Social Media Archives | Social Speak Network

Growth Prompts, Social Media, Social Media, Social Speak

How to Build Your Followers on Social Media

Today we are going to talk about growing followers organically on social media. This is something that our clients ask all the time: “How do I increase my followers? How do I increase my followers?” And you can do it organically. We’re gonna talk about Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn company pages today, okay so we have a lot to cover.

Twitter

With your Twitter account, you need to make sure you are tweeting consistently. So whatever that schedule is, make sure you’re sticking to it. Maybe it’s one time a day, two times a day, three times a day. Optimize your posting time, so try different times. Thinking of your ideal client or patient, when are they home? Usually, Twitter’s always done by your mobile device, so most likely they’re on Twitter from their phone, so think of lunches, break times, maybe if your patients are parents, maybe later in the evening. Get creative with that posting time. It doesn’t always have to be 9:00 to 5:00. It could be at 6:00 AM, it could be 9:00 PM. So playing around with those posting times and seeing where, what times, and what days you’re getting the most engagement. You may be thinking, okay because you’re open Monday through Friday that that’s when you need to post, but maybe doing weekend posts is a great idea as well.

Post visual content. So Twitter used to be just all text. It doesn’t have to be now. Upload images, upload videos, make it eye-appealing, and utilize hashtags. We will put in the description below different hashtag tools to help you, but Twitter and Instagram, even LinkedIn, they thrive off of those hashtags, and you can follow different hashtags. People are always searching certain hashtags, and those are the people they follow. So look for those hashtags, follow the people that are utilizing those hashtags, make sure that you are Retweeting. So have a list of people in your industry that are like-minded. Not necessarily competition, but maybe it’s news articles. So if you are a OB-GYN, you may wanna look at the Women’s Health Magazine and Retweet stories that they’re posting. Look at those resources and make sure that you are utilizing those Retweets because then their audience will start to see you as well.

One great thing with all social media is that famous little search button on every single social media platform, whether it’s in the right-hand corner or in the middle, up top. Usually, it’s always up top. With Instagram, there’s a search icon when you open up the mobile app and search for certain people. If you are looking for… If your office is only within a 25-mile radius in that location, search for people in that location. Start following more people, and set a goal to maybe follow 20 people per week. One thing with all platforms and this is just a personal preference, but when you’re following people, don’t go follower happy, okay, and what I mean by that is you’ll look at some accounts and they’ll say they’re following 1000 people, but they only have 60 followers. Well, that ratio, it just seems kind of spammy, so when you start growing your followers, follow people, but do ’em in low numbers. So follow maybe five a day, 20 per week. Figure out what that looks like and make sure that those people are following you back. The more people that you follow that are in your niche, in your target market, they’re more likely to follow you back. Okay. So those are just a few tips for Twitter.

Instagram

Let’s go into Instagram. So again, you’ll see these… The same tips are, again, staying consistent, making sure that you’re posting at least once a day on Instagram, utilizing different content, trying live videos, doing Instagram stories, doing Instagram TV, along with just your regular posts. Share content from other users. So it’s user-generated content, so mentioning them, “This is a great article or a great story from so-and-so,” and make sure that you are collaborating with others. So thinking of your referral partners, is there a way where you guys can share a post every week or a couple of posts per month? How can you work with your referral partners on a much bigger scale to be able to help grow each other’s social media? Look at your analytics. Find out… Instagram does a great job with letting you know who’s looking at your posts, what days are your best days and what times, and then also your demographics. So where are they at, are they male, female, what stories are getting the most engagement? So paying attention to your analytics so you can make sure you’re giving that content back to them and that they are engaging with it.

Engage with your fans. Every follower you have… And again, you can search for your target market and follow them, engage with them, take the time to like their posts, to comment on them. Also look at those resources, those same people that you are gonna be retweeting on Twitter or sharing stories on Facebook, look at what they’re posting and start commenting on it because if they are a resource that you like, again, if it’s Women’s Health Magazine, and you start commenting on their stuff on Instagram, their followers are gonna see those comments as well. So being active and engaging with these platforms is a great way to be able to increase your followers. Again, it takes time. It’s not gonna be an overnight success by any means, but to have somebody that’s dedicated to your social media to make sure that they are reaching those correct people, that is key.

Facebook

Facebook, you can always invite your friends to like your page. So that’s always a great starting point. And then really with Facebook having your icon on, and all your social media icons and your email signature, having a sign at the front desk, follow us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, you know, because each person is gonna have that social media platform that they like, and they trust, and that’s kind of their go-to. So giving them the option of where they wanna follow you and engage with you as great.

So being able to put those signs up there, you know, on your marketing materials, but then with Facebook, working on having a little bit of ad spend, and you’ll see with especially with LinkedIn, as we get into that, you know, running those targeted ads, and having like campaigns following, follow our campaigns running, that’s where we’ve been able to see the most growth with our clients. And again, this is a paid feature, this isn’t an organic feature.

Start by inviting your friends and family to like your page. You’re always gonna have more friends because that’s where you most likely started doing Facebook was having a personal profile, and then you created your business page. So you could also have your employees of your company, also invite people to like the Facebook page. So consistency, inviting and then working on some of the paid options of boosting and running a paid like campaign to reach your target market.

Going into LinkedIn, so you have your LinkedIn profile, and LinkedIn company pages are really growing. LinkedIn, what they’re doing with their platform I mean, it’s huge. And it’s a great b2b tool. So again, thinking of those referral partners, and inviting them to like the page, inviting your contacts to like your page, adding your employees to your page. And so they can say, “Okay, but it’s not just this one person, but they have a whole team and what their roles are.

Then for them to share the page to their personal profile, and for them to invite their contacts to like that page. So that process is really important too, is really to get your employees involved with your LinkedIn company page. And so that’s a great way to grow your followers organically with LinkedIn, you know, utilizing LinkedIn groups and Facebook groups as well, finding those targeted groups, being able to… Now with Facebook, you can share your content from your business page into a group, which is awesome. With LinkedIn, you can’t, but you can still post and be able to mention the company page.

Utilizing those LinkedIn groups, inviting your connections to like, following the page, and sharing your content from the company page to your personal profile, as well, is a great way to grow those followers organically.

YouTube

So last but not least, is YouTube. YouTube is a little bit different. It’s not so much of a social media platform, as it is more of a search engine. And really, that’s what it is. It is a video search engine. Google owns YouTube. So having videos on there is great for your SEO as well.

A few things to help your channel be found and to increase those subscribers to your channel is making sure you’re utilizing playlists and that they’re clear. So when people go there, they can see what type, what categories, and that’s really what the playlists are, they are categories that you have of different videos. Publishing longer videos, so having a mix between short tips, you know those three to five-minute videos, and then the longer ones that are 10 plus minutes that are really educating your audience on certain topics.

You know, maybe again, I always like to use the OB-GYN’s example, you know, maybe you’re talking about a eating plan for a pregnant woman or a birth plan or certain tips. These videos can be longer because they’re going to be educational. Maybe you’ll put together a PowerPoint presentation, and you’re walking through that as you’re talking. So publishing 10-plus minute videos is a great way to increase your subscribers.

Promoting your videos on an end-screen. Using those options that YouTube gives you, it will say end screen, you can say subscribe to our channel there, it will also allow you to promote your… Like another playlist, or if you’re doing a video that’s specific to that playlist, you want them to stay in that loop of that playlist. And so utilizing those tools to be able to do that.

Reply to every comment, if you get comments, and a lot of them, not a lot of them, but some of them can be spam. And just, you know, like it, but reply to the comments that need to be… That need to have a reply because those are gonna be the people that are gonna subscribe to your channel. Another one is just making sure your channel’s optimized completely. So having a tagline with your channel, making sure you have your channel app up top, and it’s clear and that they can… YouTube does this where it will show you what it’s gonna look like on a computer, on a TV because smart TVs people are watching YouTube all the time from their TV, and then what it’s gonna look like on their mobile device.

So you wanna make sure that that header is clear so when they come to it, it’s not cut off on every device that they are watching your videos from. They know exactly who it is. Making sure that you have a clear description, that your contact information, your website is in there, so they can reach you if they need to from your channel, but then also each video making sure you have that clear description, that keyword friendly title, the tag words, you know, making sure you have a YouTube thumbnail.

Just going through that little checklist to make sure everything is filled out correctly with your channel and your videos. Then also when you’re doing these videos, we always take our video and we put it onto YouTube and then we take the code from YouTube and we embed our videos into our blog post, which is a great way to get viewers to watch your videos, promote them on social media, have a video within your email signature, use them in your newsletters, people love listening and watching videos. So being able to utilize them in multiple places and having them link back to YouTube is a great way to be able to grow your subscribers.

I know we covered a lot today, if you need help putting together this strategy, this… And again, what we talked about today was really looking at that organic growth. You can run ads on all of these platforms to increase your followers and that we do help our clients with both the organic growth and the paid growth to make sure that you’re reaching your target market. If you need help with that and would like to talk more about the increasing your followers on all these platforms, head on over to socialspeaknetwork.com and click on free consultation.

Schedule your 30-minute free consultation today.

October 28, 2020/by Amber Irwin

Social Media, Social Media

11 Content Ideas to Fill Your Social Media Calendar

A social media calendar can help you plan and schedule your social media posts in advance. With an organized calendar, you can ensure no days will go without a single piece of content being published.

Fresh, quality content is important to attract your target audience and keep them informed. But let’s face it. It can be challenging to find fresh social media ideas, especially when you have to post something daily on different platforms.

Next time you think there’s nothing for you to post, think again. Here are 11 content ideas to fill your social media calendar.

Industry news

If you find yourself at a loss when it comes to making updates on social media, sharing industry news is a great idea. Regularly posting informative articles will help turn your page into a trusted resource for relevant information.

Think about what your target audience would find helpful and relevant. Share links to relevant news and blogs.

Blog posts

Do you spend countless hours writing killer, quality content for your blog? Don’t let it go to waste Share your blog posts across your social media accounts.

In addition to giving you something new to post, sharing your blog posts on social media will help deliver a steady stream of visitors to your site. Make sure, though, that you tailor your message to fit each platform and audience.

Polls and surveys

People love answering questions, and polls provide the perfect avenue for this.

Polls are easy to make, encourage interactivity, and get people talking. It allows you to gain a deeper understanding of who your customers are. By reading their responses, you can learn from them directly and better understand their needs.

Videos

Video is the undeniable king of content marketing. In fact, they get exponentially more shares than texts and images combined. Not only are they convenient and efficient for the consumer, but they can also help you create an emotional connection with your audience.

If you aren’t creating video content for your brand or business, now is the time to get in front of the camera. I challenge you to do one this week. You can start by doing a Facebook Live or Instagram story. The first video is usually the hardest, but you’ll get better as you go.

Behind the scenes photo or video

Sharing behind the scenes content gives people an inside look into who you are and what your brand represents. People want to do business with people, not from a company that hides behind a logo. They want to know the people behind your products and services.

Behind the scenes, content humanizes your company and helps you build rapport with your target audience. Trust doesn’t come easily for businesses, but transparency is a great place to start.

Share a tip

Share tips that your audience might find useful. You may also consider turning it into a weekly post. For instance, “Tip Tuesday” or “Fun Fact Friday”. This way, your audience will have something to look forward to.

User-generated content

User-generated content is any content that has been published by fans. Nine out of ten consumers trust organic, user-generated content more than traditional advertising. That means, they’d rather hear from your clients and customers instead of you.

UGCs work well because they’re authentic. Plus, it puts customers front and center. It encourages engagement and helps you grow your audience.

When sharing user-generated content, always give credit where credit is due. Make sure that you tag the original poster in the post.

Infographics

People love information, but most people lean heavily toward visual content. Infographics are easily read, understood, and remembered. Your audience can easily scan the document and understand the message you’re trying to get across. Not only will they appreciate the new-found knowledge, but they’ll also find your information more credible and compelling.

Your employees

Posting photos of your employees help humanize your brand. It allows them to have a sneak peek of the people behind your products and services.

Go ahead and share photos of people who make your business possible. Without them, you won’t be able to operate.

Customer testimonial

Studies suggest that 74% of consumers read an average of 10 online reviews before they can trust a business. Sharing customer testimonials on social media is one of the best ways to build trust with your audience and add credibility to your brand.

Let your customer’s voices be heard on social media. Create an image with their testimonial or retweet their kind words. Don’t forget to include their name or handle.

Meme

Have you noticed more and more brands are incorporating humor into their social media marketing strategy? It’s because humor sells.

People love humorous content. Infusing humor into your social media content helps show your brand’s personality and get more people to engage with your content. Besides, posting only business-related content is simply boring.

July 1, 2020/by Kathlyn Angeles

Instagram, Social Media

8 Reasons Businesses Should Use Instagram Stories

When Instagram stories were first introduced in 2016, most users didn’t even give it much attention. They thought of it as a “copycat” of Snapchat. After all, Snapchat came up with the idea first, right? It was a bold, unthinkable move… or so we thought.

Over the years, Instagram stories have continually evolved, introducing new features that businesses can take advantage of to engage with their audience. Eventually, it has leapfrogged its competitors and actually became a better version of Snapchat.

Instagram stories are something you should consider incorporating into your social media marketing strategy. Here are 8 reasons you should give it a try.

Preserve a high-quality business profile

Normally, the content you publish on Instagram gets saved on your profile. But with stories, the content you share disappears after 24 hours. That means you can share as much as you want throughout the day without cluttering your profile with less-than-perfect images.

Now, you can treat your profile as a portfolio, showcasing only your best and evergreen content.

Stay on top of mind

Instagram puts stories at the top of your feed, marked with a purple ring. This indicates that there is a new story published. This feature enables you to stay top of the feed – and mind – of your followers. With stories, you no longer have to compete for a spot in your follower’s feeds.

Have some fun with your audience

Instagram stories have tons of features that encourage audience engagement – using stickers, taking polls, asking questions, linking music, and so much more. Dressing up your content with these features can work wonders for driving more audience interaction.

With stories, you have the freedom to let loose and have some fun with your audience. You can experiment with different types of content and test out what works. Plus, you don’t have to worry about making each post so polished. In fact, more and more consumers find unpolished and goofy content increasingly endearing.

Show another side to your brand

It can be difficult to show the fun side of your brand on Instagram since you want to maintain the quality of your feed, but stories allow you to show another side to your brand.

Instagram stories let you humanize your brand. It enables you to add a personal touch to how you engage with your audience and showcase your products and services in exciting ways.

You can use stories to share your ideas with the community, ask them questions, or share some out-of-the-box content. You can also try showing some behind-the-scenes videos, feature people who are working behind your brand or share photos and videos from team events. Light-hearted, humorous posts also work well in helping you build rapport with your audience.

Grow your audience

Instagram Stories are discoverable. Meaning, even non-followers can see your stories. This provides an excellent opportunity to reach a wider audience. If your content is interesting and engaging enough, this could lead people to check out your profile and follow you.

Real-time marketing

Instagram stories are usually real-time, which makes them feel more human and authentic, and people like that.

Instagram Live is a growing trend, and for good reasons. Live videos allow followers to see you face-to-face and take a peek as to what happens behind the scenes. Here, you’re developing real conversation, and people appreciate it when you’re genuine with them.

Going live can also be a great strategy if you’re looking for an instant engagement boost. It triggers a notification to followers who are using the app at that moment. You can live stream events, host Q&A sessions, or just to speak directly to your audience.

You won’t be bombarding your audience

Being active on Instagram is good, but you don’t want to annoy your followers either. This is where Instagram stories come in handy.

With stories, you can post as much as you want without being intrusive. The stories appear on top of a user’s Instagram feed and it’s highlighted when there’s a new post. Users can watch them at their convenience or choose not to view them at all.

Create buzz around a deal

These short, immersive clips are visually impactful and come with a range of features that are sure to capture the attention of your audience. The temporary 24-hour time frame is a great way to create a buzz around a deal or event.

When used appropriately, Instagram stories can help you promote discounts, deals, and events, and even urge people to take decisive action quickly.

Final thoughts

More than half a billion people consume Instagram stories on a daily basis. It’s a great opportunity to open new pathways to increase engagement and brand awareness. If you’re not using stories to your advantage, then you should be.

May 27, 2020/by Kathlyn Angeles

Content Marketing, Social Media

5 Strategies to Revive Your Inactive Social Media Account

More and more businesses and professionals are creating a social media account for their brands. Some even create a profile in different platforms, only to realize how difficult it is to manage multiple accounts. Worse, people aren’t interacting or following them. They aren’t getting much traffic either. The easy option now would be to just give up.

Even if you’ve let your once-active social media presence go flat, there are still ways to revive it. It may be difficult to get back into the mix, but it’s possible.

Use these strategies to refresh and revitalize your social media presence.

Do a basic profile audit

The first and most important thing you need to do is to perform a social media audit. Check to see what’s working, what’s failing, and what can be improved upon your social media channels.

To conduct a social media audit, you’ll want to:

Track down all your social media accounts– Make sure each account is complete and on brand. Your brand should immediately be recognizable across all of your social channels.
Check your profile – Update your profile, bio, and images
Follow up on your goals and metrics – How do the numbers compare to where you are a year ago?
Identify your best posts – Look for 3 posts that had the most engagements
Identify your most shared content – Determine which posts are getting the most social shares and break it down per platform
Examine profiles of brands and niche influencers – Learn from those who do it best. Find ways to improve on your own social profile.
Put all the data to use – Use the data in front of you to make plans for the future.

Post regularly and actively engage with your audience

A social media page that lacks content and lies dormant might as well not exist at all. You can’t post consistently for a week and then go silent the next week. That can make people feel distrustful of your brand. If you want to improve your social media presence, then you need to post regularly.

Create a social media calendar and stick to it. Keeping your social media updates fresh can go a long way towards generating meaningful connections and conversations with leads and potential clients. It also creates a sense of familiarity with your brand.

Social media is about engagement and connection, and that’s the only way you can foster relationship and gain the trust of your audience. Ask questions, get their opinions, respond to their comments. This will get the conversation going and potentially grow your audience at the same time.

Don’t forget to listen

Are your social media posts met with crickets? No likes, shares or comments… nothing! If so, it’s probably because you do not understand your audience’s needs, desires, and pain-points.

Social media is a two-way street. One of the easiest ways to turn your audience off is to just broadcast and not listen.

Social listening helps you:

Determine which platform your audience is most actively using
Learn what people are saying about you or your brand
Discover popular, emerging conversations and trends
Identify influencers to reach new audiences
Create content that resonates with your audience
Create meaningful conversations

If you won’t listen to your audience, then you won’t be able to connect with them. You won’t be able to help or influence them. Minimize the time you spend promoting and start listening to your audience.

Return with a vengeance

Once you’re ready to return, hit the ground running and don’t look back! Rather than drawing attention to the fact that you’ve been away for a while, start out with an engaging and exciting announcement. There is no need to acknowledge or explain your absence.

Hire a social media professional

Building and maintaining a social media presence requires a lot of time and effort. We know you have a lot on your plate and you no longer have time to sit and work on your social media content. If this is you, then it might be time to think about outsourcing.

Hiring a professional to manage your social media accounts will do more than just guarantee an active social presence, it will also save you time. They’ll do the work for you so you’ll also have more time to focus on more important tasks.

A social media manager will make sure that your content is meaningful and relevant to your audience, as well as help you create a strategic plan to help you reach your audience and get the most out of your social presence.

May 13, 2020/by Kathlyn Angeles

Digital Marketing, Social Media, Social Speak

Social Media Overview and Scheduling Tools

Today, I want to talk about looking at your social media strategy in the big picture. A lot of the questions that we get a lot are, “How do I schedule my social media post? Where do I schedule my social media post? And how do I really just organize my social media post?” And so we’ve done a few videos on this with creating that content calendar and making sure that your posts are organized. And I just wanted to walk you through how we do it on our side, and then also show you a couple of the scheduling tools that we utilize for ourselves and our clients.

Content calendar template

So one thing that we’ve done is a content calendar template. The biggest thing with social media is making sure you are consistent and you have a plan. Most of the time, we get so caught up in work that we forget about what we want to talk about on social media, and whether you’re doing your social media internally, or you have a team like us that’s managing your social media. It’s important to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Contents ideas for your social media posts:

Blog post – You can share your most recent blog post.
Share a tip from weekly blog post with a link back to the blog or website – You can pull information from a past blog
Visual image with logo on it – It can be a motivational quote or tip of the day. You can create that in Canva.
Article or blog from outside source – Share articles from other like-minded sources. You want to remember that 80/20 rule
Product from website linking back to the page – If you have products or different services that are on the website, you can link back to those.

Switch up the content

What I like to do is the information, the post that go on to Facebook and LinkedIn, I think it’s okay if it’s the same content. I would swap the days, and then I would change around the content for Instagram. So maybe what you used on a Tuesday for a Facebook and LinkedIn post, you can reword it, add some bullet points, add in some hashtags and use it for Instagram maybe the following week. So you want to keep that content going, you can utilize it on other platforms.

I do not recommend putting the same post out at the same day, same time to all networks. It doesn’t give any value. We found that most people that follow you on Facebook are also following you on Instagram. So if you’re posting the same thing the same day, there’s no value there. So you want to be able to switch up that content. And having some type of a monthly overview, we found that to have really helped us and our clients kind of know what topics are coming next. So this is kind of that monthly overview.

Content resources

Now it’s time to write the content. So on the social media calendar, you’ll have different topics that you want to talk about.

You’ll have content resources – different websites for that curated content, the like-minded websites that you’re looking for, maybe it’s newsletters that you’re a part of – put them in here. This is supposed to be an easy place that you can just go and pull an article from the source you’ve already approved, your team has access to it.

Google sheet

You’ll notice this is all done in a Google Sheet. The reason we use a Google Sheet is because this is a platform that everyone has access to. So I can share this Google calendar with my team. And so the person that’s writing the social media posts, the person that needs to approve them, they know what’s going out.

It keeps everyone together on one platform rather than having to log into something or download, if someone has a Mac and someone has a PC, from Excel to whatever, it’s just too complicated. I like things simple and very clear. So we use Google Sheets for that.

Here, we have the content resources, we have blog topics, so this can be where we organize our blogs for the month so we know what’s going out.

Creating a content calendar

Google sheet

There are two things you can do here. Now that we know what we’re talking about for the month, we need to have a place of where we can write those social media topics.

One thing that we have done is you can, say here like the date, platform, content, image. Now the other thing that we’ve done is instead of doing this, we may say the date and then we’ll say Instagram copy, Facebook copy, LinkedIn copy, and then we’ll either say image, and then on here we’ll put hashtags as well. You can also place the key code, and then you can pull from the content calendar.

So you can change up, you can create this however it works best for you. We’ve seen a lot of different techniques on creating where you’re gonna write your social media post.

It can be blog title and first paragrah. Now obviously, you are going to put that content in here. You’re gonna have the link in here, and then the image, you can actually go to Insert, and then go to Image, and upload the image directly into this sheet.

So this is one way to keep it all in one place to be able to see, “Okay, this is going onto Instagram, this is going out onto Facebook and LinkedIn. Here’s the images that needs to go out to there, the hashtags.”

So for writing, I always like to write posts a week or two weeks or three weeks in advance. So we have our date here, so we would say Monday, then we can have Tuesday, and then through Friday, and have the copy on one sheet.

Google doc

The other way that we have seen it done is through a Google Doc. And this can be the same thing. This can be a week – May 4th to 8th. You can do a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And if you post on Saturday and Sunday, great.

You can insert your copy here and your images as well. Now, one thing that I would do is make sure that you are utilizing your images, you’re creating your images in the social media template in Canva, so they show up nicely on all platforms.

So you know that Monday, May 4th for Facebook and LinkedIn, this is the copy that’s gonna go out to those two platforms. So it’s really figuring out what works best for you.

Social Media Scheduling Tools

Now let’s get into the scheduling tools. Some people like to just go directly into those scheduling tools. They have the overview of the content calendar and they say, “Okay, this is what my month will look like,” and then they go right into the scheduling tools and write their content directly in there. And that’s totally fine too. It’s just figuring out that process that works best for you.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a paid service. The one thing I really like about them is I love that they do monthly reports. So that gives you your activity for whatever platform you have that you’re utilizing on here. It gives you an overview of exactly what posts you have going out.

When you come over here to publishing, it will pop up what posts you have already scheduled for the month, the week, so it’s very clear, and then you can see each platform right here. If you go to compose, you can upload up to four pictures through Sprout Social, which is good because you like to have multiple photos on the different networks. Here, you can drop down and you can click the platforms that you want it to go to.

One really cool thing about this as well is it has this option for Instagram, the Instagram first comment. So a lot of people will have their Instagram content, and then that first comment is where they put in their 30 hashtags. So that’s a really cool feature that Sprout Social has, and then it will preview what your post will look like. Again, if you have Twitter on here, you want make sure you do Twitter separately because of that 280-character count. Now, with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, it will show 1,300. So it gives you that option, if you take off LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram 2,200. So it gives you that option. So you can go right directly into here, write your post, and then you can go to choose a date, time, and schedule it. So that’s one way of being able to just utilize a dashboard like this and be able to have all your posts in one area.

So I really like Sprout Social because of how user-friendly it is, and you’re able to see what you have scheduled. And some days you’re gonna have posts for certain networks that you just wanna go out and not for the other networks, and that’s totally okay. So just, again, figuring out that strategy for you. You can do drafts in here. With Sprout Social, it does automatically post to Instagram, which is another bonus. So it will actually post whatever post is here to your Instagram account.

Hootsuite

The second tool I want to show you is called Hootsuite. Hootsuite has a free version and a paid version. And I believe it’s still free for one or two social media platforms.

Hootsuite also schedules and posts directly to Instagram, which is great, because Instagram I feel is the social media platform that is the most manual because they didn’t have a scheduling tool before. So in here, you’ll have streams, which I really like how these streams.

Besides the reporting of Sprout Social, I love Hootsuite as a overview piece, because I can see what posts have gone out, what mentions people have mentioned us in, what activity, if people have posted to our page or what we’ve put up, what messages we have. And then we can also put on here our scheduled, unpublished, so you can go in here and again, write drafts and be able to see, organize everything in here, and it would show up like this for your scheduled ones.

So I really like Hootsuite because I do think it’s very simple to use. Again, you would go to New Post and you would type in your content, you can upload your image, videos. You’ll just click here to select the platform you want it to go to, the media you want, your text. And I really like this feature. So this is Hootsuite. Again, very simple, very user-friendly.

Buffer

The third one is called Buffer. I think they do have a free plan. It’s still very similar to the other two scheduling tools. It will tell you what you have going out. It can give you some analytics.

Now, with Buffer, it does not automatically post to Instagram. It will give you a notification on your mobile device that you have a post, and then you would need to go into your Instagram and push that post out.

So Buffer is a great tool, there’s a lot you can do with it. Like I said, it does give you some analytics. And we’ll look at the Instagram stories, strategy recommendations, and obviously that is for the paid package, but it does provide a lot of details.

When it comes to a publishing tool, it’s really a personal preference of which one aesthetically you like, which one will be the best for you and your team. And if you choose not to use a Google Doc or a Google Sheet to organize your posts and you choose to use just a platform like Hootsuite or Sprout Social, you want make sure, again, if it’s not just you doing your social media post, you want to make sure that it’s user-friendly for you and your team.

Bonus tool: Grammarly

One thing that I’ve also installed is a plugin called Grammarly.

Grammarly works on:

Google docs
Hootsuite
Buffer
Sprout Social

I like it because it adds that extra layer of making sure that your posts are grammatically correct going out, which is important. If you put in a misspelling, it usually highlights the spelling mistake. I will go like, this doesn’t make sense, and then you can click on it, and then it will either to give you a word, “Hey, what did you mean to say here?”

Mistakes happen. It’s not a life or death thing. And I also think that with social media, having that strategy is really good because it will allow you to stop and think about what your plan is and paying attention to those details and making sure when you’re creating the images in Canva.

Final thoughts

We go back to that brand consistency that we’ve talked about. So this is just giving you the overview of your social media strategy, looking at thinking of a month at a time with your social media posts, how many times per week do you want to post, and then what’s the action you’re going to take to create those posts, and then be able to schedule them out?

There’s tons of other tools out there. These are just three scheduling tools that we have used and we enjoy using. And there’s a lot of different content strategies out there, but again, it’s finding the one that works best for you.

So if you need help creating that strategy and putting together that content calendar and getting one of these scheduling tools set up, we are here to help you.

May 6, 2020/by Amber Irwin

Healthcare Marketing, Social Media, Social Speak

5 Social Media Marketing Tips for Healthcare Professionals

As socially inclined creatures, humans have embraced technology that allowed us to connect with our family and friends. Today, social has become a prominent part of people’s lives.

With over half of the world’s population now active on social media, it’s not surprising that more and more businesses are using social media to reach their audience. Healthcare is no exception.

As a healthcare professional or organization, you need to step up your social media strategy in order to reach your target audience, boost patient engagement, and improve health outcomes.

Here are 5 tips to get you started.

Choose the right platform

There are lots of social media platforms out there other than Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn. While social media can help you drive new patient leads and grow your practice, you can’t be active on all of them all the time. You need to be strategic where you spend your resources.

A great way to plan and begin your social media campaign is to identify your ideal outlets. To do that, you need to focus on your core target audience. Find out where they spend most of their time online. Build your primary social media presence around your audience’s platforms of choice. It only makes sense to fish where the fishes are.

Narrowing down your choice to just a select few platforms will not only save you time, but it will also help you get the best return on your investment.

Jump into existing conversations

Take the initiative to be a part of a social media conversation. Join existing chats and groups that offer relevant discussions. See what you can add to the conversation and what you can learn about the current topics. Inspire discussions, ask questions, and air your opinion.

In addition to taking part in the discussions, it is important to track conversations relevant to your field. This raw and unfiltered conversation can provide you with insights from your audience. You may even get new ideas that you can use on your social media marketing campaign.

Don’t make it all about you

Social media is a great place to promote your practice and get more patients through the door. But if that’s the only reason why you signed up, then it won’t be beneficial.

People hate ads. They are turned off by businesses that throw ads but do not engage with their clients. If you want to build a solid social media presence, then you need to really get on there and interact with your audience.

Go back to your core audience. Learn as much as you can about them: demographics, what they are interested in, what they need, what their pain points are, etc. Getting to know your audience will help you interact with them on a more intimate level. Once you start conversing with them, you’ll know how you can help them.

Show them that you care about them and they will feel more connected with you.

Raise awareness and counter misinformation

Social media has become an important health resource. Studies suggest that more and more people are seeking health information on social media. With the amount of information we are bombarded with each day, it is not surprising to find a lot of medical misinformation out there. As a healthcare professional, you can capitalize on social media by providing your audience with accurate, science-backed facts.

Give people a reason to follow and engage with you. Pull from your unique expertise and share relevant, valuable information about your field. Don’t get stuck sharing links to blog posts. Share infographics, videos, interactive pieces, podcasts, and other types of content.

Provide your audience with content they can’t find elsewhere. Sharing fresh and unique content will not only keep your audience engaged, but they’ll also see you as a thought leader or industry expert.

Automate social media posts

You reap what you sow is a well-known idiom. While the phrase is biblical in origin, it also applies to social media marketing.
You can’t expect great results if your page is inactive. The key is to stay active on social media and consistently provide your followers with high-quality content. How can you do that when you spend the majority of your working hours seeing patients? Social media automation holds the solution to this problem.

Automating your social media posts allows you to schedule and optimize posts for maximum engagement. Scheduling several posts in advance helps you save time while achieving consistency in your marketing efforts. Plus, it gives you control over the content you share and how you share it.

Ultimately, it also helps you get more results with less effort. Keep in mind, though, that automation can only help you save time and effort, it is not meant to make social media marketing a completely hands-off process.

Automation tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer, AgoraPulse, and CoSchedule will make things easier for you. Whether you’re looking to find new patients or engage existing ones, you need to employ social media strategies that will help you sustain and grow your practice. Contact us today and let us put together a social media plan for you and your practice.

November 19, 2019/by Amber Irwin

Social Media, Social Speak

5 Reasons Why Doctors Should be on Social Media

Having an active social media presence has become mandatory across different industries, even the healthcare industry. Unfortunately, many physicians find social media marketing intimidating.

The way patients approach healthcare today is different than it was a decade ago. Today, social media is the most relevant advertising channel for you and your practice. It is a cost-effective way to increase reach, build credibility, and attract new patients.

Still on the social media fence?

Here are 5 reasons why you should include social media in your marketing campaign.

Increase reach

With over 3 billion social media users, it is almost inevitable that the majority of your target audience has a presence on popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The majority of them log in on their accounts on a daily basis.

While social media was originally created to cultivate personal relationships, you can use it to get you and your practice in front of your target audience. Your existing patients are probably already following you, but social media allows you to reach more than just the patients you see in your clinic or office.

With the right strategies, it can help you broaden your audience and bring more patients through the door. Don’t be one of the many practices that are missing out on the opportunity to reach millions of people on social media.

Build a relationship with your audience

According to a study that was published in the Annals of Family Medicine, doctors spend an average of 17 minutes with each patient. That is not enough to address the patient’s immediate concerns, much less to build a relationship. Social media gives you an opportunity to connect with your audience and communicate with them outside the office.

As a healthcare professional, you have an opportunity to help people by correcting the spread of medical misinformation, helping chronically ill people feel less isolated, and encouraging them to pursue a healthier lifestyle. Of course, you need to make it clear that you won’t be providing medical advice. This should be done in the office.

With time and consistent effort, you’ll be able to gain their trust and loyalty. If you can create the ultimate experience for your patients, they aren’t likely to go to another doctor.

Attract new patients

The internet has changed the way people find doctors. They are no longer limited to physicians in their area. Although word of mouth and referrals still rank high as a means of finding new doctors, many patients would turn to the internet to find healthcare practitioners of all kinds.

In a survey that was conducted by Doctors.com, they revealed that 63% of respondents choose one doctor over the other because of a strong online presence. You want you and your practice to be at the front of a patient’s mind when the need for your practice arises. And that’s exactly what social media marketing is for.

Social media can be an invaluable resource to attract new patients. As mentioned above, it provides a way to reach a new audience, engage with them, and promote your services. When done right, it will bring you a steady stream of new patients and grow your practice.

Patients want you out there

According to a survey conducted by the National Research Corporation, over 40% of internet users rely on social media for health information. Some would turn to social media for advice when they have questions about healthcare problems or issues.

Your potential and existing patients are already on social media, and using these platforms to get in front of them makes sense. There is already a demand for health-related content, so why not give it to them?

In a hyper-connected world, people want to be able to communicate directly with major brands in their lives, including their doctors. Take advantage of this opportunity to market your practice and services to the exact people that are looking for you.

Become a thought leader in your field

More and more people go online to look up medical information. Since anyone can post practically anything, health information online is often unreliable. As a physician, you can’t just remain quiet and uninvolved while people spread inaccurate information.
Information sharing is one of the greatest benefits of social media.

Doctors have a powerful voice. It is time for you to dip your toes into the virtual waters and disseminate scientifically-proven medical information to the general public.

Always bring value to the community. Give tips on how to stay healthy. Share information about current illnesses going around. Upload links to new research about your area of specialty. If you can make complicated topics easier to understand, then you’ll be able to help millions of people across the globe.

November 13, 2019/by Amber Irwin

Content Marketing, Instagram, Pinterest, Social Media

How to use Instagram and Pinterest for your Wellness Practice

In today’s podcast, we talk about how Instagram and Pinterest play an important role in your digital marketing strategy.

Some people may overlook these two platforms thinking either they are for a younger crowd or their target market is not using these platforms, but that’s not true. Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms and Pinterest is being used as a visual search engine, it’s just like Google but all pictures!

I highlight the following points:

Tips & Tricks to utilize Instagram to it’s fullest potential
How to Upload videos to Instagram and Pinterest
Tools to help maximize your Pinterest efforts

00:00 Speaker 1: Hello. Welcome to the Social Speak Network Podcast. I am your host Amber Irwin, and in today’s episode, we are gonna be covering tips four and five, which were Instagram and Pinterest. And I wanted to go over these two together because they really compliment each other in your digital marketing strategy. So, I wanted to show you a tool that we use for Instagram and Pinterest, and really when you’re figuring out that strategy with each of them. So, let’s talk about Instagram first. Instagram is… Instagram and Pinterest are both visual… So with Instagram, links do not work in your content, the only link that you have in your profile is in your bio. There’s a couple of tools like Linktree, that link will be in the bottom, that you use, which is a free tool that allows people to click on to that. So I think ours is Linktree/Social Speak. And, we have multiple links on that platform, so we have a link to our website, to our blog, to our YouTube, to maybe…

01:12 S1: We have different offers up there. So Linktree’s a great free tool to use to be able to have multiple links in your bio. Because otherwise you’re always saying ‘link in bio’, and you have to make sure you’re changing that out. But if someone’s looking through your Instagram account and you’re talking about one product but that link’s not there anymore, it gets a little confusing. So using a tool like Linktree and having a link to different products or services or blogs you’re talking about is a good idea. With Instagram… There’s a couple of different aspects of Instagram that I want to talk about. First is consistency. Just your news feed and with this is… You’re going through and these are just normal posts that are being put up. So this is just as you scroll through your news feed, these are your normal posts, square images that you’re putting up.

02:09 S1: A couple of added benefits to Instagram that you really wanna take advantage of is Instagram stories and Instagram TV. So when you’re doing a video on your feed as just like a normal post, that video can only be one minute long. When you’re doing Instagram stories, those videos are a 15-second long. So, Instagram TV (IGTV) can be 10 minutes, so take advantage of that space. You’re gonna have a different audience on Instagram compared to Facebook or… If you’re using Twitter or LinkedIn. A lot of our clients get a better response from Instagram than they do Facebook, just a different crowd, different algorithms as well. So with your Instagram account, you wanna make sure you have that strategy. And our tip one was creating that strategy. So, in that strategy, you should have put together, what are those topics you wanna talk about? What videos do you want to do? And, it gets a little tricky with Instagram because you can do your videos horizontal, just make sure you’re in the middle of the screen because if you’re talking like this then… So make sure you’re just in the center of the screen when you’re doing them.

03:33 S1: Vertical videos work the best on Instagram, so sometimes you are recording for dual purposes, so sometimes I’ll set my phone on my computer vertically and record from my phone and my computer, and then the one that’s on my computer, I upload to YouTube and Facebook, the one that I’m using on my phone, I upload to Instagram. So it just kind of depends, you gotta figure out what works best for you. But taking advantage of Instagram stories… And… Hey, we are the first ones to say, “We were really good at doing Instagram stories for a while and then we stopped, and we were seeing… That’s where a lot of those kinds of behind the scenes, the real-time information is great with Instagram stories; it really allows your audience to see who you are as a person and as a company. It’s great if you did an Instagram take over.

04:29 S1: So maybe you have a different employee each week or maybe a couple of times per week, take that Instagram account over, do some behind the scenes, talk about who they are, what their expertise is; just a fun way to really just let your followers know who you guys are as a company. So that’s a great way to use Instagram stories. They only see it for 24 hours, so if you don’t highlight that Instagram story, it’s poof! It’s gone in 24 hours. So a lot of people will use this Instagram stories area as event promotion or specials like, “Only for 24 hours, we’re gonna have this special. So when this video’s gone off Instagram, that special no longer exists. Get in with your membership today, get in with this exclusive offer.” So people love Instagram stories for that. And when you highlight them, if you go to an account and you see these circle icons, these are highlighted stories.

05:32 S1: And you can have different themes. So based on what you do, if you’re a wellness center and you do chiropractic massage, maybe you do holistic medicine, or naturopathic medicine, these will be different so called boards. And you can highlight different stories at any time. So, once you create these boards… Or these… I’m gonna call ’em boards. Once you create these boards, we have one for core values, for business tips, Instagram story tips, just tips for you. So as we do different stories, I can highlight them to go back to these different boards. And so, it kinda helps people know what it is we do. And especially in that coaching space, it’s important for people to know maybe you have a personal life. Maybe if you’re a wellness coach, you have exercises, eating guides or eating tips, whatever that is. So take advantage of that for your audience to kinda go and get those resources.

06:39 S1: So you have your news feed, you have Instagram stories and you have your Instagram TV. So using all of these pieces allows your audience to really engage with you, and the key to this is just being consistent. So whether you’re posting every single day, three times a week, four times a week, figuring out that schedule. And then with Instagram, direct messaging is really a big thing, so people are commenting or asking questions, making sure you’re responding to them within 24 hours. Have your notifications on or have the team you’re working with make sure that they’re checking those notifications and those messages. Sometimes you’ll get ones that are spam, and you know they’re spam, but other times people are just asking questions. You can use an app called Repost, and this allows you to re-post content from other accounts giving them credit; so that if you’re running out of ideas of, “Okay, what should I be talking about?” then you can use Repost, and it’s just like sharing an article on Facebook, but you’re sharing that post from their account.

07:54 S1: So with Instagram and Pinterest, as I said, they’re both visual, so the biggest thing is making sure that people know what they’re looking at so each image is clear, if you’re having content on it, and let them know what the post is the about. And so moving into Pinterest, being able to utilize the images that you have on Instagram on Pinterest as well. So cool fact with Pinterest, you can upload square images, you can upload the vertical images and videos to Pinterest. Think of Pinterest less as social media and more as a visual search engine. I think it was 65% of women search Pinterest for their needs, whether it’s medical, home, DIY; that is their search engine, that’s their Google. And I say, “Yes because I’m always on Pinterest searching for something, whether it’s content ideas, social media tips, home tips with activities with my daughter, wellness tips as far as we used to do to make our own soap, how do you do that, essential oils, whatever it is, Pinterest, you can find everything on there.

09:17 S1: So Pinterest is that visual search engine. And I want to talk to you about a tool we use that’s called Tailwind, and I’ll put a link to this below, but Tailwind… And I wanna show this to you… Tailwind is a really cool tool that we use. It is a paid tool; this is one tool that we do pay for, it’s $14.99 a month, but this allows us to schedule Pins to Pinterest. And what it allows us to do is with Pinterest, you wanna make sure that you are… You always have Pins going out, anywhere from three to eight to 10 a day; you definitely want that rotation continuing. And so with Tailwind, it will actually monitor to know how many posts you should have each day; some days based on our traffic, based on our audience, we have more than other days. And so the weekends, the beginning of the week are a lot heavier, for us, than the end of the week. And so Tailwind creates this process for you and different times.

10:41 S1: So Pinterest, again, it’s like a Google machine, so people are on there in the morning, they’re on there late at night. And so Tailwind calculates when your audience is on Pinterest, and they schedule those Pins to go out, which is super-cool. The other thing that I love with Tailwind and Pinterest is if you’re blogging, you write this awesome blog, you create your images, you pin it to your board, you put it on your social media, but then what? Like you’re writing a blog each month, but each blog is good to repurpose content; you can create what’s called these Smart Loops, and this… What does is you tell Tailwind what images you want to be… Like we have 230 active Loops right now, which means we have a ton of different images, all from our blog, that will continue to be posted, and that they’re posted to different boards, so they’re always being reused because we’re always gaining new followers.

11:53 S1: So with Pinterest, it’s not necessarily about growing your followers to thousands and thousands like it is with Facebook and Instagram, but it’s more about creating that content that people want to share, and the end goal with Pinterest is really to increase that website traffic, that’s the key, is that website traffic. And by using a tool like this, it allows you to see what are the most popular Pins, what are people clicking on, what are they liking, who’s re-pinning what, so it allows you to really dive into those analytics. And so using Tailwind is a great tool, and it keeps us organized. This is… We do this once a week, and then Pinterest is done; you’re already making those images for your blog, and so if you have… If you’re doing lead generation, and you have a content upgrade, you wanna make sure that you’re creating those images around that; so this is just a good way to be able to help you take your Pinterest account to the next level.

13:05 S1: The other thing why I like talking about Instagram and Pinterest with this is a couple of things; with Tailwind, you can link your Instagram account to Tailwind. So if you’re really, really good at posting to Instagram… We have some clients that are posting every single day, and that’s valuable content. You can click Schedule from Instagram, it’s gonna link to your Instagram account, and it’s gonna pull up all of the posts. So this makes it easy to make sure that all that amazing content that you’re putting on to Instagram also can be shared to your Pinterest account with the right boards and making sure that audience sees it as well. So it’s so easy, all you have to do is click Schedule, you pick the board that you want it to go to, and bada-bing, bada-boom, you’re done.

14:08 S1: This is why I really like Instagram and Pinterest together because they do complement each other. That content that you are sharing to Instagram can easily be shared to Pinterest. So, being able to use a tool like Tailwind, and I will put a link in the description with that so you can see that as well, but having a strategy for each of those is really important and then being able to track your analytics with where that traffic’s coming from. So you gotta think of it like this, with Instagram and Facebook it really is… Let’s just stick with Instagram and Pinterest. Instagram is really about getting the engagement, getting the likes, getting the comments, getting the [14:55] ____ messages, and building those relationships. You may not get a lot of website traffic from Instagram because of how the platform is made. You can’t share an article on there and have a link in the content, and people can’t click through to that.

15:13 S1: As I said in the beginning, you have Linktree where you could say, “link in bio.” They click on that and then go to that blog post. You’re not using Instagram for website traffic; you’re using Instagram to build those relationships. Pinterest, you’re using to drive that traffic to your website. You want people to see your blogs. You want people to click on to them. You want them if you have a website that has product on there, whether it’s digital product or physical product, you wanna be pinning all of those images with the right description, with the link back to that page to Pinterest because as people are searching, especially in the health and wellness industries, because if people are searching for essential oils for better sleep, kids’ fever, or whatever it may be, and you have a line and you keep pinning, this is a resource so people are able to click on it, buy it. I’ve bought so many things off of Pinterest because I follow this person; I look at what they’re pinning. I go to their website. I cyberstalk them. I know that sounds crazy, but that’s what we do.

16:31 S1: So, using Pinterest to the fullest potential is huge. And the other piece with Pinterest is using it as a resource for your audience. And what I mean by that is you’re gonna have multiple boards for your business, so you’re gonna have a business account, you’re gonna have your… Like for us, we have email marketing tips, Facebook marketing tips. You’re gonna have all these different boards, and thinking of those boards as keywords, what are people searching for, and how can you use them as a resource for your current audience? So I always like to use Home Depot, for instance, has a really good Pinterest account because they have backyard ideas, bathroom lighting trends, bathroom project ideas. So, they make this a resource for their audience. And I love that because if I’m always going there, it’s a trusted source, I wanna be able to go and see, “Okay, what can I use to redo this as a DIY?” They’re putting this resource here for me to look at and then all I have to do is click on that, “Oh, and they have it in store. Oh, that’s so cool.”

17:58 S1: So if you are a wellness practice, you wanna create your boards based along your services, but then also think of, what are your clients asking you, what are their needs, what are they searching for, and how can you create a board that is a resource for them? And that content that’s on those boards doesn’t have to be all original content. The content that’s on our boards, we did not write all of that content or make all those images. A lot, I would say 70% of our pins, are re-pins. So we have sources like CoSchedule, HubSpot, a couple of other sources that we love, that we get all of our information from that we wanna share. So having those sources that you’re already maybe sharing on Facebook or you’re going to for your own information, see if they have a Pinterest account, start re-pinning their stuff. So that’s really what Pinterest is about, is that sharing platform.

19:03 S1: So, I hope that in this podcast, that made sense with the Instagram and Pinterest, how they work together and how they really tie in to your overall strategy because they’re both really important to have, and that’s why we focused a lot on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for our clients because I really think that you’re being able to touch all areas of where your audiences are at online. So, if you need help with identifying what these strategies are or how to use Pinterest or Instagram for your business, please let us know, schedule your free 30-minute consultation today; we would love to help you discuss that strategy, those ideas and get you Instagramming and Pinteresting right away because I know once you start doing it, you’re gonna be able to see the results and be able to utilize them as tools for your practice. So, if you have questions, let us know. Please remember to subscribe on either Podbean or iTunes for our podcast. We have a weekly podcast to help you organize your digital marketing life. Until next time, we will see you guys later, and remember, head over to socialspeaknetwork.com and schedule your free consultation today. Have a great day.

September 3, 2019/by Amber Irwin

Download, Social Media

Twitter Checklist

The Twitter Checklist covers the top things you need to remember as you are setting up your Twitter account for business.

Download PDF Here

March 12, 2018/by Caitlin McDonald

Download, Social Media

Pinterest Strategy and Goal Setting Workbook

The Pinterest Strategy and Goal Setting workbook walks you through how to create your Pinterest boards and posting strategy as well as how to establish your goals on the network.

Download PDF Here

March 12, 2018/by Caitlin McDonald

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