The internet is beautiful. It has created a whole new way of communicating, a whole new way of interacting with each other. Unfortunately, its complexity has rendered most of our beloved marketing and advertising skills useless. In this regard, we have come up with a detailed guide on how you can grow your social media traffic.
The guide is specifically designed to entrench a simple philosophy; nothing about social media is new. Once completed, you will be able to navigate the mean streets of twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat and a host of other platforms. Let’s get started.
Table Of Contents
−- Nothing on Social Media is New.
- Donald Trump Gets it.
- Facebook isn’t dead, it’s just older.
- Time is the new commodity.
- Free is still better
- You can’t catch every fish in the sea.
- The middle man will always get cut off.
- Controversy is still popular but selective
- Attention Spans are getting shorter.
- Trial and Error will get you further
Nothing on Social Media is New.
It’s been over twenty years since obscure chat rooms began the social media wave. In that period, the world has had time to study social media and understand some of its characteristics. The conclusion that most scholars have arrived at is simple, nothing is new on social media, it simply a new way of sharing messages, audio, and video. The wheel has been reinvented, but with shinier rims.
Donald Trump Gets it.
President-elect Donald Trump is a Jedi on social media. Not only has he used it to rebuild his luxury brand, but he also used it to win an American Presidential election. Trump noticed that mainstream media were against his campaign early on, they would not give him the fair coverage that other candidates were getting. He, therefore, decided to use Twitter as his primary vehicle of communication. He won the Electoral college vote with an overwhelming majority due to this pragmatic move.
Facebook isn’t dead, it’s just older.
Facebook, the world’s first social media behemoth, is now over ten years old. Despite its scale, many social media marketers have decided to ignore it, scale down their use or even abandon it its entirety claiming that the site is dying. Facebook has simply evolved. It now sports a revamped news feed and can easily be linked with Instagram and live messages.
Wiz Khalifa, an American rapper, has already figured this out. Rather than post on Facebook he uses Instagram posts to monetize his online store which is entirely on Facebook. He focuses on growing his Instagram followers and redirecting them to Facebook to make a conversion. Facebook serves the same purpose that websites had originally been assigned.
Facebook video is a brand new feature that most marketers don’t know how to monetize. Viewers who watch videos on Facebook mostly watch the video silently, while they are on their break, or during work, as they scan through their news feed and see what they missed. Going back to silent movies and how they succeed might come in handy to help intensify visually for your viewers to go back to your video a second time.
Time is the new commodity.
Snapchat changed the game when they unveiled their stories feature. It forced every social media outlet, Instagram in particular, to reconsider their business model and reconsider what they sold to marketers. This exposes an old reality that Television and Radio marketers had already discovered, time is the real commodity. Every person on this planet is allocated with 24hrs a day and that time is what all social media marketers are fighting for. Again, the wheel has simply been reinvented with fancier rims.
Free is still better
Guru Nanak Monks are notorious for their ingenious tactic of using free reading materials and flowers to get donations for their temples. This simple technique is still very relevant even 500 years after these Asian monks perfected it. Giving out free content, either directly or indirectly, is still the best way to grow your following. The only-only thing that has changed is what you can give out for free. On Reddit, this happens to be a new social media currency called the Reddit gold. I wouldn’t be surprised if these monks have already taken their free pamphlets to social media. Compared to buying overpriced adverts, free is still better.
You can’t catch every fish in the sea.
Why would a luxury brand like Balmain try to sell their merchandise to people who don’t care for high fashion? Why should they waste their resources on creating campaigns that cater to each and every one of use? Their director of communication once stated that their brand doesn’t try to fish for every fish in the sea, they’d rather focus on the few fish that consider high fashion a priority. This philosophy has extended to their social media strategy where they continue to build a community for high fashion lovers, ignoring the masses and focusing on the fish they want.
The middle man will always get cut off.
Somewhere along the way a group of people referring to themselves as Influencers came into the picture and declared themselves social media experts. Unfortunately, they forgot a golden rule, the middle man always gets cut off. This model had worked marvels in the early days of social media, but a recent influx of Influencers with a fake following has led to its death. Social media platforms like twitter and Facebook are known focused on getting rid of bots in order to ensure that one’s followers are all real and active.
Controversy is still popular but selective
Celebrities like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian have mastered the art of using controversy to grow their following. Their strategy works and as a result, many social media marketers have adapted some of it. Unfortunately, controversy is very selective. It cannot work for every brand as some demographic do not take to it. Kim and Kanye can use it to sell music, magazines, and clothes, but Range Rover would probably lose customers if they did the same.
Attention Spans are getting shorter.
Television reduced the average human attention span to an estimated 14 minutes. Social media platforms like Snapchat have shortened this to an estimated 14 seconds. Nobody has taken to this better than Buzzfeed. Much of their growth is attributed to their content which is shortened to meet today’s needs. This shortening of content is applied to everything from news to new comedy series.
Trial and Error will get you further
Nobody can truly claim to be a social media guru. The ocean is too big and too deep for anyone to know all its characteristics. The only way to get good at it is to put in as much work as possible. There is no book or tutorial that can teach you how to get 10,000 followers on Instagram only trial and error will. While there are tools you can use like Instagress, ManageFilter to increase productivity, going back to free is still better, your content must be engaging. You can gain 10,000 followers, but will they continue to follow you? Think about that question and start generating ideas on how you can attract and keep your followers.
Jay
I've worked for WooRank, SEOptimer, and working on a cool SEO audit tool called SiteGuru.co. Now I have build Linkilo and SEO RANK SERP WordPress theme. I've been in the SEO industry for more than 5 years, learning from the ground up. I've worked on many startups, but also have my own affiliate sites.
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