SMM – in short of Social Media Management. I do manage social media for some of my clients. While I manage to boost their exposure successfully, I find it hard to do the same for MiddleMe.
I must admit I am a noob to those who have been in the Facebook game from day one. I have only grazed the surface of social media with the likes of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and recently added, Instagram because I want to spread MiddleMe out far and wide. Please don’t get me started with Google+ and Snapchat. I don’t think I have the energy to keep up with various of social media platforms sprouting up like mushrooms.
Yes, I do use Hootsuite to manage my postings but it is time-consuming to schedule the posts. Particularly now that Hootsuite has limited their free account to only 30 posts. Can’t complain much – it’s free.
However, it is more than just posts on those social media platforms. It is about engagement. More than just posting a link on your Facebook and expect others to read it. You need to write a brief but attractive few liner with hashtags, keep your fingers crossed and hope someone will click the link. And cross your fingers again, hoping the same someone will enjoy what you wrote, enough to be one of your followers.
Last week, out of curiosity, I bought myself a Facebook ad. Just randomly chose one of my topics and randomly pick my demographics to send out to. Of course, I could have picked a better topic to match a more suitable and specific demographics but just like a spur of the moment, I just want to give it a try to see where it takes me aka try my luck.
Nothing short of buying a dress without trying or buying an electronic item without reading the reviews, the results are disastrous. Not disappointing because I didn’t have many expectations. My randomly picked post is viewed by 692 people and clicked 7 times by a demographic of Singaporeans aged between – 18 to 44 years old.
I ran the ad on Facebook for USD$5 (an equivalent price of a Starbucks Vente Mocha in the States) in the length of a week. And strangely, I learned that my post is welcomed mostly by males rather than females. A refreshing change from WordPress followers which mine is made up of a higher percentage of female followers.
After given a serious consideration, I wouldn’t right away say that advertising on social media is not for me. But I would caution someone who wants to do social media advertising to do their research to narrow down their demographics to have an effective and positive outcome, rather than the 7 clicks I have.
I dared to claim that I have somehow gotten myself knee deep in meddling with MiddleMe’s social media accounts and here are some of the lessons I have learned along the way.
Get Yourself A Social Media Managing Platform
Whether it is Hootsuite or fttt.com, you’ll need one if you post on more than one platform. It’s crazy trying to even juggle Twitter and Facebook at the same time. You probably want to spread out your posts as well. It will cost you your social life (or thereafter lack of) if you start posting at 10am, 1pm, 6pm and 11pm. Scheduling your posts are a great way to ensure you don’t tie yourself to the laptop and your mobile phone.
Remember Why You Are Doing It
Yes, you are doing it to gain attention but remember, you want to get the right attention. Don’t retweet or forward links from others than you haven’t read. Don’t be one of the many that cause fake news to go viral. Looks bad on you if you can’t differentiate from the real news. Remember, it’s your personal branding too!
Learn About Your Demographics
This is easy if you already have a following on WordPress. It is easy to find out who, what age and which country that made up of your audiences. Decide which you want to boost. The proven demographics that you have or the demographics that you want to reach out to.
Pick The Right Topic
I know I should have picked a more relatable subject matter to blast to my Singaporean demographics instead of pouring a good Vente Mocha down the sink. Like I have said, I didn’t give much thought to it (one of those days that I just want to believe in four leave clovers). If I were to do it again, I will run through my posts and pick the ones that relate closely to the demographics or have proven through stats and comments that my demographics can relate to.
Hire Someone
If you are serious about promoting your website or blog, do consider hiring someone to do the job for you. It doesn’t matter if the person is an expert in social media management or marketing or someone who can grow instagram followers for you. It boils down to your needs. If you want your post to be viral, sure, hire an expert in hashtags. If you just want regular postings and engagement, anyone who owns a Facebook can do it.
Your Core Reason
Marketing your website on social media is not about boasting what you can do or making one of your posts viral. You’ll drive yourself crazy by tracking how many people have liked your post or how many new followers just joined your page. Remember your core reason that started your postings on social media is about sharing. Have a great article, why not share it to benefit more folks? Reminder – It is not about “I have a great article but let’s spoil it by rewriting it with SEO and throw in plenty of hashtags and misleading headers.” Share it genuinely and with heart, believing in as long as someone has read the post and benefit from it, you reached your intention, even that is only one person.
By the way, I bet you don’t know that you can purchase followers illegally.
PS. Repeat – I’m still a noob at this but I find it fascinating and a challenge for me to conquer the social media world, or at least learn from it.
Do you do social media marketing on your website? Do you have any tips to share? Love to hear from all of you in the comments below.
Can’t get enough of MiddleMe? You can find me sharing my thoughts here as well: Instagram @kallymiddleme Twitter (MiddleMe_net) FaceBook (MiddleMe.net) LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/kallytay
Best things in life are meant to be shared, start spreading MiddleMe around, after all, sharing is caring.
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