6 Random Tips for the Most Popular Social Media Platforms Right Now

How many social networks have you signed-up for?

Chances are if you are marketer you have an account on Twitter, Facebook and hopefully also Google Plus and Pinterest. Right now those are the four “hot” networks and the best places to promote your brand and your content.

But of course saying that is easier than actually doing it.

The fact is not everyone succeeds with those networks and not everyone makes the most out of the time they spend there.

Sometimes you might get the big picture and understand how it all functions, but you might be missing the smaller details. The latter can more often than not be the missing piece to the whole puzzle. A piece without which nothing happens.

And with today’s post I will try to show you some of those elusive pieces that will help you complete this social media puzzle. In the below paragraphs I have covered six social media tips that cover namely the four social platforms I mentioned above.

Let’s get going, shall we!

6 Random Tips for the Most Popular

Social Media Platforms Right Now

 

1. Enable the Follow Feature on Facebook

Previously I suggested that promoting via a Facebook page rather than a personal profile is the way to go. But then again it seems like Facebook is constantly trying to limit the reach of posts, shared from a Facebook page.

And because I have been noticing a decline in the performance of my Facebook page, I decided to put some effort towards my personal account (which I’ve been neglecting quite a lot actually).

The best thing I could think of was the follow feature that enables others to get your notifications without you having to be friends.



I activated the follow feature by clicking the gear-like button, selecting Account Settings, going to the Followers tab and ticking Turn on Follow.

Once you’ve done that, the next step is to copy the code (found on the same page) and paste it where you find appropriate on your blog. Or if you’d like to customize the Follow button, you can use the code from THAT page.

NOTE: I’d advise you to place the button in the About Me widget (which is a must by the way), right below the short bio. Just see how I did it.

2. Follow the Ones Who Retweet the Influencers on Twitter

An interesting strategy I’ve been testing recently involves adding bookmarks to the Twitter accounts of some of the influencers in my niche.

By influencers I am referring to people with not only a lot of followers, but also with a high authority. In other words individuals and companies who tend to receive a lot of mentions, retweets and favorites.



The idea is simple. Every now and then I will go through the accounts I have bookmarked in my browser and follow some of the tweeps, who have retweeted or favorited some of the influencer’s recent tweets.

I currently have bookmarked around twenty accounts, so I only go through the latest 2-3 tweets per Twitter user. Doing so ensures that the tweeps I will follow are actually active, which makes for a better chance of them following me back.

There are three factors when choosing who to follow:

The first one is the username they use – is it a real name?

Second is the profile photo – does it look genuine?

And third comes the number of followers – is it between 200 and 3,000?

The key here is NOT to overdo. I am currently utilizing the strategy just twice a week and follow between a 100 and 200 Twitter users per session. In the end of the week I do get at least 70-80 new ACTIVE followers. All of this has recently resulted in my tweets getting retweeted and favourited more often than normally.

3. Pin Your Google Plus Posts for Additional Exposure

It turns out that Google Plus and Pinterest work pretty good together. Recently whenever I publish a new post and share it on Google Plus, I also pin it to a special Pinterest board that I have set up.

Why not directly pin from my blog you’d ask…

Well because when I cross-share from Google Plus, when my Pinterest followers see the post and hopefully click on the image I’ve pinned, they will first be redirected to the Google Plus story for the post. That way they will also be given the chance to plus one or reshare the post after they read it, thus giving me additional exposure.

Okay, now how do you go about it?

The first step is to add the Pinterest Pin It button to your browser. Here’s a download link for Chrome and one for Firefox. The extension will allow you to pin images from any page that you are currently browsing.



Second step is to click on the timestamp of the Google Plus story for your latest post. That way you will open up only that specific story in a new URL.

Thirdly once on that page you need to click the Pinterest button that you just added to your browser, select the image from the post (yes, don’t forget to add an image to your post!), add a short description and pin it to your Pinterest board.

4. Retweet New Content from Your Facebook Page

Here’s another way to cross-promote your content and get more social shares along the way…

This time we are talking about combining Twitter and Facebook. The process is quite similar to the one I explained in the above paragraph. When you publish a new post on your Facebook page, you can share the Facebook story for the post on Twitter again by clicking on the timestamp of the post.

The first benefit is that you can get more people liking the story on Facebook, which will mean more visibility for the story in other people’s streams. The second benefit is that you can actually get a lot of new fans that way. With the help of this approach I got my first 300 or so fans some months ago.

NOTE: With the Buffer plugin (only Chrome version as of now), you can easily schedule the Facebook stories of your choice for sharing on Twitter at a later time.

5. Don’t Forget to Use Formatting and Hashtags on Google Plus

As of now Google Plus is the only social platform that allows you to add formatting to your posts. And that feature is there for a reason. I’d strongly advise you to always format the descriptions you write if you want more people to pay attention and as a result comment, plus one or reshare your posts.

Here’s a really cool guide (created by Simon Heyes) on how to format your Google Plus posts:



Aside from formatting, another thing you should consider is hashtags. While on Facebook hashtags not only don’t work, but they actually shrink the exposure of published stories, on Google Plus it’s exactly the opposite.

What I would advise you is to always include 2-3 hashtags right at the end of the descriptions for your Google Plus posts. Of course in order to make the most out of them make sure they are actually relevant. While writing the hashtags you will be given suggestions, based on what is popular. Best would be to use some of the suggested hashtags.

6. Use the Sticky Post Feature on Triberr

Triberr is currently one of the best ways to multiply your social media shares and the sooner you sign-up, the sooner you will start bringing more social traffic to your posts.

So what is Triberr?

Triberr is a place where you can join and create the so-called tribes – communities with members that share similar interests. Whenever a member of the tribe has a new post, that post gets imported to Triberr for all other members to share it on Twitter and other networks.

But anyway, even if you are active on Triberr, have you made a post of yours sticky?

What this feature does is it allows you to sticky your latest post at the top of your tribal stream. That way your post will stay right at the top of the stream in all your tribemates for the five days it is active.

What this means for you?

Almost double the shares and a lot more traffic. With more people noticing and reading the post, you will also get new invites to other tribes, expanding your reach even further.

A sticky post costs five bucks so it’s quite a bargain right now.

So how do you create a sticky post?

Final Words

That’s pretty much it. I really hope you found the tips I shared in the above paragraphs useful!

Now I would really love to hear your two cents!

Have you enabled the follow feature on Facebook? Do you cross-promote your content? What other tips can you add up to the list?

Please take a minute to share!