8 Habits of Successful Social Media Marketers

Social media has become firmly established as an effective way to market almost any business, but there are so many sites, tasks, profiles and publishing to manage every day, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. The most successful social media marketers have several habits that enable them to do it all successfully. See how many you’re already doing, and add those you aren’t to your day to see what a difference they can make. 1. Know your niche Know what the people in your niche are most interested in, and come up with content that satisfies those needs. For example, any new golfer will want to know about perfecting their swing. Think beginners new to your niche, and intermediates, and you will become a magnet for them as they look for solutions to their main issues.

2. Block time on your calendar

Make an appointment each day with your social networking profiles. Thirty minutes per day (2 or 3 times a day about 15 minutes)will prevent you from getting distracted and eating up your time. Set an alarm if you have to make yourself get off. Log in, look around, and interact as needed. Don’t constantly crank out content with no thought to what’s actually happening in the account. For example, if you have a Tweet that is getting a lot of traction, don’t tweet more items that are just going to push it down the page. Instead, let it ride as long as it can. 3. Leverage advertising as needed Even a small budget can go far with the right content on the right network. Using the example of the hot tweet above, consider turning it into a sponsored tweet. Also consider running a campaign to add more followers while the tweet is prominent, in order to give it more exposure to those interested in your niche who are on the network but not connected with you yet. 4. Using automation as needed

A growing number of tools will allow you to manage multiple social media accounts, with just a few clicks. Pay particular attention to publishing content during the times you are not online, for around the clock marketing. As a digital marketing company, this is our specialty for our clients. We have the basic, promotional/informational posts set up on automatic posting and then our clients know that there is always information going out there for them but it enables them to be able to just share the fun stuff and engage with their followers. 5. Think engagement, not just eyeballs Your content should have a high potential to evoke a response, such as a comment, like or share. Make your calls to action obvious to get the response you want. Here are some samples of ways to do that. * Poll * Survey * Provocative or thought-provoking question * Sharing interesting articles and other niche-related content, and encouraging others to as well

* Creating a range of content at your site and sharing it * Comment on a recent news item If you get a comment, reply to it as appropriate. Stuck with a troll? Don’t engage on their unprofessional level in front of the entire world, just delete their nonsense and block them. It’s easy to do and really leaves you taking the high road. In the posting, give a clear call to action, such as “Like or share if you agree." For more details, invite them to share more with, "Let us know what you think in the comments box below." 6. Follow others and engage as needed See what others are doing and be helpful in all your interactions online, and people will soon be checking out your profile and starting to follow you because you look like someone worth paying attention to.

7. Connect with thought leaders Connect with the top people in your niche. You can learn from them and will be keeping good company, which over time may result in a range of profitable opportunities. 8. Track your results

See how many engagements you get from each activity. If driving traffic to your site, create a unique URL for each network campaign so you can see the results from each network quickly. This can easily be done using something like bit.ly and it won’t cost you anything. Does all of that make sense? If something is throwing you, feel free to reach out.