Are You Ready to LevelUp
Level Up Your Social Media in 2020 with these 9 Tips!
The Role of Planning
As I have said before, content is king, consistency is queen, and when you take control of these two things with a little bit of planning, you will be amazed at the things you will have time to do. All 9 of these strategies and tips help build a solid foundation for all of your social media platforms. You will be able to expand upon as you master each tactic. We are all on this journey together, some have leveled up already, others are working on solidifying the foundation. But we are all learning, and I hope these tips help you build a robust yet flexible presence on social media that allows you to be responsive to trends while expanding your reach and growing your business. So, let us jump in!
Set Goals and Define Your KPIs
Want to Level Up Your Social Media in 2020, then you must define what Leveling Up looks like for you. What are the Key Performance Indicators used to measure if you are reaching that goal? Make sure that you assign the proper metrics to your goals and understand what a positive outcome would look like for this goal. Need help understanding social media metrics before you set these goals? My go-to tool is the SproutSocial.com blog, when I am looking for information on metrics. I have this blog post bookmarked for reference.
Without these goals and our ability to measure them utilizing the metrics, we have no way of defining success or failure. Without goals, how do we know what we are hoping to accomplish? Set goals for your social media and clearly define success. Share these goals with your team, so everyone is on the same page and working towards the same thing. Review the metrics regularly and share your findings with your team. Encourage feedback.
Have A Plan
Having a plan for your content is one of the best ways to save time, focus on engagement, and Level Up your social media profiles. If you are not planning your content chances are you are spending too much time reinventing the social media wheel.
Set Your Goals
Set a goal for yourself. How much content are you planning now? Increase that by 20% over the next 2 months. In four months aim to increase your current percentage by 50%. Work your way up to having approximately 75% of your content/posts planned across your platforms with approximately 25% free per platform to flex current events, and other spur of the moment content in as needed. This makes sure your content always feels fresh and current.
Create the Plan
Review and Utilize the 9 Essential Posts framework from JRH Graphics to ensure that you are providing your followers with varied content that speaks to them. This tool also helps you not exceed 20% of posts being promotional material. I utilize it during every step of my content calendar planning process. Along with the 9 Essential Posts, we use the Macro, Meso, Micro planning process for creating a content calendar like the one we discussed in this post.
Overview of The Planning Steps
First, we look at the big picture, including all holidays, promotions that will anniversary, and significant themes that will repeat from last year. We usually complete the macro step either quarterly or do it at the start of the year and revisit each month to be sure we are not missing anything. After the macro level, we move onto the meso step, which is where we review the monthly themes, the events we are planning, any major product launches, etc. This step is where we lay down the ideas for the posts, types of posts we wish to include in campaigns, and make high-level plans for creative needed. The final step is the micro-step, which is a task completed every week. During micro-planning, you lay in the content for your posts and set them to go in your scheduling tool.
The Benefits
Thisw process allows you to have a plan for your year, month and weeks and provides you with a structure within which to post. While you may not have the specifics of every post pre-entered you know what you will be posting which relieves the, “OMG what do I post today stress.” This process along with my Breaking Down the Blog strategy which I will discuss in the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle section also allows me to have blog posts scheduled out almost a year in advance.
Level Up Your Social Media by Engaging
Did I hear you complain about not having an engaged audience? Whose fault is that? Oh, so you responded to the “thumbs up” you got on your photo of your breakfast this morning? That thumbs-up was engagement for that member of your audience. If you did not respond, you know what you are saying? You just told that member of your audience that YOU DON'T CARE. And if you don't care, then why would they continue to engage. The worst part, you are saying that publically and everyone can see it. That is not going to help you Level Up your social media this year.
In Order to Level Up in 2020
In order to Level Up Your Social Media you need to engage the people that are already engaging you in the way that you want them to be involved. Need words as comments, then when you get a thumbs up, respond with, “Thank you, I am so glad you liked this post” or “Thanks for liking this post, what was it that spoke to you?” And when you engage with your followers like this, you are publically saying, “THANKS FOR ENGAGING, I LOVE YOU GUYS!” The act of engaging with your audience makes your audience more likely to participate in the future. So at a minimum, acknowledge the likes, respond to comments, and always respond to DMs.
Bonus Pro Move
Depending on the situation, because you don't want to be creepy, engage with them on their profiles. If they have a business page, comment there. All engagement is beneficial, and showing a follower that you are willing to take the time to engage them in their playground shows how great you are. As they comment back, watch what they do.
Do they ask a question? Are they commenting back in more than four words? Watch what they do and engage again in that way. By the way, why is it four words? Because four words are what it takes for Instagram to recognize the comment as content-rich.
Level Up Your Social Media by Being Human
Being human shouldn't be hard. After all, you are a human, so it should be easy to portray yourself as a human on your social media. That is your first mistake. Instead of describing yourself as something, you must be who you are, not anyone else. When Lea Berry and I discussed authenticity earlier in 2019, authenticity was starting to get overused as a buzzword. As this year has progressed, the tolerance for inauthentic brands has almost wholly disappeared. Authenticity will continue as a trend in 2020. The only way to capture an audience is by showing the ups and downs, the real emotions, the struggles, and the fantastic and unexpected successes. Gone are the days of nameless CEOs, and brands without a story and social consciousness.
Your Winning Story
At JRH Graphics, we believe stories are the most powerful tool in any companies marketing toolkit. Your winning story is authentic; it has an emotional hook, can capture an audience and convince them to go along on this ride with you. We believe that stories are part of what makes us human, and that is why a simple story can inspire action and produce change. Stories are what make JRH Graphics different. Let us help you tell your winning story!
Content Creation Can Be Hard
We certainly know that content creation can be hard. The number one question we get at JRH Graphics is, “How can I create better content in less time?” While hacks and shortcuts are certainly available, you still need to put in the work with social media. There is no magic bullet. But what are you doing right now? Is it related to your business? Could it be “B roll” content, aka something you put in stories?
Document Don't Create
Gary V. is famous because of this. He is always documenting what he is doing and putting that out as content because it is. Not only that, but everybody loves a peek behind the curtain. They want to see how things happen, what life is like, and what struggles a business faces. These posts are not the pretty perfect Instagram feed content that everyone knows is inauthentic now.
Welcome to the life of an entrepreneur, you can't be afraid to show the real you. Behind the scenes content is key, document what you are doing. It is one of the best, no short cut, short cuts I can give you. And it will help you level up your social media in 2020!
Use Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Concept to Level Up Your Social Media
Reduce the time you spend creating content by reusing content like blog posts and recycling content and redistributing it in another format.
Reuse
Your long format videos, blog posts, and webinars can all be broken down into smaller tips and points and distributed on their own with a link tyong them back to the larger piece. I discuss best practices for this process at length in this post. In many cases I am able to get over 10 viable social media posts from a blog allowing me to schedule educational content out for many many weeks. You have already done the hard work creating these pieces of content, make sure you get the most out of them.
Recycle
It is true you can't magically create a movie from a blog post but you can utilize the research and points you made in that blog post to deliver a video. Look at how you could expand on a point you made or take a deeper dive on a concept. Recently, I turned a 9 post story into a series of 9 Live Videos that discuss different strategies for Leveling Up Your Social Media in 2020. These 9 story posts and videos are the basis of a blog post that dives a bit deeper into these tips. Finally, this blog post will be turned into a webinar that shows people how to utilize the tools and strategies discussed and provides them with practical solutions to common problems.
Level Up Your Social Media by Creating More Content Your Followers Want
Utilize the 9 Essential posts to create varied content and then build on the successes of your top-performing ones by utilizing the Rule of 3 for Social Media. The Rule of 3 for social media allows you to apply a more scientific way to measure why a post is successful, as seen on the worksheet to the left. You change one aspect of the content at a time, leaving the other two points and see how it performs. I explain it in the video below.
Understanding Your Metrics
To make sense of what your existing content is telling you about your audience, you need to be able to understand your metrics. Most social media platforms have metrics built-in, and they are handy to start. As your campaigns and presence on social media expands, you will probably want to invest in a third-party app to measure your social media success. Also, if you need help understanding your metrics, I recommend utilizing the SproutSocial Blog as your go-to research tool. I have regularly referred to the blog post, All The Social Media Metrics That Matter
Level Up with More Video Content in 2020
If you want to Level Up your social media in 2020, you will need to create more video content. From Live Videos to more extended form videos, you must create videos for social in 2020. Not only are videos the most engaging form of content, but most of the platforms are prioritizing videos as well. Video is going to need to be a part of your plan for social media for the long haul.
Instead of Making Excuses, Make Videos
I have made all the excuses. I created lots of stories as to why my brand was different and didn't need to include video content right up until this year. It wasn't until I started losing followers at a terrifyingly fast pace that I accepted that I needed to add more video content in my campaigns. Even then, I avoided Live videos because I was sure nobody wanted to see me go live. Well, I will admit it here. I was wrong. (It's okay nobody will read this far anyway). I was wrong about not needing to include video. I was wrong about not needing to go Live. In the past two months, I have moved further into creating videos, and for the first time in 10 months, I have had almost three weeks of having gained not LOST followers on all platforms. The key is to show up on your social media where people are and in the way that they are consuming content. Take it from me, stop making excuses, and start making videos.
Level Up Your Social Media in 2020 by NOT Selling on Social
Businesses fail when they view social media as a selling platform. Community is the basis of social media, and those of us on there selling are in enemy territory. So instead of marketing on social media, level up by providing value to your followers. Build up your reputation as an educator. People need to be able to like, know, and trust you before they make a purchase. Add value to your audience by answering questions they may have, and by providing content that is value-rich and solves real problems, your ideal client is facing. Establish yourself as an expert on social media, and position yourself as the first person to go to if a member of your audience has a question. Eight of every ten posts should provide value to your audience and not sell, especially as you begin establishing yourself and your company. Your CTA in these educational, value-adding posts should ask what else you can provide to help them. You will become the resource your audience can trust, and with trust eventually comes sales.
It is Time to Level Up Your Social Media
Win big in 2020 by applying these strategies on your social media platforms. Each strategy helps you build a solid foundation to build upon. 2020 is going to be the most social year yet, so get the most out of your social media and build your following. You got this!
