All posts by TWP Publisher

Businesses and brands are constantly competing for attention on social media, and with all the noise and incessant messaging, how can you make your voice heard?

You have to find ways to cut through the noise and stand out like a unicorn in a sea of donkeys.

But how?

Here, I’m revealing a few of my favorite social media marketing tactics that have helped me grow my businesses and stand out on social.

1. Plan a content strategy and create an editorial calendar for your social channels.
Marketers are sometimes at a loss at what to post on social media.

Successful social media marketing doesn’t happen on accident — there’s a strategy in place, just as there is with a blog.

Look at the big picture and come up with social content that will resonate with your audience.

Map out seasonal content, as well as content related to events or launches your company is planning.

Work closely with your editorial and marketing teams to know what’s coming down the pipeline and strategize the best ways to promote it.

2. Invest in the right social channels.
It’s not just about what social content you share — it’s also about where you share it.

Not all social platforms are created equally, and where one business gets amazing engagement, another might fall flat.

B2Bs, for example, might do very well on LinkedIn, but not so hot on Instagram.

Meanwhile, B2Cs usually thrive on Instagram.

Find the platform that aligns with your audience.

3. Dive into new social platforms headfirst.
Another unicorn social tactic?

Find the latest and greatest platform, and dive in — before your competition.

One prime example?

Facebook Messenger.

The open rates on this thing are sky high (80% on average).

There are 300 million active monthly Messenger users, and you can communicate with them straight through Messenger in an engaging format that they prefer!

Whether you want to create customer service bots, bots that can schedule appointments, or bots to deliver key content, you can do it all on Facebook Messenger.

Read more: 8 Ways Your Business Can Stand Out on Social Media in 2019

With social platform functionality advancing, and algorithms further limiting organic reach, influencer marketing has continued to become a more viable, valuable digital outreach consideration, which an expanding range of brands are now looking into.

But it’s not as simple as just reaching out to an influential user and asking them to post on behalf of your brand. You need to research the right influencers who have connection to those consumers that you want to reach, you need to establish goals and a strategy to maximize your effort, and you then need to utilize your influencer-created content for optimal results.

There’s a lot to take into account – which is where this new infographic from the team at Pan Communications comes in.

Here is an overview of some of the key considerations you need to keep in mind when mapping out an influencer marketing approach. Using these notes as a guide, you’ll be well on your way to building an effective, beneficial influencer marketing program.

Read more: 5 Key Components of a Successful Influencer Marketing Strategy [Infographic]

Over the years, I have worked with companies who block access to all social media platforms within their network.

This move was probably intended to keep employees focused on their work.

However, the marketing, HR, and sales teams really needed access to these networks!

No, I’m not talking about encouraging everyone to go waste their days on YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, etc. I’m also not counting the necessary marketing tasks of running advertising and content campaigns.

I’m referring to those of us in marketing and search roles who don’t have a perceived good reason to be on social media daily – as well as those managers or decision-makers who direct the time and activities of their teams.

Social media has matured into a major digital marketing channel. It shows up in attribution models and customer journey maps in nearly all industries.

While arguments can be made about niche and old school industries, it is hard to ignore.

Using social media at work is a positive thing for marketing and SEO professionals.

We should be encouraging social media use in our companies.

When given direction and focusing on the seven reasons marketers and SEO pros should be using social media, we can leverage its power and accomplish things that wouldn’t be possible from the brand’s profile and perspective alone.

1. Company Branding
The more content employees share about their work, role in the industry, involvement in their company, and engagement in their community, the more a brand can benefit.

As long as guidance is given on how to ensure profiles are tied to the company and the content is tasteful, employees can serve as brand ambassadors on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

We have all been to the stale and sterile profile of a brand that doesn’t showcase what employees are doing and isn’t connected with the people that make up that company.

If your employees are doing awesome things in their circles, make sure they are encouraged and empowered to talk about it on social media.

2. Personal Branding
Years ago, I had a client’s HR department worry that marketing’s encouragement of employees and sales team members to be on LinkedIn and engaging in their industry would make them ripe for recruitment by competitors.

This was backward thinking and thankfully, they learned to embrace the power of what their employees’ personal brands could do.

By building personal brands through sharing content, building larger networks, and engaging others, they found that individual employees were able to establish their own thought leadership and personas in the industry. This could mutually work for the employee’s career benefit as well as the company’s overall profile.

Read more: 7 Reasons Marketers & SEO Pros Should Use Social Media at Work