Mari Smith once said, “We must develop a thick skin. With an unshakeable sense of self – and a commitment to being compassionate – nothing will faze you.”
Welcome the world of social media marketing where success is achievable when you have the right strategy in place and being bold at the same time. Mari’s quote is point on especially in this competitive, social media industry. There is a thin line between self-promoting and increase brand visibility — most of the time, we struggle to balance both up.

Yes, we either self-promote too much or we promote others way too much.
I understand that if we want to achieve ‘social media success‘, we need to get out of our safe zone and work well hard (and smart) to beat the competition when they are still sleeping.
Sure, you heard this a dozen times; probably from influencers such as Jon Morrow, Chris Brogan and Neil Patel (to name a few).
But reading and understanding the social media marketing process is just one part of equation. Are you practicing it on a daily basis?
Do me a favor — take a moment to count the number of social media platforms out there. I’ll wait.
You probably lost count down the road because there are just too many of them! But how do others manage the whole social media thing, building success blogs and leverage the power of search engines?
Technology, my friend — is the key for everything. If you want to market your blog to success, leveraging the power of technology will help you reach more audience, increase blog traffic and doubling your blog revenue.
I recently became aware of a project FreshBooks (a leader in cloud accounting and invoicing) is running where they reach out to influencers and ask them to provide insights about technology as it relates to business. And I thought it was an awesome idea for me to share what I know about getting massive results using social media. With that being said, let's dive in on ways to achieve success in social media success using technology.
Related post: Get Noticed In A Noisy World (5 Simple Steps To Take You From Here To The Top)
social media success

Choosing the right social media platforms

One of the biggest mistakes done by companies and entrepreneurs — focusing in too many social platforms. If you want social media to work for you, ensure that you are focus on specific platforms than putting all your eggs in one basket.
Sure, engaging in more social platforms is powerful but what’s the point when you can’t leverage the specific social platform to the best of its ability?
It doesn’t only save you more time but as well as increasing your productivity level.

Social media success depends on your marketing strategies

Do you have a social media marketing strategy? If you don’t have one, I urge you to get one now.
But wait! Not sure how to create a social media strategy? Well, carry on reading!

Step 1: Understanding your target audience

Finding which social media platforms there are in may be easy, but finding what they like is challenging.
When starting on a new social media marketing project, my first step is to find for awareness. Determine the places your potential fans and readers are in.

Step 2: Know what your audience like / love / engage on

This may varies depending on platform but the common tools I use would be:
Do several post sharing and rotate between images, texts and links. Determine which has the most engagements for a period of time. I usually test out for a full 30-days.
Here’s an example of my analytics using Buffer:
buffer analytics
Images shared on my Twitter handler (@SocialCopy) seems to constantly be on the top 2 spot for the most shares, retweets and clicks.

Determine your metrics

Knowing the right metrics to determine your social media success is important. Without metrics, you probably won’t be able to judge the progress of your social media strategy.
Of course, you need to choose one (or more) platforms in advanced before checking on your metrics. Common metrics I usually use (and encourage you to do so too) would be:
  • Number of social shares
  • Source of the social shares
It gives you an idea on how your social media marketing strategy is working and the distance between you and your targeted success.
This is how analytics on SumoMe (which I use in this blog) looks like:
sumome social tracking
If you are a fan of Google Analytics, you can even search here (head over to Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels):
google analytics for social media
As you can see, Twitter generates 60.85% of all my social traffic. If you added Event funnels on Google Analytics, you can track conversion rates as well (you can see on the right of the image).

ALERT: The 20 Productivity Tools Every Entrepreneur Should Know About

How do we share content to multiple social media channels?

Social media success is pretty much achievable when you have the right productivity tools. For me, I use two tools to manage my social media accounts (yes, two — not one); Buffer and Hootsuite.

Buffer for scheduling social content

Using Buffer, I am able to schedule contents from images, texts and quotes up to 12 social accounts simultaneously (using Buffer Awesome plan). If you are using Buffer for Business, you can integrate up to 50 social accounts.
social media scheduling using Buffer
Buffer allows you to share content immediately, share it on the next pre-set schedule or adding it into queue.
CLICK HERE to create a free Buffer account and start scheduling posts instantly!

Hootsuite for managing multiple accounts

While Hootsuite is able to schedule content across various platforms, I use Hootsuite to manage my social accounts and as well as social listening. Here’s an example of my Hootsuite dashboard.
manage multiple social media accounts
Another advantage using Hootsuite is the autoschedule post. Based on algorithm created by Hootsuite, the post will be shared at times where your followers are most engaged. Additionally, there are numerous applications which you can integrate with Hootsuite. Pretty awesome, right?
Get 30-days free access to Hootsuite Pro using this link.

How to aim for social media success?

Social media isn’t (entirely) about you, brand or business. It is about them — yes, your followers.
It takes a lot for a reader (or your fan in this case) to actually start sharing your content with others. But with the right strategy, you can actually gain more social shares than ever.
Social media success can be achieved by:
  • Providing value
  • Engage with your fans
Listen to what your readers are asking on social and provide answers (not hints) to them.
Straight and accurate answers without requiring actions is a great way to build trust and influence.
And when you engage with your fans, they will feel belonging and most importantly, you don’t leave them waiting for answers. In return, you get happy customers, fans and a higher possibility of engagement.
Make sense?

Article you may find interesting: 5 Smart Ways To Validate Small Business Ideas

What should you do now?

I know — you want to know what to do right now with your social media marketing strategy. Grab a pen and jot these down. Paste it on your wall or add this into your daily to-do list on your smartphone.
  1. Determine 1 to 3 social media platforms you want to focus on
  2. Craft at least 5 social updates on each social media platform
  3. Using tools like Buffer and Hootsuite, analyze the engagement rate (do this for about 3 – 6 weeks)
  4. Focus only on one social platform where you put the most effort in for results
  5. Engage with your followers and provide them with solutions to their challenges
BONUS: Want to create more engagement on Facebook and Twitter? I use Post Planner to share viral photos and powerful motivational quotes (and watch your engagement rate skyrocket overnight). Create a free account here.

Social media success is achievable but are you (really) ready?

Success in social media is achievable and you don’t (really) need a marketing agency to help you with it. But, it takes some time and devotion.
If you face challenges in social media, let me help you. Tell me all about it by emailing me or leave me a comment below.
The post How We Focus On Social Media Success (And You Can Too) appeared first on Success Ground.


from How We Focus On Social Media Success (And You Can Too) http://ift.tt/1LNIplz contributed by Reginald Chan