Social Media Commandments

The power of social media can help you reach your following and connect with customers. Without experience, it may seem difficult deciding where to start. Here are Ten Commandments to take to heart when using social media for marketing, to help maximize your success!

1. Thou Shall Listen.

If there is only one thing you should take away from this post, is that social media marketing requires you to listen more, and talk less. Read your target audience’s online content, and join discussions to learn what’s important to them. Once you have learned what is important to them, then you can create content that will stimulate conversation and are valuable.

2. Thou Shall Focus.

Focus your marketing strategies – especially your social media marketing – nothing is worse than doing too much. Staying focused on your specialty will increase your audience and make you more desirable overall.

3. Thou Shall Produce Quality.

It’s true, quality over quantity! It’s better to have condensed, dedicated followers who are engaged, than a giant base of disinterested consumers. This applies to social media marketing as well – produce quality content for valued followers.

4. Thou Shall Be Patient.

It is important to stay patient. Success in social media rarely happens overnight. You have to remain committed to your cause in order to reap the rewards of your hard work.

5. Thou Shall Covet The Compound.

Creating quality content will have your content shared and liked, while growing more quality followers. Your followers will be excited share your content through various platforms including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and their own blogs.

Having your contest shared and discussed online, allows Google and other search engines to find your content easier on the Internet.

6. Thou Shall Influence.

Connect with people who are likely to be interested in your products and services. If you connect with these people, your audience is likely to grow because of their own following.

If you land on their radar, they may use your content from your website or blog as a source of information they can share with their followers, which will in turn expand your audience.

7. Thou Shall Covet Value.

Do not be one of those companies that spend all of their web time promoting their services and products! People will stop listening to you, and move on to a possible competitor.

You need to add value to the conversation. Focus more on creating memorable and creative content. You will find that in the long run, your time invested in content will help you build the right relationships with your followers, and more likely to be found.

8. Thou Shall Acknowledge.

Acknowledge those who reach out to you about your product or service and don’t ignore them. Building relationships with your followers are one of the most important parts of social media… After all, it is about being social!

9. Thou Shall Be Accessible.

Be openly available to your audience. Make sure you are consistently providing content to your followers, and actively participate in conversations. Followers online can be quick to replace you if you disappear – even if temporarily.

10. Thou Shall Reciprocate.

You can’t expect people to share your content unless you share theirs as well. So a portion of your time should be spent sharing and talking about other content that was published by blog or sites you admire.

These days, no business, large or small, can ignore the social space. Provide your prospective customers with a reason to listen to your voice. Encourage consumers to come back, to comment, like and share. Building an engaged following requires patience and good strategy – but it’s a must to incorporate into your marketing mix.

Want to know more? Check out ways to Sync Your Social and Email!

Michael Bickerton, Raven5 Ltd. April 2015

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