Although we are all adamant that we are too busy, I am 100% sure you have a 15 minute window every day that you could use to maximise your social presence, if only you knew how to get the most from it.
Whether you need ideas to grow your social presence or need a list of suggestions to use in those brief moments of time, these 7 things are quick ways that you can harness the power of social TODAY.
1. Where does your traffic come from?
It’s all well and good using every social media platform and marketing funnel going to drive traffic to your site, but do you really know which channels are working? To find out, log into your Google Analytics and click on the links to follow this sequence: Acquisitions – All Traffic – Referrals
You’ll see a list showing which social site is generating the most referral traffic to your website. Each site is linked to a breakdown of the actual posts people clicked on to reach your site.
Let’s say your top referral source is Pinterest. One in the Pinterest section, click on the Pinterest link and it will take you to a breakdown of the top pins/images that brought people to your site. To help you better understand what people are interested in, simply write out the top 10 pins and the number of traffic clicks from those images to my list of my top social sites.
Continue to create content in line with that style/tone/aesthetic. Give your readers what they want!
2. Check your top performing posts
Creating content takes time and effort, and you want to know that the time and effort is worthwhile, analysing your top post is a great way to inspire future content.
To access this information on Facebook, go to your business page. Look for the tab on the top of your fan page that says Insights and click on that button. Then start tracking the activity from your Facebook posts, a simple spreadsheet will do.
For Twitter simply log in, then where your profile logo is on the top right hand side, click the drop down and select Analytics, then next to Home at the top left, click Tweet and it will show you a breakdown of all your tweets.
In Instagram, go into your Insights (if you don’t have a business profile you won’t be able to see this, to turn your profile from a personal to a business one just follow this guide)
Once you have all the data, ask yourself;
What were your top 5 posts for the week?
What time of day were they posted?
What day of the week were they posted?
What was the topic or message of these posts?
Did you add a video, photo or ask a question?
The more you check your Insights, the more you’ll start to see patterns emerge. You’ll start to see what type of content speaks more to your fans and what posts create more engagement with your potential customers.
3. Maximise Pinterest
It’s very easy to simply create content and push it out on Pinterest, but like all social platforms, it’s a place to build relationships and utilise the content of others. One of the best ways to hep you grow your Pinterest account is to find new people who are posting new content for you to Repin on Pinterest. I usually run a search for new people and boards at least once a week.
Pinterest’s search feature is so easy to use and it’ll help you look for new people, boards and pins. Just type in the words you’d use to run a search on Google.
This search is a huge help to look for more content to add to a board that you just started or want to grow. You’ll be able to find people who have already done the search work and just re-pin several of their pins. And depending on their content, go ahead and follow them or just their board.
4. Update your LinkedIn profile:
Sometimes we get so busy that we forget to add what we’re working on to our LinkedIn profile. I know this one well – it happens to me all the time!
Your LinkedIn profile is super important because if someone runs a Google search of your name, your LinkedIn profile will come up as an option. This may be one of the first places where a potential customer or partner will first learn about you so you want to make sure that your information is up to date.
To update your information, log into your LinkedIn profile, go to the Edit Profile section (you’ll see the edit pencil next to all the sections) and ask yourself these questions:
Did you recently add in a new product or service? You can add that to your profile under the Project section.
Did you write a guest post on another blog? Add in the link in the Publications section.
Have your services changed? Make sure you update that in your Summary section as well as in the Experience section.
5. Find new people in Instagram to follow:
Doing a search for people who do the same work as you as you do is a great way to see how others in your industry are using Instagram. Run a search for your company’s key words in the search feature { the search looks like a magnifying glass } and see who comes up.
Don’t just settle with following them, go and see who the people who inspire you, are inspired by, i.e. who they follow.
Bonus point! Make some notes about of which hashtags they use. I found several of my strongest hashtags from checking out what others who were doing the same type of work as me were using.
6. Do a mini-brainstorm social session:
Don’t rest on your laurels that done once, is done, it isn’t! So rather than keeping on simply doing what you have always done, take a little time out to brain dump content ideas, creative elements, where you could share them and how. Even doing this for 15 minutes a week, you will find yourself getting into the swing of always looking for the next batch of content, the next campaign idea, etc.
7. Read and comment on other blogs:
Take the whole 15 minutes to really read an article on a site you love, don’t just scan read it, really absorb the content, then leave them a constructive comment, mention why you enjoyed the post, what you took from it, or how you will utilise the insights. Do this twice a week, every week.
If you can’t add to the conversation, move on to the next blog post or another blogger’s site. It’s OK if it was something that was posted a couple of weeks or a month ago. The point is to spend some time crafting your comment so that you can contribute the conversation and maybe even start a connection with the author.
I really hope this helps you make the most of the little windows of time you do have in your day.