In a recent conversation with a colleague of mine, it came to my attention that there is an epidemic sweeping the social world. It is silent, unforgiving, and is responsible for many social media marketer's downfall. This epidemic I am talking about is fluff content. Fluff content is basically super conceptual information that is hard to actually put into action. If you read a lot of blogs, you'll probably agree that there is a TON of fluff out there. In efforts to combat this evil fluff, I reached out to some professionals that I consider social media superheroes and asked them to share their favorite fluff-less social media tip. Get ready fluff, your end is near!
Aaron Wormus - @AGuyOnClematis
"Ignore all tips, find someone who you think is great with social media and copy everything they do."
Lisa Concepcion - @LisaTakesMiami
"Decide if your Facebook account is for personal or professional purpose then set your privacy settings and communicate accordingly. Don't muddy the waters with status posts about a guy you're pining for alongside industry news. Your credibility will be shot. Best to have a like page for business and a personal page for personal use without any link to the business. Keep things separated."
Alex De Armas - @_AlexDe
"Tip: Knowing your audience, analyzing past posts & determining a media schedule is crucial when it comes to building lasting relationships & engaging your audience."
Demi Pietchell - @mmmBRAINCANDY
"Develop an outreach ecosystem within your community. Mutually evangelizing the businesses, clubs, nonprofits, goods and service providers in your area as a team helps to build the buzz for everyone."
John Saunders - @JDSaunders_
"When used strategically, hashtags (#) can be a great tool for boosting the reach and engagement of Google+ and Twitter posts. Focus on keywords that users in your vertical would search for and implement them in your posts naturally (i.e. Great #socialmedia tips for new marketers). More users will see your message and your engagement will increase dramatically."
Leyda Hernandez - @LeydaHV
"To best track conversions from Facebook you should start by setting up ecommerce tracking in Google Analytics so you can track your visits, revenue, transactions, conversion rate, and per visit value from Facebook as the traffic source. Use a social dashboard to gauge what type of content, what posting time and date, and frequency is optimal for your conversions, so you can utilize this insight for your future content curation and creation efforts. If appropriate, use coupon codes to test and track the success of sales promotions and different incentives from that platform's audience. Make sure to keep in mind that there will always be a margin of error of people who saw you on Facebook and then typed in your url into a browser versus clicking-through."
Alex Wall - @markethacker
"Provide value. Nobody logs on to Facebook to see promotional posts or branded content or paid ads. If you're not giving your target audience information or entertainment that is of value to them, they're not going to pay attention to you because, unlike with traditional advertising, they have the option of silencing you through unfollowing, unliking, or hiding your content.
Also, watch your metrics, look for upticks in engagement, and cross-reference your most successful social media posts so you can find the common thread that is getting you the most traction."