Using Social Media to Expand Your Reach

If used correctly, social media can be an extremely effective tool for engaging members and potential customers. But, how do you market via social effectively?

Nowadays, you want to be on multiple social media platforms. Even though it may be more work in the long-run, it provides more pathways to connect with members. To start, it is helpful to use a social media management tool where you can post to all your accounts via one channel. This will streamline your work and make it more efficient.

One example is HubSpot, an inbound marketing and sales platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads and close customers, including through social media.

As Marissa Breton, the social media manager at HubSpot explained, the company’s social media tools give you total control over your social channels, allowing you to manage your social presence from within one easy-to-use app. “You can publish Tweets, monitor Tweet feeds, post to Facebook, push out blog posts and more,” said Breton.

Once you have a way to manage all of your accounts in one easy place, it is important to identify who you are trying to reach. “Figure out who you want to talk to on social media and where they spend their time,” explained Breton. “That will tell you which platform you should focus your energy on. Try to create a different strategy for each channel. The types of content people share on Twitter, for example, is much different than what someone posts on Instagram.”

When posting to social media, think about what catches your eye. As a consumer what would you click on and what would you skim over? While you may want to promote your company, be wary of doing so too much. “The biggest rookie mistake I see on social media is companies being too self-promotional,” added Breton. “Focus on sharing content that your audience will be interested in and sprinkle in a little bit about your own product or service.”

According to Breton, there are numerous ways to gauge the impact of social media on your business. She suggested offering discounts for your social media audience or using simple link tracking to see what articles are being clicked on.

In addition, make use of Facebook’s powerful analytics insights to track how your posts are performing. Likewise, tools such as Hootsuite and Google Analytics offer specifics on exactly how much traffic is being driven to your website across all social platforms.

Of course, social media is always changing. There are new features that are added on a consistent basis. To ensure your social media keeps members engaged, it is essential to keep up with these updates. “Social media is becoming increasingly real-time and human,” said Breton. “With the rise of Facebook Live and ‘stories’ on almost every channel, businesses will need to shift away from just pre-scheduling evergreen content and focus more on adding to real-time conversations. Get to know these platforms — they are not going away.”

While managing social media might come with its challenges, it is an integral part of growing your business and engaging with your members. “Social media is a great way to reach your potential customers where they’re already spending their time,” said Breton.

Popular Social Media Tools

Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a great way to streamline and manage all of your posts. On Hoostsuite you can schedule unlimited messages across all social media platforms, track your social media campaigns, engage with your customers via social media and track your brand to know when customers are talking about you.

Buffer: With the tagline, “A Smarter Way to Share on Social Media,” this is another great tool to help you manage your accounts. With Buffer you are able to schedule posts across all platforms and even create your own content such as photos and memes that are the perfect size and format for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Sprout Social: This social media software has great tools to help you take your engagement to the next level. Some of the standout features include: social CRM, a visual publishing calendar where you can easily see and manage all posts, and reports and analytics across networks and profiles that are easy to understand and ready to present.

Zoho Social: Schedule posts, monitor keywords and collaborate all from one visually appealing dashboard. Another interesting feature is the brand mentions. The platform can keep track of what people are saying about your brand and you can reply back to them instantly.