Stagger your social media updates and republish content!

For example, when I get into my office in the morning I take 15 minutes and send my blog posts out through my various social profiles (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+). Right now I am using HootSuite to manage my social media accounts, as it’s faster and more convenient than having to login to each profile separately. HootSuite also gives me the added advantage of being able to schedule posts in the future, enabling me to stagger my updates throughout the day. I’ll publish my latest blog post to my company’s Facebook page at 9 AM, but then also schedule it to go live again at 2 PM. By republishing my content I am giving it a second chance at life!

As part of my content marketing strategy, I write and submit a lot of guest blog posts to various SEO, Internet marketing, social media and other related blogs. When one of those posts goes live I want to leverage it for my own SEO and brand building campaign. But dumping a load of content onto your Facebook or LinkedIn community at once isn’t the way to go. By scheduling out those posts throughout the day (say one at 11 AM and one at 3 PM), I give each post its moment to shine and attract the attention of my social network. Staggering my social media updates also allows me to keep a steady stream of content going live each day, a must for a strong social media marketing campaign. If you feel like you are maxed on in terms of content creation, but want to keep your social profiles fresh and routinely updated, republishing content is a great way to fill the holes.

In order to see an update on a social networking site, a member of your target audience has to be logged into their account and actively looking at their news feed or stream when your update goes live. 30 seconds sooner or later and you might miss them entirely. Reposting your content gives you a second chance to engage and interact with that person.

A recent study by MarketTools found that nearly half of the companies they surveyed think their customers don’t comment or complain about their products and services online, and 22% did not know whether their customers did so or not. To that I have one thing to say: really guys?

I take pride in my company’s A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, but I don’t think that means that every single person I have ever interacted with doesn’t have one single negative comment about my business or me. I don’t take it personally, I understand that I can’t make everyone 100% happy 100% of the time. But I try my best to address negative comments or feedback that I come across on social networks, to avoid it snowballing out of control.

For instance, for a while I was promoting some of my partners’ content through my social networks. I had one of my LinkedIn connections reach out to me and say they thought I was overdoing it. He didn’t say it in the most polite way, but I got the message regardless. There is a fine line between content promotion and content spamming and I was getting a little too close to the spamming end of the spectrum. I realized that I was annoying this particular connection with the amount of content I was promoting and thought he might not be the only one feeling the same way. I didn’t ignore his message, even though I didn’t agree with the tone.

Social networks were created to let the users express their opinions about any and everything. They could complain about their class schedule, brag about their new car; talk about a favorite band and so forth. Brands are actually late comers to the social networking scene, and some still aren’t willing to play by the rules. You cannot try to dominate the conversation with your social network! It’s a give and take. Most brands are good at the “give” part and share great content, but not as many are as good at the “take.”

If you want your social media marketing to succeed, you have to be willing to engage with your network, even when they are upset. Brands no long have the luxury of waiting until the fire burns out before they address a situation. You have to be willing to listen, to hear and to engage with your network head on.

I’m lucky that this blog can cover a wide range of topics and still be relevant to my target audience. I can blog about SEO, social media, content marketing, blogging, PPC, inbound marketing and so forth and I know that it all fits under the umbrella of Internet marketing. This means that I can submit those posts to a variety of LinkedIn Groups including (but not limited to) those that target Internet marketing professionals, B2B marketers, social media marketing professionals, SEO and SEM industry professionals, C-suite executives, business owners and so forth. Not every blog post I submit is going to be 100% perfect for 100% of the audience in that group every time, so I’m bound to get a few negative comments here and there.

I’ve had blog posts get deleted from various groups because it was too off-topic that day, but that doesn’t mean my social media marketing and content promotion campaign is a failure! LinkedIn Groups are managed by people, and those people have the final say in what content goes live on their Group. If they didn’t like my post for some reason or felt that it was appropriate for their audience they have the right to delete it. But I don’t take it personally and neither should you!

Keep in mind that one negative comment is not necessarily indicative of the overall opinion. A blog post might get read by 300 people and only 4 left comments. That’s barely .01%! Should I take one negative comment to mean that 25% of my readers feel that way? Not necessarily. A lot of people only bother to leave comments/reviews when they strongly disagree. Think about it, how often do you rave about the good customer service you get at the local coffee shop? Not very often. But how much more likely are you to talk about a terrible experience you had with your new mechanic?

Some people love to pick a fight simply because it’s entertaining. Others may try to put you or your company down because they are jealous of your online success or are friends with your competitors. Don’t let these online trolls affect the confidence you have with your social media marketing!

Personally, I am a huge fan of using social networking sites, such as LinkedIN for content promotion. Not only do social networking sites present your content in front of a vast audience of potential customers, the search engines are also using social signals as a ranking factor. The more times a piece of content is shared/tweeted/Liked/posted the more links it has and the more valuable it becomes in the eyes of the search engines.

Of the Big 3 social networking sites, comprised of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, I have found that LinkedIn is one of the best at driving traffic, encouraging engagement and actually converting my target audience. The same may not hold true for every business, but many B2B marketers have reported that LinkedIn is the most useful social network for this company. I think that’s because LinkedIn Groups are the perfect platform for content promotion.

Think about it this way. When you post a piece of content to your Facebook wall, it has the potential of being seen by every single one of Facebook’s 800+ million users. But how many of those 800+ million are actually your target audience? 10 million? 1 million? 100,000? Are you connected with every single one of those 100,000 target customers? Posting your content on Facebook is a bit like a tree falling in the forest. It might get noticed by some; it might also never reach the right person. Facebook’s user base is so broad that it’s hard to single out your target market.

That’s where LinkedIn Groups has the advantage over Facebook. People join LinkedIn Groups that describe them; their industry, job title, hobbies and so forth. It could be a group as broad as “marketing professionals” or as niche as “Des Moines Iowa Soccer Moms.” When you submit a piece of your content to a LinkedIn Group, you know that it is being presented to the exact audience you are trying to target. This makes is much easier to create custom content for each segment of your target audience and know that you are reaching them.

Join the same LinkedIn Groups of your target market so that you can share your content with them. For instance, as an SEO consultant I belong to a number of SEO and Internet marketing groups on LinkedIn. But I also belong to small business owner groups, digital marketing groups, e-commerce groups and so forth. I know that people in those groups are interested in the content I put out.

What are some of the benefits of social media marketing?

1. Build brand
Social profiles can rank on their own in the search engines, increasing your online presence. Social profiles are also one more place for you to develop your messaging strategy and connect with your target audience. It’s a place to inject some personality into your brand and let your target market engage with you on their terms. Social networks are the perfect place for breeding brand ambassadors and building lasting relationships with repeat customers.

2. Drive targeted visitors to site
You never want to treat your social networking profiles like the final destination of a potential customer. Your social profile is more like a filter, attracting targeted traffic (that identify themselves as you target audience because they are interested in your brand) and them pushing them over to your actual site/blog. The more targeted visitors your site has, the better chance you have of pushing them to act and increasing your conversion rate.

3. Promote content and get more links (social signals)
The more times a piece of content is shared on a social networking or social bookmarking site, the more valuable it becomes in the eyes of the search engines. From an SEO standpoint, these social signals can impact how well your piece of content ranks in the SERPs. From a more general marketing perspective, the more people who share your content the greater potential reach it has. The average Facebook user has 130 friends which means that if just five people post your content to Facebook it has the potential to be seen by 650 of their collective connections!

4. PR
Twitter has become many people’s go-to source for breaking news. Twitter even created this clever commercial demonstrating the power of “real time” sharing. Social networking has practically revolutionized the way news information is shared. So what does this mean for brands? Social networks allow companies to connect with their audience as a situation develops, meaning you have the chance to tell your side of the story as it is happening. Social networks are also a great place to interact with members of the press. You can connect with journalists and local news sources directly, giving them instant access to a story.

Now that social media has entered the marketing scene, so has the position of social media expert. Since social media is fairly new, it makes sense that not every veteran business owner is up to date on the latest social media lingo. Fortunately for the business owner, they can hire a social media expert to take care of the new-age marketing practices. Unfortunately for the business owner, they have to somehow interview and hire this “expert.”

If you are unfamiliar with social media, don’t sweat it. Before hiring a social media expert there are a few things you can look for that will point you in the right direction. In many cases, this will be easier if you have social media accounts, but there are ways to get around this. If someone you trust is active on social media platforms, ask them to let you look at a few things. If you are not sure how to navigate your way around the site, ask for help. Social media networks are made public to everyone for a reason. It is not illegal to check-up on a potential employee (especially one who should be fluent in social media), and there is no need to mention to your “helper” what you’re looking for on each site. Here are a few of the things to consider when deciding whether you have a social media expert, or a kid who likes to talk on the computer:

5 Things to Look For When Hiring a Social Media Expert

The Big Three
At the very least, the person you are interviewing should have accounts on the “big three” social networking sights: Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter. Not only should they have accounts on each of these sites, but they should be active participants in all three. Look to make sure they are participating in discussions or adding comments. Check to see if the sites are well kept by looking at the pictures and the biographical information they place on the sites. If it looks as though their information is thorough and up to date, chances are they know how to use the sites.

Participation
Look to see what kinds of posts your candidate is leaving on the three different networks. Are they contributing valuable information, or just regurgitating the same content everyone else is? On Twitter and LinkedIn, you can check to see the kinds of people they are following as well as the kinds of people that are following them. Are their connections reputable professionals in the industry? You can also check to see how active they are by looking at the number of LinkedIn shares or Twitter posts. A good social media expert will post something each day, so scroll down on the LinkedIn website to see if they have shared any content, and look in the top right hand corner of Twitter to see the number of tweets (a social media expert should have at least 200 tweets).

Other social media websites
While the big three is most important, a real expert would be well versed in many more social media platforms. Even if you do not know much about these other sites, you can still ask your candidate how aware they are of them, and then ask them to tell you a little bit about how they would use these sites to promote your business. All you have to do is remember the names: StumbleUpon, Dimbler, Digg, Youtube, Google+, and Quora. These will be enough to get you started. Be sure your candidate lets you know that these sites help bring exposure by appealing to an audience with similar interests.

Blogging
Does the person have a blog? Does the person post regularly at least twice a week on their blog and make useful, valid, and informative comments on other blogs? What is their overall tone and how do they come across from their online posts? Ask your candidate if they have a link to their blog before the interview. This way, if the candidate does not have a blog, you can ask them why. After all, blogging consistently is a great way for someone to show passion for the field.

Ask questions
Although this may sound as though it’s teetering on the brink of obvious, ask them what they know about social media other than the top three social networking sites. Probe them a little bit and see if they can provide you with any valuable insights that they didn’t just get from another blog post. Ask them how they would measure success using social media (and keep in mind that success isn’t necessarily having a high number of Twitter followers or Facebook fans). You want someone who is well versed and has a respectable Internet snapshot.

If you are a business owner who does not know much about social media, it may be a good idea to have someone who is familiar sit in on the interview with you. This should overall help make sure you hire the best social media expert around. However, if you are on your own these few tips will help you make sure you are hiring a social media expert and not someone who simply likes to chat with their friends on Facebook.

Photo Credit thesocialmediarepublic.co.uk

About the Author
Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to business phone services. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including voip small business phone services to small businesses and entrepreneurs for the leading B2B Directory, Business.com.

Here are 3 reasons interns should not be in charge of your company’s social media:

Flake factor
Most interns are working for free. And while you may hide that fact behind the smoke and mirrors of “resume building,” it doesn’t change the fact that you aren’t paying them to be there. This usually means that the internship will come second to school and side-jobs that actually do pay. I’m not saying all interns are flakes that fail to show up on day two, but you have to remember that your company is not high on their priority list right now, “resume building” or not. Social media marketing requires constant attention and daily updates to be most effective. Commitment is crucial! Most social media marketing campaigns fail because a company didn’t give it the long term attention it needed to grow. You can’t afford to miss 3 out of 5 days in a week because the intern didn’t show.

Limited experience
The reason they are your intern and not a full-time employee is because they don’t have the experience or training yet to be a full-time employee. They are coming to you and your company to learn and grow and get real-hands on experience in their given field. This means they are going to make mistakes (part of the learning curve); do you want your social media reputation to be the mistake? A carefully built up online reputation can come crashing down around your ears in a matter of hours with one wrong social media step. When you think about all the social media mistakes professionals can make, what could potentially happen with an untrained intern?

No long term commitment to your company
While every intern is tempted by the idea that they might actually get hired after interning for you for six months, most understand and accept that it’s a slim possibility. If someone doesn’t have a long term commitment to your company, chances are they won’t fully understand your business goals and messaging in the short time that they are there. In order to do social media marketing “right” you have to know what you are trying to accomplish, what you want to say and who you are talking to.