How to grow your social media network should be one of your main goals. To do that you have to develop an engaging community. To arrive to that , you will need more followers/fans. To get to that, yo have to get noticed first.
The reality for every social business is this: you are just one of the many brands out there. It doesn’t even matter if you are a brick and mortar business or you do everything online. It is a challenging task. To put that in perspective, here are some facts:
- Twitter: 288M active users
- Facebook: 665M active users
- Pinterest: 70M active users
- Google+: 343M active users (per data I gathered)
Everyone is out there clamoring to get noticed too like you do. With that in mind, how do you get other businesses in social media to notice you? How do you get their attention to so you get social brand get “liked”, “followed” and circled in?
Do the uncommon.
Here are creative actionable tips to grow your social media presence
Note: This not exhaustive but could help you get started on how your business engages and communicates in social media.
How to make your business stand out on Twitter
Friday is the noisiest day on Twitter digitally because of #FF. What is #FF? It stands for Follow Friday. It has a derivative hashtag that looks like this >> #FollowFriday <<. It’s a day when Tweeple (Twitter-talk here) recommend to others the friends that they follow.
Common: #FF @QBCX @QWES @AADDC @abcd;j; @jkc.dd
Uncommon: Here is an example of one that caught my attention:
Only a few do that type of #FF shout out. Yes, I am proud to say that we’re one of the few. The uncommon shout out takes time to create but it is of more value to the Tweeter that is the recipient of the shout out and to the tweeple that see it. This particular person got a follow and a thank you shout out back from me.
How to make your business stand out on Facebook
Common: Using a company page, you “like” a page.
Uncommon: Post a note on the timeline of the page you just like to let them know that you’ve stopped by. The other option is to leave a comment on one of their posts.
When you like a page with your Facebook page, it doesn’t show in the notifications feed. The page you just liked will never know that you were there; unless, they go and check the “Likes” on their Facebook admin dashboard. I don’t know about you but I only occasionally check that section of the dashboard though because I prioritize those that are actively engaged on our page.
How to make your business stand out on Pinterest
Common: Pinning a pin to your boards. Like a pin.
Uncommon: Write a comment. I do not spend much time on Pinterest but the comment that a brand left on one of my pins asking me if they could join the “Blogging and Content Marketing” community board that I created got my attention.
Very uncommon: Don’t just pin an image to your post; Also, write helpful comments in the description section. Why is this important? Your comment stays there and gets passed along as it gets repinned. Think: Brand exposure!
How to make your business stand out on GooglePlus
Common: Circle brands and people. That’s it.
Uncommon: Say hello.
What do you do to grow your social network? Your turn!
Great tips, especially about networking with other business pages. When I “like” another business page with my personal profile, I always participate in one of their status updates with my company page and sign my name at the end to let them know.
Thanks Eileen! That’s a good point. I like putting a name to a “logo” other than a brand. Also, I just realized that I overtweaked G.A.S.P. I would love to see your comment show. I just reset it to default settings today.
Ruby recently posted…Best Social CRM for Small Business: Google+ Hangout
Great post Ruby and I think you nailed it. Its more than just participating, it is standing out. Just because we are behind a screen doesn’t mean we can abandon the laws of communication. Thank you for these great suggestions on navigating the ocean that is social media. I am looking to perfect google+ next
Thanks Lori! Let me know when you are on Google+ so I can circle you in. That platform is what I call as same difference as the rest of them. The basics apply – reciprocity. When there,, don’t forget authorship. I can lend you a hand when setting it up.
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