Tips for New Social Media Marketers

When experts are willing to share their knowledge on a topic, all we need to do is give them space and listen attentively. Case in point... Last night, I had the privilege of hosting Travis Tyler, one of the most talented professionals in social media today, for a fireside chat in my Social Media Marketing class. He shared incredibly valuable tips on optimizing LinkedIn and social media content. Social media is hard to get right. Content is difficult to produce. Organizations are sometimes afraid to put themselves out there, to be bold and genuine in what they share, so what you usually get is self-promotion, lots of selling, and little to no authenticity from them. I admire people who take a different approach. Chris Walker has built an incredible following here on LinkedIn for having very strong opinions on dark social and the differences between high intent and low intent demand. Andy Crestodina is a strong evangelist of how content marketing when done well can transform a business (outside his amazing advice on AI and analytics). Gaetano Nino DiNardi 🇺🇦 offers his followers actionable SEO advice that you usually don't get anywhere else. What I love about Travis' content is that he has shown us that you can have fun and almost magically weave in education, entertainment, and inspiration to create amazing content experiences on social while building a following for himself and his team. That's pure gold, IMO. During the call, Travis shared incredibly valuable tips on optimizing LinkedIn and social profiles. Here are some top highlights: - Build trust within your company first before trying bold social media strategies. Volunteer to create posts highlighting coworkers to establish credibility early on. That will give you the equity to try new things. - Show your authentic self and don't try being overly produced in posts. Use real images and videos to connect emotionally with your audience. Being yourself makes you relatable and likeable to your audience. - Comment thoughtfully on posts and have genuine conversations. Don't just post and ignore it after. Engaging with your followers is key. "Post and ghost" is not a strategy that's going to yield great results. - Find popular accounts or influencers to co-market and fuel growth quickly. Genuine collaborations and partnerships can expand your reach immensely. - Don't get into fights with trolls. Have an empathetic dialogue and allow for respectful open discussions. Getting heated or rude only makes you look unprofessional. Travis had phenomenal advice on leveraging social media to build an audience and promote your brand / business. My final piece of advice here is to always remember --- Social Media isn't a place for navel gazing. Educate, entertain, inspire, and then sell to your audience... your prospects and customers will thank you for it. If you aren't following his content, I highly recommend you do.

Want to be a successful social media marketer? Don't follow the formulas. Oh, you know the formulas. Include 5-10 hash tags in all your posts for peak performance. Repurpose your tweets here on LinkedIn (my personal fave). Leave the first comment to increase reach. Sure, they might work in the short-term. You might see a small spike in engagement over a month or two. You may even reach a few more people. But, it's usually not sustainable. And more importantly, it's not the type of creative thinking that creates those big wins and drives real results for your client or company. Formula-chasing is small thinking. Instead, focus on what issues and problems your audience is facing--and how you can help solve them with content. Review your recent results and double-down on content that's working the best. And finally, experiment with new formats (like polls and live video here on LinkedIn) and push the envelope where you can. You do even those 3 simple things, and I bet you'll be a lot better off than chasing those formulas.

New job as a Social Media Manager? Here are 5 things I'd do if I was starting as Socia Media Manager at a new company ⬇ 1. Platform Performance: Analyze follower growth, engagement rates, and top-performing content across platforms over the last year. Look for areas to improve upon. 2. Brand Voice & Messaging: Identify the brand's current social media tone and messaging consistency. Don't have one? Start building one. 3. Content Strategy: Evaluate the content mix (text, images, video) and its effectiveness in achieving brand goals. 4. Competitive Landscape: Identify your top 5 competitors. Research how your competitors are using social media and identify potential areas of differentiation. You want to avoid trying to be like them. 5. Audience Insights: Dive into audience demographics and interests to understand who you're reaching and how to connect better. Bonus: Meet with internal stakeholders to evaluate how social has historically supported them and their goals. Develop a plan to integrate stakeholders' goals and messaging into your overall content strategy. The more allies the better! Audits are particularly important when taking on a new social account. By taking a deep dive, you can identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities to craft a winning social media strategy for the brand. #socialmedia #MarketingStrategy #contentstrategy #socialaudit

11 years ago, I became an accidental social media agency owner without knowing anything about running an agency. In that time going from working with local businesses to international brands, here are the 7 biggest lessons I’ve learned about social media: 👨🏻🎓 1. Chasing the algorithm is a losing game 👎 Algorithms change all of the time. Constantly changing your content to ‘hack’ the algorithm won’t get you far. Instead, brands should focus on creating the best content they can sustain over the long term. This can be text-only posts, carousels, or long-form videos; the key is to do what works for you creatively. 2. Don’t expect one person to do it all 😵💫 Social media is not a one-person job. Companies that put the burden of strategy, creative production, and community management on one person are asking for a Unicorn. That’s not realistic. At a minimum, you should have a strategist/copywriter, multi-media editor, and a media buyer, then build out from there. *These don’t all have to be FT or even in-house. 3. Only go on platforms where you can resource 👷 Or in other words, bite off what you can chew on social media. By focusing on a few platforms, you have a greater chance of social media success because your team will be able to learn the ins and outs, and the audience/conversation will be concentrated. 4. Have a distribution plan 🗺️ When you hit publish on a piece of content, the work has just begun. Whether it’s sharing content to social media, a newsletter, or on an internal Slack channel, you should have a plan. Alongside this, fight for a budget to promote individual pieces on social. This could be as low as $5 per post. 5. Impress your customers, not your peers 🏆 It’s easy for marketers to start creating content attempting to impress other marketers. It’s ego-driven, costly, and leaves out the most important part of the equation: your customers. So, instead of comparing work to peers, talk with customers to get their feedback on what you’re doing online. 6. Without paid media support, organic social won't work 💸 If you want your brand to have success on social it has to be supported with paid media. Every success story I’ve seen usually boils down to one common denominator: effective paid social. Relying on organic reach alone won’t cut it if you’re looking to grow. 7. Make the content less about your brand and more about the customer 🧗 Brands that position themselves as the trusty guide online, instead of the hero, get more traction. Taking your content from “look at me” to “look at how I can help you” will make a world of difference within your campaigns. Want more? See 4 additional lessons in the first comment of this post.

Here are some hard lessons I learned about social media all along! I was eager to build my online presence but made some rookie mistakes that set me back. Here are three key social media mistakes I made and how you can avoid them: 1️⃣ Ignoring Engagement: I used to focus solely on posting content, thinking that was enough. But I learned that engagement is crucial. Ignoring comments, messages, and interactions cost me valuable connections. The fix? Engage with your audience. Respond to comments, ask questions, and show genuine interest in your followers. 2️⃣ Posting Without a Strategy: I would post randomly, without a clear plan or purpose. My content lacked consistency and direction. The solution? Develop a content strategy. Plan your posts around your goals and audience interests. Consistency and purpose are key to building a strong online presence. 3️⃣ Being Too Salesy: My early posts were too focused on selling, which turned people off. I realized that social media is about building relationships, not just making sales. The adjustment? Add value with your content. Share insights, tips, and stories that resonate with your audience. Build trust first, sales will follow. These mistakes taught me valuable lessons that transformed my social media approach! #SocialMediaTips #AvoidMistakes #DigitalMarketing #EngagementStrategy #ContentStrategy

If you are a small business or startup trying to find your way on social media, I want to share one of my favorite pieces of free advice with you: TEST before you INVEST. No matter the size of the company, you will always want to maximize whatever budget you have. Too many agencies and freelance marketers will encourage you to sink time, money and energy into opportunities that don't necessarily guarantee a return on that investment because it's financially advantageous for them. Rather, I think it's important in the early stages to "dip your toe in the water" before "taking an entire plunge" and be intentional about trying new tactics. So, what does that actually mean when it comes to social media? ➤ Try a modest amount of money on paid social media advertising prior to committing to a significant year-long spend. ➤ Seed your product with micro-influencers and offer affiliate linking opportunities before you pay macro-influencers. ➤ Test out different organic content on your channels before paying a full-time content creator do manage and produce it for you. By doing these first, you'll glean data and learn a ton about the platforms and what resonates with your fans or potential customers. The end goal? You will feel more confident in any bigger long-term investments because you'll have unique data and insights of your very own. #socialmedia #marketing #smallbusiness #startup #socialstrategy

1000+ RSVPs. 160+ people in line 10 minutes before the event. People with an online audience with live audiences in line :) Attended an amazing session on “Why Building an Audience Can’t wait" with Nik Sharma Jade Beguelin Avni Barman and Ankur Nagpal Lots of info, lots of controversy, lots of fun. But 16 sentences stuck with me. They were inspiring, tactical, or just the reminder I needed on that day. (Of course, I had to write them down) 1. Everyone has a period of sucking on social media. You’re not alone; you’re not special. It’s always a lot of trial and error, and you’ll probably have to get a 100 videos out with 300 views before you go viral. 2. You might go viral. But, it's those 1000 true fans that matter. The ones that buy your product or fly to your event. 3. If you get 1000 views on your video, that’s 1000 more views than if you hadn't posted. 4. Every platform is different. Begin with one, but don't be surprised if you perform better on a different one. 5. When speaking to the camera, speak slowly. 6. Have a single channel to own your audience. Pick a channel and repurpose all content across all channels. You’ll end up growing for free in many places. 7. Get people to immediately engage with your post right after posting. This boosts impressions. 8. If you are hard-pressed for content, like Gary Vee said—document, don’t create. 9. Your platform is a brand. You’re not just posting content; you need to think about what you do there. The real conversion funnel is keeping people happy. 10. Newsletter growth hacking: Use short-form content, but don't say “sign up.” Create multiple resources to get their email, which makes it easier to embed into any content. Be aggressive with it. 11. Lots of virality comes from controversy. 12. You are the main character in your story. Nobody else cares. 13. Build an audience, but be smart about it. If you’re a year in and still have a small following, you’re doing it wrong. 14. Create content with intention. You should have a pretty good idea why some content works and some doesn’t. 15. Find other people to feed off each other's ideas. 16. "How did you start creating content?" is the number one question procrastinators ask others. If you feel like asking that question, don't. Just start P.S - At the event, the first question asked was, "How many of you identify as creators?" So, how many of you identify as creators here? #networking #creator #NYtechweek

A smart young digital marketer just left my team, and on the way out, he asked me to share some advice as he considered his next steps in his career. I'm a sucker for a smart person who seeks my advice. This is what I wrote: 1. Keep up the kind of professionalism that you exhibited at GoTo and during your transition.  Your willingness to go the extra mile and package your work so others can continue without dropping the ball will definitely be remembered.  Your reputation is one of your most valuable assets. 2. As you progress through your career, remember to maintain a focus on the business purpose that is driving your activities.  You might be surprised to find out that most people don't think about (and some don't understand) the business reasons behind their marketing activities.  Make sure you can always connect the dots and explain why you are recommending a decision in terms of financial outcomes. 3. Skate to where the puck is going. Lean into new technologies as a lifelong learner.  There are some amazing new AI tools coming out for marketing.  Spend some time learning about them, form an opinion about which ones would be most useful based on their business impact. It's easier to become an expert in something that is new.  There is a lot of new right now...dig in. 4. Find opportunities to sell an idea inside a company. The most successful people I know are great at convincing people to change the way they do things. If you think that something can be done better, do some research, run some experiments, model the improvement of doing something different, and sell the idea of making a change. It will be one of the most compelling stories you can tell when you are interviewing for jobs, and you will learn a ton along the way. 5. Be thoughtful and professional in your communication with others.  Writing and speaking in complete sentences is becoming a lost art. Leaders will take notice if you can write a concise, compelling email with proper grammar and no spelling errors.

It was 2016. I was looking at the YTD reporting for a creator and I was blown away. $13m in sales. 3 person team. I had heard about stuff like this, but had never seen the hard data before. As I dove deeper into the creator space I started to find more and more stories like this. Marie Forleo. Pat Flynn. Sam Parr. Amy Porterfield. Jacques Hopkins. Dale Beaumont. Wildly successful creators with less than a dozen employees. Chatting with many of these creators first-hand. Here are a few things I have learned… 1) Trust is the biggest barrier: For online creators, digital marketers or small eCom brands, the biggest barrier is trust. Why should folks tune in for your content, or buy your membership or course? Nearly all of the folks mentioned above focused heavily on customer proof, testimonials and UGC to build their brands in the early days. Two tips here: #1 Make sure the testimonial style matches your audience. For example, someone like a Marie Forleo would want a more emotive before and after style of testimonial vs. a B2B SaaS creator might want very specific data and a more quantitative approach. #2 volume matters. Often folks won’t read through 100 reviews but if you have only 4 reviews on the site folks will wonder “Why can they only get 4 reviews? Are they small or unpopular?”. 2) Community, not just audience: For the top creators operating at scale, I find the communities they build are an essential part of the puzzle. When you foster an environment of like-minded people who can start to help each other, you create real lasting power and retention. Most of the top creators are masters of this. Top tips I find are: #1 Be a good curator. Free for all communities typically devolve quickly. Make sure you keep the quality bar high for folks. #2 Have a lot of dynamic content. Communities with just static resources get stale quickly. Workshops, lives, and other frequent dynamic events are key for retention. 3) Use email effectively: Whether it’s for onboarding, or a newsletter, or letting folks know about product launches, running promotions or even just deepening education on your niche, email is the lifeblood of effective digital businesses at scale. All of the top creators I have worked with use email and automation as a core revenue lever. Top tips I find are: #1 Segment based on dynamic and static behaviors, meaning things they do (opens, clicks, page visits) and info they provide (industry, team size, role). #2 Build systems. Email is not just a newsletter or to push coupons, but email is tied to the core processes of the business, taking people through a full lifecycle, and dynamically adjusting the pathway for trials/customers based on their needs. One of the things that has blown me away in my first quarter working at ActiveCampaign is how many small teams we have powering big businesses. Thousands of teams with just a few employees powering $1m+ businesses. Tech is heralding in a new age of accessibility in entrepreneurship.

If I weren't afraid to hurt a marketer's feelings, here are 5 lessons I've learned about posting on social media for years for myself and brands: Who am I? → I've been in content marketing for 8 years. → I've built a following of ~20k followers on TikTok. → I've been a professional, social scroller for a decade. Hehe. 1/ It's not about you. People follow thought leaders, creators, or brands because they offer something valuable. Tips, insights, food recipes, workout ideas, career recommendations. Or laughs, motivation, etc. The sooner you realize that, the less you’ll take it personally when someone’s rude in the comments or a post flops. 2/ It's about consistency. Even if you're having an off day, you have to post if you're committed to building an audience. Either for yourself or your company's brand account. Of course, you don't want to burn yourself out. That's why people recommend reposting and repurposing existing content. 3/ It's not one size fits all. What works for one thought leader or brand account might not work for you. You can certainly draw inspiration from other leaders or accounts, but avoid copying them and expecting the same results. 4/ Slow down. After you have a story, asset, or product you want to promote, breathe. Think through your promotional plan to grab attention. Focus on the pain points your target audience has and make the shiny new thing about them, not you. Of course, you have to hit publish at some point. Don't procrastinate or allow your competition to get ahead. But don't fall flat on your launch (use AI to help you brainstorm). 5/ Let go of perfection. You can only maintain the perfect video, post, sentence structure, white space, talk track, etc, for so long. If you're committed to content creation, whether for yourself or building a career in the field, you need to let go of perfection. Be okay with sharing your challenges, admitting to a mistake, and taking a breather when you're tired. Because content creation is a wonderful thing! Funny enough... AI did my nails dirty in this photo. The recovering perfectionist in me wanted to spend time fixing it. But I don't have time for that! One final note, people want to get to know your thoughts or your brand's strategic narrative. That's why they keep showing up here! There will be days when topics don't resonate while others do. Enjoy the process of creating and come back to your why! ☺️