Social media is regularly discussed as one of the best marketing strategies to use to get ahead in business and build a top brand. However, there are plenty of people out there who have been trying sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest for months or years at a time with no real results, just frustration.
![2016-01-23-1453511283-8368712-socialmediacupcakes.jpg]()
Image Credit: Flickr, Creative Commons: Geek Cake Shop
What many entrepreneurs don't understand about social media is that it takes a lot more than simply signing up and posting the odd mention of a product or service. Just because you're one of the millions of people with a social media account, doesn't mean that you'll suddenly have the same kind of follower numbers as the Kardashians. The work really requires a daily, or at least weekly, commitment as well as a good understanding of what works and what doesn't in the social sphere.
Often though, trying to find the time needed to spend on increasing a social media presence seems unachievable. This is where the many great apps available on the market can really come to your rescue. Whether you want to find new ways of creating or sharing content, or need to make your pics stand out more, you're sure to find an app to help. Read on for just some of the top options that will help you kick start your social media results in 2016.
1. Notify the Influencers
Social media is not just about promoting your content directly, but also getting to know the movers and shakers in your industry. If you like to connect with people and companies online, it pays to mention them in your blogs, posts, and other content. To make sure they hear about it, and then hopefully share your work, it pays to tag, mention, and quote relevant influencers in your industry or per blog post.
You can easily search for brands and influencers to tag in blog posts, and then look for the relevant Twitter handles to match. Next, create a set of standard tweets that you can send as-is, or edit as you like first. Twitter is essentially already set up to let you have control over how many mentions you want to include in one tweet, and to decide if you want messages sent out in a group or as individual posts. Additionally, your tweets can be sent to Buffer for easy organization with the rest of your schedule.
2. Quality Images With Text
There's no doubt that photos have a huge impact on social media pages. However, it's important to realize that the quality of pictures and what they convey are big components of this impact. Even great photos can be lost in a sea of content if readers don't really get, or simply miss, your message. For example, according to Jason Steele from the CompareCards blog, "You might use your best rewards credit cards to accumulate enough points to fly to the top conference in your industry and post about it online, uploading a selfie of your meeting with a well-known business personality, or a pic of you speaking on stage. If your photo doesn't stand out though, you might not draw any interest in your posts. The best way to get your images noticed and shared afterwards is to add some note-worthy text. One way to make your photos stand out is by adding striking text or artwork to images. You can add multiple text elements to the one photo, and each of these can be individually styled, resized and recolored.
All of these creative photo additions make pictures much more visually interesting, and can help you clarify your message too. While you will need to pay $3.99 to access the company's custom fonts, the look and feel created as a result can pay dividends quickly.
3. Live Content
If you've noticed how much of an impact live-streaming apps such as SnapChat and Periscope have had recently, you're not alone. Creating a talk-show kind of vibe that hones in on the popularity of live content helps users feel like they're involved in an event; rather than simply reading or watching a static upload.
Viewers can take advantage of the live-chat interface to ask questions, while marketers can utilize the live event to build an audience, discuss hot topics, connect, interview important guests, promote new products and services, teach others, and more.
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Image Credit: Flickr, Creative Commons: Geek Cake Shop
What many entrepreneurs don't understand about social media is that it takes a lot more than simply signing up and posting the odd mention of a product or service. Just because you're one of the millions of people with a social media account, doesn't mean that you'll suddenly have the same kind of follower numbers as the Kardashians. The work really requires a daily, or at least weekly, commitment as well as a good understanding of what works and what doesn't in the social sphere.
Often though, trying to find the time needed to spend on increasing a social media presence seems unachievable. This is where the many great apps available on the market can really come to your rescue. Whether you want to find new ways of creating or sharing content, or need to make your pics stand out more, you're sure to find an app to help. Read on for just some of the top options that will help you kick start your social media results in 2016.
1. Notify the Influencers
Social media is not just about promoting your content directly, but also getting to know the movers and shakers in your industry. If you like to connect with people and companies online, it pays to mention them in your blogs, posts, and other content. To make sure they hear about it, and then hopefully share your work, it pays to tag, mention, and quote relevant influencers in your industry or per blog post.
You can easily search for brands and influencers to tag in blog posts, and then look for the relevant Twitter handles to match. Next, create a set of standard tweets that you can send as-is, or edit as you like first. Twitter is essentially already set up to let you have control over how many mentions you want to include in one tweet, and to decide if you want messages sent out in a group or as individual posts. Additionally, your tweets can be sent to Buffer for easy organization with the rest of your schedule.
2. Quality Images With Text
There's no doubt that photos have a huge impact on social media pages. However, it's important to realize that the quality of pictures and what they convey are big components of this impact. Even great photos can be lost in a sea of content if readers don't really get, or simply miss, your message. For example, according to Jason Steele from the CompareCards blog, "You might use your best rewards credit cards to accumulate enough points to fly to the top conference in your industry and post about it online, uploading a selfie of your meeting with a well-known business personality, or a pic of you speaking on stage. If your photo doesn't stand out though, you might not draw any interest in your posts. The best way to get your images noticed and shared afterwards is to add some note-worthy text. One way to make your photos stand out is by adding striking text or artwork to images. You can add multiple text elements to the one photo, and each of these can be individually styled, resized and recolored.
All of these creative photo additions make pictures much more visually interesting, and can help you clarify your message too. While you will need to pay $3.99 to access the company's custom fonts, the look and feel created as a result can pay dividends quickly.
3. Live Content
If you've noticed how much of an impact live-streaming apps such as SnapChat and Periscope have had recently, you're not alone. Creating a talk-show kind of vibe that hones in on the popularity of live content helps users feel like they're involved in an event; rather than simply reading or watching a static upload.
Viewers can take advantage of the live-chat interface to ask questions, while marketers can utilize the live event to build an audience, discuss hot topics, connect, interview important guests, promote new products and services, teach others, and more.
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