Tips for using Social Media

ALISSA HERE:

Hi friends. I’m so excited to have Vanessa, one of my amazing sponsors sharing with us today. She’s a Social Media and Content Strategist in real life and she’s sharing some of her awesome wisdom with us today.

Here’s a little bit about Vanessa:

“I’m a busy and happy mother of one bubbly little girl (soon to be two kids!) and a proud graduate of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism. Fight on!

My career includes:

• Listing Editor for Yahoo! Search Marketing
• Bilingual TV reporter
• Videographer & editor
• Weather anchor for the #1 rated morning show in Reno, Nevada.
• Public Relations/Social Media Coordinator for VisitRenoTahoe

Currently, I work for Noble Studios as a Social Media & Content Strategist – hands down the best job I’ve had. (Starbucks comes in a close second.)

In my apprenticeship days, I worked for Dateline NBC, Telemundo Network and Fox News. During my time with Telemundo, I had the remarkable opportunity of seeing a story close to my heart make its way to national television. In the hallways of NBC, I also learned to keep story ideas to myself. 

I’m also a blogger for Buzz.Snow.com, a Spanish translator and interpreter, and public relations and social media consultant. When I’m not juggling an extremely busy schedule, I’m exploring the world through my daughter’s eyes, reading, running and sewing.”

Take it away Vanessa!

Source

One of my passions is helping businesses build and grow their online social media.

Whether you’re running your own business or building your personal brand, each of these tips will help you better align your goals and make the best use of your time.

In addition to the tips below, I invite you to read my post about SEO for bloggers. If your site isn’t coming up in organic search, how will new users find you?

1. Research. Let me start by saying you don’t need to be on every single social network. Every decision you make should be based upon research and data. As a blogger you already know the only way to have a community is to be a part of it. Figure out where your readers like to hang out. Are they active on Facebook? Twitter? Read some of their favorite blogs and engage – comment, “Like”, repost, etc.
2. Analytics. Once you’ve done your homework, spend some time getting to know your website’s analytics. If you don’t have Google Analytics installed on your site, do it NOW. It’s a free service with incredibly robust data that can tell you where your readers are coming from, which content is most popular and what keywords are driving traffic. I also like to use GetClicky. That’ll tell you down to the IP address who is on your site and how they got there.
3. Measure. Create a monthly report to track your growth or decline over time. Set a reminder in your calendar to pull data on the 1st of every month. Track page views, visitors, referral sites, top content etc. (If you want to see a sample report, I’d be happy to email it to you). DON’T GET CONSUMED BY THE #S. Do not obsess over how many visitors you have. Quality is way more important than quantity in social media. Use the data to discover what your readers like to see, but don’t write because you think it’ll bring you more traffic. Write because you can’t wait to share with the world!
4. Twitter is my favorite social media platform. It’s a great way to get information quickly and connect with people you might not otherwise have access to. A few tips – before you write a Tweet, always research to see if the person you’re writing about is on Twitter (include their handle); research to see if a hashtag about that topic exists (#parenting, #sewing, etc.) this will increase visibility of your message; DO NOT AUTOMATE YOUR TWEETS TO YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE! Stick to 140 characters and use bit.ly to shorten your URLs. Also, use Hootsuite to monitor keywords related to your brand or business.
5. Facebook. I’ll say it again. QUALITY is more important than QUANTITY. Don’t get hung up over how many followers you have, instead focus on making those followers your brand ambassadors. Be a good host – engage with anyone who comments or posts. Engage with other pages by ‘Liking” them or commenting as your brand, and update regularly. Include a picture with your post every chance you get [videos do best on Facebook] and ALWAYS include a call to action. For example, “Please ‘Like’ this post if you dig it.”
6. Pinterest. Add a “Pin It” button to every post. In your analytics you’ll be able to track how much traffic Pinterest is driving to your site. It’s incredible.

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