Level Up Your Social Media Game

Tips and Tricks to Take Your Social Media to the Next Level

Within a matter of years, social media has managed to become an integral part of our lives. And it is expected to grow in the coming years. With this growth expectancy in mind, social channels are constantly changing and adapting new features based on user needs and appeal. This continuous flux presents marketers with unique opportunities to utilize these new tools and features so they can level up their social media game, attract the right set audiences, and stand out from the competition. Take a look at these tips that can help you stay on top of your social media game.

Get Familiar With the Right Tools

• Canva: This simple image creation and editing tool is unarguably the most popular by professionals across various industries. It offers hundreds of templates for social posts and photos and makes it easy to create compelling visuals.
• Sprout Social: Sprout Social is one of the most popular social media marketing tools. It can help you schedule posts, and also assists you with social listening. It also offers detailed analytics of your account and manages it by delegating tasks to your team.
• Mention: This social listening tool is a great way to monitor mentions of keywords (for example, a brand name) or key phrases across social media and the Internet at large. It also helps improve your social media strategy based on audience insights and data.
• Lumen5: This online video creator makes it easy for anyone on your team to create engaging video content in minutes. Lumen5 also offers hundreds of templates to help you stay on brand and on time. 
• Promoty: If you’re looking to start an influencer program, Promoty is a great start. This platform helps find the right creators, manage influencers, monitor content, and save time on influencer marketing.
• ShareIt: A free content curation and discovery tool that helps you find the right content and share it seamlessly on your social media. If you’ve hit a content block, ShareIt can help you brainstorm ideas for your blog and social posts.
• Later: Whether you’re looking to schedule content and stories across multiple platforms, search trending hashtags, engage with your audience, or just keep up on the latest social media trends, Later is a tool that offers it all. 

Take Advantage of New Social Media Features

A critical part of reaching success on social media is having the ability to keep up and implement all of the new features being offered by each platform. We understand that this can be very time consuming, so fear not, we’ve outlined some of favorites to test out or keep an eye out for below:

LinkedIn

• Carousels: This new content format allows users to mix images and videos to help audiences learn in a digestible way (so long PDFs!) 
• Clickable Link: Users can now add a clickable link directly onto images and videos to drive followers to a website, an upcoming event, recent newsletter or other resources. 
• Templates: Make text posts stand out using Templates. This feature quickly turns boring text-only posts into visually engaging content. 

Facebook

• Schedule Reels: Using Creator Studio, users can now schedule their Reels in advance. (Tip: Creator Studio also allows users to repurpose existing content as short-form videos/Reels.) 

Instagram 

• Be Candid story feature: This feature is still in testing but will send users daily prompts to capture and share real-time updates using their front and back cameras.
• QR Code: Users can now share posts, Reels, tags, and locations on its searchable Map experience through QR codes.
• Re-Post: Another feature in testing that will allow users to repost, or share others’ content with your own followers.

Twitter

• Twitter Chats: This allows users to have in-depth conversations with your followers regarding any topic relevant to your industry. These chats are a great way to increase your audience engagement numbers on the platform.
• Edit Tweet: Edit Tweet lets users do exactly that (can we get a Hallelujah). 

YouTube

• Shorts: Creators can now quickly make Shorts from their long-form videos. 

Choose the Social Media Platforms That Work Best For Your Audience

There is not a “one post fits all” when it comes to social media channels. It’s critical to understand each platform, observe your target audience, and learn the type of content that works best before you create a social page on every platform. Knowing all this will help you get started on the right foot with leveling up your social media game.

• LinkedIn – A professional network that is perfect for B2B audiences. LinkedIn is great for increasing brand awareness, generating leads, and building customer relationships.
• Facebook – Good for news and/or entertainment related content. While Facebook Pages struggle to perform, Facebook Groups can be a great way of connecting with your ideal audience.
• Instagram – Perfect if your content is highly visual. Static images and short videos work incredibly well but it’s not the best solution if you’re aiming to drive traffic to your blog.
• Pinterest – Similar to Instagram, Pinterest is highly visual. Although it’s limited to static images, it can be highly effective at driving traffic to your blog.
• Twitter- The most social platform. Twitter is best for those looking to promote offerings, share news, and have the ability to interact with followers 24/7.
• TikTok– Perfect for brands wanting to reach millennials and Gen Z through visual video content.

Produce Content That Converts

We’ve said it before, and we will say it again: “content is KING.” The content that worked 5 years ago, most likely won’t have the same effect today. We have officially entered the age of demand generation and it’s more vital than ever to be creating social media content that appeals to your target audience. With that said, here are some tried and tested content ideas to help fill your calendar: 

• Repurpose your most engaging content: First identify your top-performing posts, then find ways to repurpose that content with updated copy or graphics. This is a great way to fill up that social calendar without having to do the heavy lifting of producing new content. Tip: Repurposing content is great when sharing long form content such as eBooks.
• Memes and/or TikTok videos: Niche-specific memes or sharing relevant TikTok videos are a creative way to seamlessly connect with their audience and promote a brand in a fun way.
• User-generated content: UCG is a great (and easy) way to fill your feed with community-made content, while also attracting new followers, building trust, and converting your existing audience into customers. 
• Company news and/or employee spotlights: Consumers love seeing the faces behind companies. It gives them a chance to relate to the brand on a more personal level.
• Industry news: No matter the industry you’re in, it’s always a great idea to post relevant articles to keep your audience engaged and informed.  
• Testimonials: Posting testimonials not only helps to build the trust of your product/service but they also encourage followers to share their own stories, in hopes of also being highlighted! Tip: This is a great way to turn followers into lifelong brand ambassadors. 

Wrapping Up 

It’s clear that social media is constantly evolving, as are the ways people use it. It’s critical to be aware of these changes so you can adapt accordingly and put in place the right tools, features, and content to grow your social media presence and ultimately reach your marketing goals. If you’re looking to level up your social media game, our team of experts are here to help.