’t forget to snag your BlogPaws 2017 Conference ticket, with early bird pricing through 12/16.
Carol Bryant is the Marketing and Social Media Manager for BlogPaws and runs her own blog, Fidose of Reality and its fundraising arm, Wigglebutt Warriors. When not busy playing with her Cocker Spaniel, Dexter, she stays far away from cooking. Her trademark is her mantra and is tattooed on her arm: My Heart Beats Dog.®
Images: Voyagerix/Shutterstock.com and Syda Productions/Shutterstock.com
