THERE ARE CURRENTLY AROUND 3.1 ACTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA USERS AROUND THE WORLD. WHETHER YOU ARE LOOKING TO GROW A BUSINESS OR GAIN EXPOSURE, SOCIAL MEDIA IS AN IMPORTANT TOOL THAT YOU SHOULD BE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF NOW! BELOW WE'VE LISTED OUR TOP 10 SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS. 

1. POST CONSISTENTLY

Develop a routine when posting to your followers. Your followers are following thousands of other accounts, ensure they continue following yours by publishing new content as often as possible.  

2. OUTSOURCE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT

If you are new to social media, or just have a lot of other things on your mind, outsourcing your social media management could be your best option.  Companies like Number Nine Communications can publish content, schedule posts, interact with your followers, follow and unfollow, collaborate with other brands and much more on your behalf.

3. JOIN COMMUNITIES

There are thousands of small communities within every social network ready to invite you in. Maximise on this by joining like-minded groups and access the opportunities.

4. CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN

Creating a plan for your social media is extremely important to its success.  If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!

5. TARGET YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

Your followers are not all alike.  Even though your business probably attracts a similar demographic they will follow your social channel for a variety of reasons.   For this reason, when posting to different channels ensure you are targeting at the channels audience.

6. USE CONTESTS TO GROW YOUR AUDIENCE

Contests are a great way to introduce followers to your start up social media platforms.  Not only do they encourage engagement they also promote your brand. Ensure that you are giving away prizes related to your brand as this will encourage long term valuable followers to your account rather than those looking for a freebie.

7. DON'T BE AFRAID TO SELL

Constantly shoving marketing messages in your followers’ faces is not an effective strategy.  This does not, however, mean you cannot sue social media as a selling tool. Occasionally tweeting a link to your product or promoting something that will earn your company money is not a bad thing, just don’t go over board and spam your following.

8. USE HASHTAGS

Hashtags are one of the easiest ways of expanding your reach.  In order to get more impressions on your posts incorporate hashtags into your captions.  Don’t be random in your choices, use targeted hashtags which will show up in popular, related searches.  

9. USE KEYWORDS

Never underestimate the power of the social search!  Facebook, twitter and Pinterest operate like search engines so make the most of this and use strongly targeted keywords in your captions to increase the chances of people finding you.

10. GIVE PEOPLE A REASON TO FOLLOW YOU

Your followers have millions of people to choose to follow, why should they follow you?  Ensure that you are standing out from the crowd by sharing posts that help you stand out from the crowd.  Examples include behind the scenes footage, real time customer service support, discount codes and live webinars.