We’re continuing from our previous discussion about free or paid traffic. We aren’t talking about specifics, but rather the approaches.
Spammy
Whether you decide to use advertising or plan to go the organic route, there are some promotional tactics that work well. You can use these for a variety of products and services.
One thing you want to be careful about is posting status updates that are too similar, too often. If you do this, then you’re likely going to come off as being spammy.
You don’t want to get a reputation as a spammer on any of the social media platforms because it will make it hard to build an engaged audience.
Campaigns
A lot of businesses, including solopreneurs, plan launch campaigns.
You’ll want to plan this several weeks before you release your new product. Doing so will help you get the most exposure.
Start by posting that you’re working on a new project that will be released soon.
Don’t post too many details initially, because your product may change quite a bit between the creation and launch phases. (Additionally, teasers will get and keep folks curious and interested.)
When you’re about a week from your launch date, then begin posting little hints. You don’t want to make it so obvious that users can easily guess what you’re releasing. That takes out the fun! Instead, try to make them curious so they’ll pay more attention to your posts than usual.
A day or two before the launch, you can post a picture of yourself hard at work, behind the scenes if you will. If your product is content based, then take a selfie with your laptop. If your product is audio-based, then take a selfie as you’re editing some audio tracks. You get the idea.
When the actual release day comes, post repeatedly about your new product. I try to post 2-3 times. And use a variety of content so that you and your posts don’t become annoying.
For example, if you’re releasing a premium course on personal finance, post a picture of your course workbook. Create a video showing how you track expenses in your workbook. Then post this video to your social media accounts.
Thanks & Your World
Make sure to repost messages from users that are talking about your product and be sure to thank them. This can be done on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
By sharing both the creation and launch stages with your followers, you’re bringing them into your private world.
This is important because users that feel a connection to your brand are more likely to share your content with their followers.
Offers
You can also encourage folks to follow you by giving exclusive discounts. This is a great way to motivate followers to make a purchase from you.
For example, you could try having 20% off Tuesdays with a special coupon that your followers can enter during checkout to get their discount.
And to add a sense of urgency to your posts, make the coupon only good for a day or two. You want your followers to feel like they’re going to miss the discount if they don’t use your code right now.
Tip: Once you follow someone, look at their recent content and pick one post to engage with. You can favorite, repost, or respond to this post. When you do this, you increase the chance that the other user will look at your profile, too.
Analytics
Whether you choose to advertise or not, the most popular social media platforms provide analytics to their users. This means that you can look at your stats for particular reporting periods.
Analytics can give you valuable insight into your campaigns.
You can generally see which posts were most popular and which ones received the most responses. Look for patterns as you examine this data.
Maybe your posts that have questions in them get 25% more views. Maybe your posts that contain a link to a photo don’t do very well. This is data that you can use to build better promotional campaigns.
Analytics also generally show you how many clicks were made on your links. This can let you see which links your followers were most interested in and can help you see what types of posts prompted your followers to take action.
You’ll also be able to see how many reposts, replies, and favorites that you received. These numbers usually only make up a small percentage, as low as 5 %. That means for every hundred posts, you’ll probably only have 5 followers interact with your content.
If the analytic dashboard doesn’t show all of your posts, you will likely be able to export the data to analyze it.
For the best results with social media marketing, use a mixture of advertising and social networking to gain followers and interactions. Experiment and track so you know which is the best mix for you.
There’s a lot. I know but take it a step at a time. Which one step can you take and let me know which route you’re focusing on right now: paid or free?
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