#75 – Social Media Engagement

Autopilot Your Business

Welcome to podcast #75! Today we are dissecting social media engagement – of course this is very important if your business is to be effective on social media. Often you just need to slightly fine-tune what you are doing…

What did Andrew and Heather learn this week?

Andrew saw that Twitter are rolling out a “buy now” button. These are appearing in some tweets already – on mobile devices rather than desktop at the moment. We sense the success of this will come down to your execution – ‘pimpy’ or ‘cheesy’ is not good!

Heather realised that many people out there have a block when it comes to getting testimonials for their business. They are worried about needing to buy expensive camera equipment in order to grab the footage. A great way to inexpensively get a video testimonial is to use a live Google Hangout. This way you can grab testimonials from people who may not even be near where you are and the video will go to your YouTube channel. From there you can download the mp4 file and have the video edited – simple!

Social Media Engagement

Engagement – connecting with people on a level that almost has intimacy. It’s a two-way street where people are encouraged to and can respond. Think about it in terms of having a conversation whenever you post…

Facebook

• Start a conversation, e.g. “I would love to hear your thoughts” vs “here’s my…” Give the reader a call to action.
• Yes/no answers work best for finding out what people like, but open-ended questions are better for overall engagement.
• Photos – those that are more real/personable seem to create more conversation as it’s like getting an insight into someone’s life. These seem to work slightly better than highly edited images or stock images…
• Tagging – only relevant tags! (People who are actually in the photo!). Don’t just randomly tag people…
• Behave how you would normally – how would you talk in front of a room full of people?

Twitter

• Do not buy followers! Quality over quantity is key – you want people who want to engage with you.
• Be personable – answer questions and deliver extras (e.g. you could record a video answer).
• Thank people who share/retweet.
• Use the #hashtag – it’s how people find sub-communities…

Google Plus

• Interact in the communities.
• Make sure you add value – listen first rather than blasting communities with “me, me, me!”
• Hangouts – you can have multiple people or just yourself. Open it up for questions using the question and answer app…

LinkedIn

• One of the best features is the groups! Interact in these regularly so people start to notice you (you may be featured as a ‘top commentator’). You will find that you get more profile hits…
• Read people’s blog posts where they have posted links and comment within LinkedIn, especially those people who are active and well-connected. Be strategic about connections.

Pinterest

• Do collaborative pin boards – this allows others to contribute…
• Thank people who share your content – repin, and make sure you pay it forward! (Remember this across all social media)

Four Square

• Some people do choose to communicate via this platform! Andrew has had people connect from checking in places. Especially good for businesses with foot traffic to use for engagement…
• Key point – tell your staff what you’re doing with any offers.

Instagram

• It’s all about the #hashtag! Make sure you use effective, relevant hashtags.
• #nofilter – movement for selfies that aren’t altered. Natural photos are working better!

Overall – on all platforms keep it real!

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