You probably heard that a number of social media strategists and experts do not have a strong education background. But yet, they are what they are today.
They are envied, copied and drooled all over across the globe, these people are what we call ‘influencers’.
Words that come out from their mouth (in this case, their social media posts) become instant topic-of-the-day. Regardless the trust-worthy level of the topic, people tend to believe exactly what they say.
And that, my friend, makes them extremely powerful in the world.
Here’s what you will learn today: five tips to make you a social media sensation (in a good way) in this year.
5 Tips To Become A Social Media Expert
1. Experts are knowledgeable, and so should you!
Experts weren’t born. They started out just like us… right from the bottom.
So what makes them knowledgeable? They read, gain knowledge, perform multiple tests (theory and practical) and zillion others.
Knowledgeable isn’t something that you could learn overnight, but you can cultivate it from like, right now!
If you want to be successful, don’t ever give up.
How to start being knowledgeable?
Knowledge needs to be gain and for me, it means reading; tons of them.
Here are my secrets to reading:
- Read from sources you can trust (not those typical blog post but get knowledge from authority sites)
- Bookmark these articles (save them in Pocket, Instapaper or Evernote) and come back to re-read them after some time
- Implementing after reading (try the new techniques and check them out – turn the results into a blog post for some serious traction)
Important tip: Always get industry standard news (not those typical news and updates) from authority sites. The information provided by them are usually more detailed and accurate.
2. Diversity is good (dare to be different)
Social media is constantly changing and trust me; forever it will be. What works yesterday may not (and most probably will not) work today.
In social media marketing, it is always important to take a fresh approach. Of course, there will be risks and a higher chance of failure but with some additional planning and constant monitoring, you should be perfectly in the right spot.
How to start (practicing) diversify in social media marketing?
I am taking myself as an example. Twitter has always been a marketing tool for me until late 2012. It helped me to gain tons of traffic and with it, I was able to build a strong following of over 15,000 followers across all my Twitter accounts.
2012 was the year when I noticed that the ‘old school marketing’ doesn’t work as much as it should be especially on Twitter.
I took the approach to revamping my Twitter marketing strategy from pure marketing to engagement.
The results?
- Gaining between 30 to 60 new followers per account on a daily basis
- Become a part of a healthy network of the top influencers in the world (on Twitter) ~ tons of mentions, reshares and all the good stuff you can imagine
- Talking and building business opportunities with world class business entrepreneurs
These doesn’t only help my startup social media consultancy to grow; they helped to put food on the table for five families.
Moral of the story: Change is always a good thing. Forget about the challenges you may face. Think of the advantages you will get from the change.
3. (Please) Use social media automation tools
I heard people are talking negative things about using social media automation tools and I bet you heard about them too. For example, the most common reason for NOT using automation tools is because “you shouldn’t use those because the social need to be humanized.”
Right, you get the point.
But here’s the funny thing. Check on these people’s profile on social media and you’ll be surprised. Many of them are using social media tools to automate marketing.
And this brings us to the main point.
Social media automation tools help you to save more time, be more productive and allow you to spend more time doing things that matter to you (and your business).
The biggest mistake when using social media automation tools is when people like the old-me uses the ‘set once and forget’ concept.
I have a tendency to use social media tools to automate everything I do on social and this created the event I personally call as the ‘zero engagement’.
There are over 20 social media platforms out there, and there is no way you could manage them all at the same time. With the right tools, you can easily manage these accounts under one roof.
Here’s an important thing you need to know before using these tools: Always measure your success. At times, success comes right after you implement a new strategy but it just doesn’t stick. Perform a lengthy test and work on various models. You’ll be surprised with the end-results.
4. Take time to master the social media tools you use
You can be using Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social or any social media tools out there. They are as good as useless if you do not understand how they work.
Each tool has their pros and cons. Take the challenge and understand the whole workflow when using these tools.
Trust me, the right social media tools in the right hands can turn a complete beginner into an overnight expert.
Some tools have higher learning curve compared to others. Most of the time, you would need to ‘play around with it’ for a good few hours before having a good gasp of the tool.
5. Communication is an art – You need to master it
Most of the social media experts are extremely active in engaging with their audience.
Social media is all about communication.
When was the last time you engage with your fans who shared your article on social media?
The truth is this: Social media is not entirely about marketing. Instead, social media is the next form of networking.
If you want to be a social media expert, start communicating the right way.
Trust me, communication isn’t that easy – so to say. If you want engagement from you readers, you got to ensure that each word you use is highly engaging which will ‘tick’ them to respond back.
Even a simple “hi” and “thank you” can help you gain new leads and sales.
Over to you
Becoming a social media expert is a long struggle. It takes a lot of patience and practice to get on the right tracks.
But I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this. Leave a message below and share with me your best tip to becoming a social media expert.
See also: 22 Expert Predictions About Digital Marketing Trends in 2016
