Your Company's Content Shared Across Social Media

Many companies dream of the day when their marketing content goes viral on social media resulting in thousands of shares, Facebook "likes," retweets, comments and even TV news coverage. social media marketing tips This brings a certain amount of glory and can result in much more exposure for the brand.Marketers should create any content for a company with the intent of somehow sharing it via social media, though social media posts are currently weighed as part of Google’s search algorithm, according to Google engineer Matt Cutts. But amid the cacophony of the internet, how can one company's content rise above the rest? Breaking up text content with large, appealing images results in content that's more likely to be shared.Don’t limit yourself to the standard buzzwords for your industry when coming up with new pinboards. A bakery naturally needs pinboards for cupcakes, wedding cakes and other baked goods. But more unusual topics, like the world’s oldest pastry recipes, campground baking or ways to dress up products your customers purchase help you stand out from the crowd.Use a dedicated storyboard to unfold a tale over several days or weeks. Send your mascot on a journey around the major landmarks of your town or share a series of pins that demonstrate how a customer used your product to solve a problem.Is your whole office is helping build a Habitat for Humanity home? Are your developers engaged in a weekend hackathon ahead of your next software version release? Take and pin pictures along the way so customers can follow your progress and get a peek behind the curtain. Pinterest is a perfect format for telling captivating stories that keep followers coming back to see how those stories turns out. social media marketing world UNICEF captivated over 1,600 followers by creating a pinboard for an underprivileged young girl in Sierra Leone and pinning pictures of things she might wish she had access to, like running water and shoes. In this example, it’s unclear if the teen is fictional or real, so be sure to make the distinction before developing a story that tugs at heart strings or encourages viewers to donate to a cause.

Provide a way for users to engage

Recently quizzes are cropping up on Facebook news feeds, often shared from BuzzFeed. Quizzes posing questions like “What Kind of [Fill in the Blank] Are You?” are highly shareable: They often connote social currency.Engaging users with this type of content plays directly into people’s inherent egocentricity. social media marketing plan template Quizzes may ask users to submit their own content (at the end) and can help people feel more connected and thus more likely to share the poster's content.Simplifying and automating some of everyday processes allows a business to effectively scale the productivity of its marketing, while retaining the quality of its work.To facilitate productivity as a marketer, identify which parts of the company's workflow can be automated with cost-effective tools. These tools must suit the size and needs of the marketing team and improve upon the quality of work delivered across marketing channels.Scheduling social media posts is critical for keeping up with the amount of relevant content that an organization ideally would generate in a timely manner. Social Flow helps businesses manage the distribution of their social content by alerting a team when the company's audience is discussing related topics to its core offerings and brand graph. The tool lets organizations know when to chime into relevant conversations their audience is already having.The tool's algorithm analyzes real-time conversations on the largest social networks to help businesses identify trends in these conversations, to inform future efforts in creating relevant content. The tool also assists with advertising on Twitter and Facebook, based on the success of existing organic content. Automating aspects of employees' participation on social media is another way to increase efficiency while saving staff time. social media marketing company Circulate.it lets members of a marketing team create a simple newsletter that can be delivered to other employees in an easy-to-share format with either an individual post or a list of a few post suggestions, optimized and ready for sharing on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. This helps organizations tap into the collective reach of employees on social media by automating some parts of the sharing process.

Keep posts short and simple

Even though Google has recently touted its “in-depth articles” feature (scholarly articles with deep insights), shareable content does isn't long form. Most articles that go viral are fairly short; viral video content is often 30 seconds or less. social media marketing agency Social media allows you the opportunity to build trust with your existing customers, which often results in a stronger relationship between the two parties. When this occurs, there is a greater likelihood of turning a customer into a brand ambassador. When you have these "power customers," they can be used as a great marketing tool to promote your brand through positive reviews and word-of-mouth tactics.There was an old infomercial for the Showtime Rotisserie Grill and the company used the tagline “set it and forget it.” While that may have worked then,it doesn’t work now -- especially when it comes to social media. Remember the operative words here are “real time,” as in you need to engage, respond and interact with your customers who reach out to you via social media. Marketers need to remember to engage with customers about the things that are relevant to them, especially in the context of customer service. If someone has an issue and expresses it through social media, don’t use that as a chance to try and sell them something. Instead address his or her concerns.Andrew McCauley (also known as the social-media bloke) is the co-founder of the digital-media agency AutoPilot Your Business. In a recent blog post he wrote “automatic, scripted or canned responses are unacceptable in terms of customer care. Today’s socially savvy customer wants and expects a personal response. Just like any form of customer-service training, social media and marketing any of your team members who respond to social media inquiries or complaints should be trained to use a tone that is appropriate for not only the type of message they receive, but for the type of customer they receive it from.Internet readers love content that's quickly digestible and easy to read. Infographics works work well, since images can make reading the content more fun.