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Secrets to Social Media

Social Media Secrets | Takeaways from Worlds Largest Webinar #WLW14

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Social Media Secrets

I spent an hour with about 34k+ people on a webinar put on by HubSpot. It was being dubbed the World’s Largest Webinar, or #WLW14 for short. They had some pretty high profile individuals from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn sharing some of their thoughts, tips, and new tools to their social platforms to reach and grow audiences.

I was curious with how much could be covered in an hour, which is not long. My worry was that it would cover some really fluff stuff, which they did at time. I was pleased though to come away with some new takeaways. Not sure how much I’d classify as ‘social media secrets’ but it was good information nonetheless.

TWITTER

  • They have a new profile set up. I actually ran across this a number of hours before the webinar. Looks a bit like some hybrid of Fast Company’s web design and Facebook profile. With that your information and your IMAGES (you’ll hear about this a lot) are more in focus. There is also some ‘pin’ing of posts to your profile which is new. Can show off best content to new stalkers followers. You can see my updated profile @gavoweb.
  • Make easy to find you, compelling image & not a crazy twitter handle.
  • Be sure to put your hours, web address and other pertinent information for your audience.
  • It isn’t so much about the size of your audience but the engagement of. You want the right people (hear that a few times).
  • Look for engagement from tweets. 40% follow businesses for new products, 49% to show loyalty/support, higher percentage for those wanting to keep up with trends or professional development.
  • Can’t just tweet stuff you’re selling. Use the 80/20 rule, 80% is conversational/sharing etc. 20% can be for selling. Selling all the time is lame.
  • Tweets that include photos get spread twice as often.
  • Tweet about relevant industry topics to build relationships
  • Used hashtags correctly. I abuse this because I see this as some subliminal or sarcasm thought inserted into many of my tweets. But I like the distinction made of “giving value to a hashtag”. When we had conversations about @UMCLead we talked about whether anyone was tuned into the #umclead hashtag or had it become irrelevant. I was under impression that you could easily take back a tag that is poorly used. Giving value to a tag can build your authority. Make tags easy to understand. Build the momentum on a tag, giveaways or promotion/share of some nature.

FACEBOOK

  • Create a Facebook Page with complete & accurate info because that stuff is searchable. That wasn’t news to me, but searching for hours and business info isn’t something I’ve tried. Have however gone to business pages to find that info before. Will be interesting to see what search within facebook is usable. If it is just search engine search they are referencing then I am not sure what benefit is in the FB page over the website.
  • Test different post and spend time insights to determine what is most effective. Now, I have a problem with that because they have changed their stuff over and over again. Not to mention they have all but killed Facebook Page organic reach. Still it can be a powerful traffic and buzz tool. Can’t ignore it, yet.
  • Great profile pics & cover photo. I suppose that is pretty self-explanatory.
  • Post engaging content and get in the right conversations. Don’t spend time on conversations that are not promoting or building. They also used case example of a shop that would post out photos of new inventory and get people talking about it.

LINKEDIN

  • Consider the professional nature. Items that you are posting on other platforms might not fit the professional nature of LinkedIn. So reconsider doing the autoposting to all your platforms at once.
  • Professional development content is best. Being a professional social platform people are trying to better their business and skills. Sharing content that promotes that for people is more actively engaged with.
  • Include strong images and links. Use images as well with your posts (which is funny because HubSpot social tool doesn’t allow for images onto LinkedIn. Might want to work on that.). 

SOCIAL ADVERTISING

  • ‘Don’t waste money, how to advertise smartly’ was the start of this section. A little quotable was something like ‘advertising without data is like driving blind’ which I totally get. Quick gist is that all these platforms have some new, and pretty neat, advertising functions.
  • LinkedIn you can use sponsored updates to amplify your message as well as the LinkedIn Ads. Their ads can allow you to target and exact audience. The sponsored updates work well on the tablet & mobile platforms. I was somewhat surprised to hear this. Not because I was un-aware of their ad potential, they have sent emails for months asking to take advantage of that stuff. I am not sure I have notice any mobile ads on their mobile app. 
  • Facebook: Use direct response ad set up, this is what feeds in looking as newsfeeds ads (at least this is how I heard that distinction). Their advertising is the best targeting platform because people use real information on profiles (mine is pretty dated by about six years though). There is a strength in demographic targeting (except for the 12 year olds who join up saying their 95). Coolness factor kicks in when they get into custom audience development. You can insert your own email or phone list to advertise to customers you have and want to keep (that’s a little rule it’s cheaper to keep current customers that gain news ones). I am intrigued to look into their website custom audiences. Apparently you can put a little FB code onto your website and facebook will connect them going to your website to their FB profiles to create more custom audiences. That’s kinda cool big brother stuff. They also have a ‘look like audience’ tool where you can take some audience you are advertising to and they will create a new audience that share many similarities, these folks just are not already in your wheelhouse. That’s pretty cool. Tracking is improving to help build more results and build custom audiences.
  • Social Media Secrets. Anatomy of a TweetTWITTER: Campaign copy should work for you. There are limitations to Twitter (140 characters sort of being the biggie) so considering the language and how you are doing copy is important. You will create campaigns much like you would email marketing, creating and refining interested parties/lists to advertise specifically to/for. Twitter followers are your initial list. Tweet out bite sized tips that link out to same content, don’t repeat the same tweet over and over again. Go through the anatomy of a direct response tweet have call to actions and clear links. Image within a tweet gets 2x engagement. Notice the big trend to have a twitter pic/screen capture from a link as well as a link to something.  Do not put in distracting content on offline actions. Twitter has also rolled out their ‘online conversion tracking‘ for ads which does some equally cool stuff as facebook adverts.

FINAL THOUGHTS

  • Be human, talk to people the way you would talked to them in person.
  • Post pics of the team to FB page, that builds a trust for people looking for your type of business.
  • Use ad best practices
  • Connecting with interests of people
  • Username targeting
  • FB will tell what type best ad for your campaign if you are unsure
  • Power editor (new tool seemed really excited over) to get scale needs of campaign
  • Use cool images (this image thing seems more and more a theme). Use increased size and resolution.
  • Normal voice. No one cares for Shakespeare (though yesterday was Talk like Shakespeare Day)
  • Too broad audience will end up with an ad not getting performance, refine and refine some more.
  • Refresh ads periodically, 2-4 weeks depending on size of reach and audience.
  • Test different bids across diff campaigns, see what is most profitable
  • Always be experimenting, never know what is going to hit bit.
  • Be authentic that images relate to your stuff.
  • Posting frequency is diff according to platform so posting connected account might not be helpful. Respect the diff cultures.
  • Do Follow me CTAs on websites and emails to build audience.

FINAL THOUGHT

Here’s screencast of the webinar. Audio is pretty decent recording, the broadcast audio had a bit to be desired. The webinar does go silent a few times as it just freezes on me. But I jump out and jump back in, so shouldn’t be a huge point of discomfort to you.