Getting started with social media can seem impossible. There are so many questions to answer: What is your social media’s purpose? Who do you want to attract? And how will you attract them when you’re starting out with zero, zilch, nil followers? Then there’s content. What type? Can I share this or is it copyrighted? Will people even find this intriguing? To help figure out this muddle, I asked some amazing female marketers for their tips and ideas on how to “Woman Up” your marketing and social media efforts so that you can be a social media pro like they are. Because let’s be honest, we all know women do it better! Jody Barrett/Showoffbydesign @ShowoffByDesign has 163.6 thousand followers on twitter. Holy cow. She describes herself as a Social Media Strategist, is an experienced business woman and entrepreneur, and has been featured in several business and social media articles and blogs from Huffington Post, The Examiner, and smedido. Jody suggests using keywords and phrases in your hashtags to draw in followers. By using hashtags with keywords, users who are actively searching those words and hashtags will see your posts. It’s almost like a tab for your tweet that makes it more easily accessible and keeps it from getting lost in an ocean of twitter posts. Above all, Jody suggests, “Mix[ing] it up with interaction & positive messages. Quotes always strike a nerve with people!” Jody Barrett’s advice mirrors her own actions. Her twitter posts include motivational posts, photos with key-worded hashtags, and she actively tweets to her followers and often retweets their responses. Most of all, her posts are full of motivation, inspiration, and pushes for you to be the best you can be. Who wouldn’t want to follow an account like that? Self-described LA-based content creator, photographer, and blogger Colleen Welsch @ColleenWelsch has an astounding 8,745 followers on twitter and 5,612 followers on instagram. In addition, she has her own blog http://colleenwelsch.com/ which includes everything from things to do in Los Angeles to music picks and lifestyle. Colleen not only actively uses hashtags in her posts, but also takes advantage of using trending hashtags. Her tweets are also very much in line with her blog topics, creating a fun synergy between her social platforms. According to Colleen, content is everything. “I think what they say ‘content is king’ - is totally true. Or queen in this case! You want to put your very best out there! It's better to post less content and have it be great then post lots of subpar content, in my opinion.” And I completely agree! Whereas with quick-paced social media platforms like Twitter, where content has a shelf life of 18 minutes (quroa), quality is still better than quantity. The end outcome of your social media is engagement, which turns into loyalty, which turns into growth. If you are spurting out meaningless content that nobody cares about, then nobody will read it and nobody will share it. Nobody is not your target audience. Once your followers trust you and know that you regularly share awesome, valuable, cool and creative content, they will begin to actively go to your page and share your content. Even when you aren’t in their twitter stream. On the flipside, if your twitter page is constantly screaming useless information, or resharing the same content over and over and over, you’ll lose followers. Ann Handley @MarketingProfs is the Head of Content at marketingprofs.com She is the author of Wall Street Journal best-seller Everybody Writes and has a website and blog http://www.annhandley.com/ Ann currently has a following of 349 thousand followers and is what I would definitely consider a marketing expert. Listening to someone tell a story can be captivating, and according to Ann Handley, it’s also where the magic in marketing begins. “I'd say that the key to great marketing is telling a bigger story that puts your business in the context of people's lives.” When you align your business, or social media, with people and their day-to-day lives, you create an emotional connection. Share the human side of your company or self-image and you will become magnetized. People are drawn to you and your business because they can relate to you. Ann’s twitter is full of marketing how-to’s, fun infographics, videos, and articles. You can find almost any aspect in marketing in any form of media on her twitter, which is probably why she’s so successful at attracting followers. So how do you Woman Up your marketing? According to these proven, successful women, it’s simple: Hashtag and Keyword it up (1-2 per tweet, don’t over do it), Share content worthy of a queen’s attention (Would you read it? If not, odds are no one else will either), and last but not least, share your story (Humanize your brand to be a person that even you’d like to be friends with.) Follow these simple steps and you’ll be on the path to social media stardom in no time. Have any additional tips or tricks we didn't think of? Feel free to comment, tweet, or email any suggestions!
2 Comments
7/17/2016 10:38:41 pm
Nice article Casey! Thanks for putting so much effort into it.
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Casey
7/17/2016 11:04:16 pm
Thank you, Justin, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
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Author@littlemissmktg is a current marketing student at Northern Kentucky University. She loves all things branding and marketing and welcomes any comments or insights. Archives
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