Social Media Marketing Archives - Act-On

Social Media Reposting: A Complete Guide

Act-On — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 21:14:15 +0000

Fact: Content marketers could be doing much more with their content. Way too many of us just publish, promote our content only briefly (if at all), and then move on to the next piece. We don’t republish our content. We don’t repurpose our content. Do you even repost your content on social media? We know that less than half of us do.

34% of us, to be exact. According to research from Scoop.it, only 34% of content marketers repost their content multiple times on social media. Here’s another stat for you, just to back up these assertions: According to Curata’s 2016 Content Marketing Staffing and Tactics Study, only 21% ― about one in five ― content marketers have a specific process in place to optimize their content reuse and repurposing.

Here’s the kicker: Among leading content marketing companies, that figure jumps to 29%.

In other words, successful content marketers are 38% more likely to repost their content than regular ones. Here’s the thing, we all want a better return on investment from our content marketing. But that often feels like an elusive goal. Heck, even tracking ROI from content marketing seems to be an elusive goal, much less getting a positive ROI.

Only 49% of B2B content marketers are measuring return on investment, even at the first stage of their sales funnel, where they generate leads and build an audience. According to our own sources, it may be even worse: We found that 78% of all marketers struggle with content marketing ROI. But don’t despair! There’s hope for us all.

What is reposting?

Reposting is sharing someone else’s content, either on the same platform or across platforms, to amplify its reach. It’s common on social media and should include proper credit to the original creator.

1. Re-using your content = improved ROI!

Publishing a piece of content and then doing so little with it afterward means you’re missing out on most of the traffic and conversions it could generate. It’s like the content version of buying a piece of clothing and wearing it just once.

Given that we’re getting so little mileage out of the content we publish, is it any wonder so many marketers struggle with getting a positive return on investment from their content marketing ― even if they can measure it?

There’s an upside here, though. It’s a good one, too.

If we can get more mileage out of all the expensive content we create, ROI has to go up. In other words, re-using your content will improve your entire content marketing program’s ROI.

tl;dr: You need to repost your content on social media.

Here’s why this works so well, and why you need to be adding this tactic to your work … immediately.

2. Reposting content costs next to nothing

If you’re using a tool like Hiplay or Oktopost, it takes just 3-5 clicks to add a post to a content library that gets reposted randomly and automatically. Many other social media management or marketing automation tools also offer re-sharing features, too.

Don’t say you can’t afford this, either. Hiplay costs $5 a month. Even shoestring budgets can handle that.

It’s not the only re-sharing tool around, though. Buffer (which costs $10 a month) lets you pick posts to repost. Though you do have to pick what to repost manually.

Still, it takes barely five minutes of work to review your social media feed from the last few days, pick about 10-20% of what you’ve posted, and just click a few times to re-queue those shares.

Not only is this getting more exposure for your content, but it’s also saving you time by keeping your social media feeds full.

Which brings us to…

Let’s face it: Finding and preparing first-rate content to share with a social media audience takes time. Lots of time.

There are services like Quuu that can find and post some content for you automatically, but it’s really best to view those as a supplemental service ― not your entire social media queue.

And you can and should also repost other people’s content. But re-sharing your own content, as mentioned above, takes away some of that work. It may end up saving you several hours a week.

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4. More of your audience will see your content.

Worried your audience will get bored if they see the same pieces of content more than once?

We have bad news. They probably never saw your content the first time it was posted.

Here’s why: The average lifespan of a tweet is 15 minutes or less. The average Facebook reach is around 6%.

Only a very small portion of our audiences is seeing our content every time we share.

This means you could share the same thing several times ― even many times ― without anyone ever noticing.

Still worried about this? Think some curmudgeon in your following will squawk? Then just create a couple of different formats for each share. Swap images, for example. Change the description a bit. Use different hashtags.

Just don’t feel bad about filling up those queues with “oldie but goodie” content.

We recommend re-sharing your content on social media at least once a week after publication, for up to a year after publication.

There are plenty of best practices in marketing. Some are easier to do than others.

Reposting has to be one of the easiest best practices to execute.

It takes just a few clicks to add your old posts to a reposting library if you’re using the right tools.

And even if you aren’t using one of the dedicated reposting tools, almost any social media management tool lets you repost old posts with just a click or two.

Getting back to the ROI mindset, this is a fantastic return for barely a few seconds’ worth of work.

Reposting your content is a free way to increase its ROI, get more traffic, and save time. And it’s practically free.

We marketers need every edge we can get. Especially if those edges can be had for very little work, very little time, and very little money. When you repost your content on social media, it hits all three of those sweet spots. It’s a no-brainer.

How to repost on LinkedIn

To repost on LinkedIn:

Find the Post: Locate the content you want to share in your LinkedIn feed.
Click “Repost”: Click the Repost icon (two arrows forming a circle) below the post.
Choose an Option:
- Repost: Shares the content directly without adding anything.
- Repost with Thoughts: Lets you add your own comments before sharing.
Share: Click Post to share it with your network.

Your repost will appear in your connections’ feeds.

What to say when reposting on linkedin?

When reposting on LinkedIn, it’s best to add a brief comment to provide context or share your perspective. Here are a few examples of what you can say:

Sharing Insights:
“Great insights on [topic]. Worth checking out for anyone looking to improve [specific aspect].”
Adding Value:
“This post highlights some key trends in [industry]. How do you think this will shape the future of [specific area]?”
Asking a Question:
“Interesting take on [topic]. What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree with the approach?”
Simple Acknowledgment:
“Highly recommend this post for [industry professionals/teams] looking to stay informed on [subject].”
Personal Experience:
“I’ve seen firsthand how [idea in the post] can impact [industry/company]. This post perfectly captures that perspective.”

Tailoring your comment to the content and your professional audience will make your repost more engaging and valuable.

How to repost on Instagram

To repost on Instagram:

Repost to Stories:
- Tap the paper airplane icon below a post.
- Select “Add post to your story.”
- Customize if desired, then tap “Share to your story.”
Repost to Feed:
- Use a third-party app like Repost for Instagram or take a screenshot.
- Credit the original creator in the caption.

Always ensure you have permission to repost someone else’s content, especially for the feed.

How to repost on Facebook

To repost on Facebook:

Locate the Post: Find the post you want to share in your feed or on a page.
Click “Share”: Tap the Share button below the post.
Choose an Option:
- Share Now (Friends): Posts it immediately to your timeline.
- Write Post: Add your thoughts before sharing.
- Share to a Group/Page: Share to a group or page you manage.
Customize and Post: Add any comments, select your audience, and click Post.

The repost will appear on your timeline or in the selected location.

How to repost on TikTok

To repost on TikTok:

Find the Video: Locate the video you want to share on your For You or Following page.
Tap the Share Icon: Click the arrow icon on the right side of the video.
Select “Repost”: Tap the Repost button (yellow icon).
Add a Comment (Optional): Add your thoughts, which will appear with the repost for your followers.

The video will be shared with your followers, but it won’t appear on your profile.

What does reposting do on TikTok?

Reposting on TikTok shares a video to your followers’ For You feed, increasing its visibility. It doesn’t appear on your profile, but you can add a comment that your followers will see alongside the reposted video. Reposting helps amplify content you like or find relevant without creating new videos.

Does reposting on tiktok help gain followers?

Reposting on TikTok can indirectly help you gain followers by:

Engaging Your Audience: Sharing relevant or entertaining content can keep your followers engaged and interested in your profile.
Showing Your Personality: Reposting content that aligns with your niche or interests gives followers insight into your tastes.
Building Connections: Reposting can encourage interaction with the original creator and their audience, potentially leading to more visibility.

However, reposting alone isn’t a direct strategy for gaining followers. To grow your audience, focus on creating original, engaging content and interacting with your community.

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How to Hire a Social Media Manager for Your Marketing Team

Act-On — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 18:47:00 +0000

Hiring a social media manager is a big decision for your marketing team. Social is one of the cornerstones of a modern marketing department. The first thing you need to figure out is what your social needs are. Do you want to hire a social media manager to run your community management? Or are you more focused on advertising and marketing on social? Or maybe you want to increase engagement with quality content?

Maybe you need all those things. (Which means you’ll probably want to pay more!) Whatever your reasons for hiring a social media manager, you’re going to need the right person. Let’s take a look at the issues around the decision to hire someone to run your social media.

^{Do you need to hire a social media manager? Remember it’s not just selfies and hashtags: social media is a tool for building your business. Photo by ANGELA FRANKLIN on Unsplash}

There is an almost endless list of potential tasks for social media marketers: creating content, scheduling posts, responding to questions and comments, analyzing performance and adjusting strategy. The question to ask yourself is what you stand to gain from hiring a social media manager. Whoever you hire will have plenty to keep them busy. But what’s the ROI on their efforts? Do you need your social media presence to grow your business? To support a community of customers? To attract visitors to your website?

There’s something you have to clarify before you hire a social media manager. How does your business see social media? Are you approaching this like a direct marketer, who wants to track everything and know their ROI for each platform? Or are you approaching this more like a brand marketer, who simply wants a presence on specific social media accounts?

If you are willing to take a brand marketer’s approach, can your business financially support doing social media purely as a brand-building exercise? And if you would be happy simply with a larger presence on social media, will your finance department be happy with that? If finance is not happy with that, what could the consequences be?

In other words, don’t focus on the amount of work you have to fill a potential manager’s time. By that measure, you could hire a team of dozens! Ultimately, the time to hire a social media manager is when you’re missing out on potential new or repeat business. Hire when you know you’re leaving money on the table.

^{Don’t hire a social media manager just because you have a lot of accounts to update. Make sure your new hire will help grow the business. Photo by Adem AY on Unsplash}

Two example scenarios: When to hire a social media manager

Example 1: You’ve built a decent following on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You’re tracking results. Your social media work is generating a small but steady trickle of leads. You are certain you could increase this trickle, but either you can’t get to it personally, or your existing social media staff is already maxed out.

Example 2: You’ve already got an intern part-time. They have built a decent presence on the big social sites, with footprints on the smaller social sites. Results are a little sketchy, but you’re approaching this more as a branding exercise, so you’re okay with the fuzzy results. Your ability (and bandwidth) for tracking is limited. You also feel like the whole social media program needs a thorough audit. You have neither the skills nor the time to do such an audit. Neither does your existing staff.

Depending on how experienced you want your social media manager new hire to be, your costs for the position can vary. At entry level, you can expect to budget around $50,000 annually, depending on where you’re located. On the more experienced end, candidates can ask as much as $90,000 or more. The median salary falls about between these two poles, at $70,290.

Work with your HR department to set a budget for the role based on your expectations and desired level of experience. You can use job boards like LinkedIn and Glassdoor to research job descriptions and salary ranges on the current job market. Depending on these factors, you can also tweak the position’s title to better reflect what you’re looking for. Consider these common social media job titles:

Social Media Product Manager
Social Media Account Manager/Channel Manager
Social Media Planner
Social Media Coordinator
Social Media Community Manager
Director of Social Media

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Define success and set expectations

OK, let’s assume your social media needs justify a new hire. The next thing is to spell out what success for this new hire would look like.

Whether you’re hiring a 10-hour a week intern, a full-time social media manager, or an ad agency, you need to define what success is going to look like. What kind of business results do you need to see to justify that 10-hour a week intern? Even if the intern is free, there’s still a cost to your company. The intern needs supervision and a computer. Those are costs.

The results required get more demanding if you want to hire a 10-hour a week consultant, for, say $50 an hour. That’s $2,000 a month, which means there’s got to be a quantifiable business return based on that kind of spend.

Even if you see social media as brand marketing and not direct marketing, there still must be some defined results. Otherwise, three months from now you could be sitting across the table from this consultant or new hire, looking at a report with some very disappointing results, and realizing you’ve spent $6,000 to $24,000 for nothing (or the wrong thing).

^{Consider your goals before hiring a social media manager. Is it best to hire someone full-time, or outsource to an agency or contractor? Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash}

It could be that once you go through the exercise of defining your needs and resources, you determine that you’re only willing or able to hire a part time social media manager. How much will that cost? According to the freelancing platform Upwork, the median cost is around $14-$35 per hour. If you go the agency route, things can get even more expensive, with hourly agency rates peaking in the $100-$200 range. The actual cost varies widely depending on the size and pedigree of the agency you’re hiring, their geographic location, and what type of services you actually need from them. But suffice to say, your monthly costs could be anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000 according to some estimates.

With prices like that, you may be better off just hiring someone to help you full-time. On the other hand, the agency should be able to provide a broader range of skills and more complete service compared to a single person. If you have a slate of various tasks that require a high level of competence, an agency might be a cheaper option in the long run.

Now that you have a job description and a salary allocated, where can you start looking for your new hire? Place a job listing on all the usual places, like LinkedIn, Glassdoor and other job boards. But don’t be afraid to tap into the networking potential of those same sites. Watch the inquiries flood in when you make a LinkedIn post about your position and share it with popular social media marketing groups. Ask your colleagues at other companies or from previous jobs if they have anyone to refer.

^{Hiring a social media manager is a great investment…provided you do the work up front to define the scope and expectations for their role.} ^{Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash}

As the responses to your job listing start trickling in, you’ll realize you need to know if these people who say they know social media … actually do know social media.

They should offer links to examples that demonstrate their social prowess. Take note of follower counts, engagement rates, and other metrics. Do their posts garner lots of shares and replies? Did they respond in a timely fashion. Can you tell if they’re using any of the major social media tools, like Buffer, Hootsuite, Oktopost, or SproutSocial? If they’ve included past social media clients or jobs on their application, how do those social media accounts look?

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Be mindful of job discrimination as you scrutinize your hire online: There are state and federal rules about using social media to discriminate against job applicants. This applies to race and religion, but it applies to an applicant’s age, too. Just because someone is over 50 doesn’t mean they can’t be a rock star social marketer. Likewise, just because they’re young doesn’t mean they are experts in social (that’s a common misconception). Keep the focus on the work, not stereotypical assumptions.

Once you get to the interview stage, be sure to dig deep. Ask for scenarios and examples from their past experience, not just yes or no questions like “are you experienced with LinkedIn?” Instead, ask for an example of a LinkedIn post or campaign they’re particularly proud of, and how they devised the strategy and approach.

Ask open-ended questions about social media trends that inspire them, or that they would recommend staying away from. You don’t need to be an expert yourself as long as you can see that they have enough familiarity with the topic to think on their feet.

Now it’s your turn

That’s enough information to get you well on your way to finding the perfect social media hire. Hopefully, about a year from now, when you sit down to do their annual review, you’ll have nothing to discuss but success.

Looking to up your social media game? Check out the social media automation functions of Act-On to integrate your social posts into larger customer journeys and campaigns.

Marketing Automation for Management Consulting

Create, execute, and deliver personalized initiatives at scale with Act On’s marketing automation for financial advisors.

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How to Write a LinkedIn Post: Tips & Examples

Act-On — Wed, 10 May 2023 20:18:45 +0000

LinkedIn is the platform where professionals and their customers are spending time, connecting, and reading content. Unlike other platforms (ahem, Facebook), the dream of organic reach is alive and well on LinkedIn. To thrive there, it’s essential to know how to write a LinkedIn post and create engaging content.

According to its own internal data, LinkedIn has seen double-digit increases in organic engagement and public conversations over the last few years. That’s why, according to research from the Content Marketing Institute, a whopping 96% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn—and 60% say it’s “extremely” or “very” effective.

^{Wondering how to write a LinkedIn post that gets results? Look no further.}

But, as the platform grows in popularity, you need to think harder about how to write LinkedIn posts that stand out from the crowd. (Just not in the way that ends up with a screenshot on the Lunatics of LinkedIn subreddit.)

The secret to LinkedIn success is pretty simple. Most people who have found it offer the same advice:

Post consistently, about topics you know and care about.
Be authentic and share real-life experiences.
Engage with other people’s content.

But when it comes down to actually writing a LinkedIn post, that blank little box can be intimidating. So in this article, we’re covering five specific tips for how to write LinkedIn posts that will reach your audience, grab their attention, and keep them coming back for more.

A little context: We’re talking about individual pages and posts here. Your official company page is a great place to distribute content, run paid campaigns, and showcase your culture. But the real magic on LinkedIn happens when a real human interacts with other real humans in a meaningful way. And when employees build up a personal following and become viewed as a thought leader, that makes the company listed in their bio look pretty darn appealing by association.

How to Write a LinkedIn Post like a Pro: 5 Tips

Tip #1: Lower the reading level — and keep it simple

We don’t want to insult your audience. But the LinkedIn posts that tend to perform best are simple and easy to read. This is not the place to post your academic treatise. (Unless your target audience is academics who love treatises, in which case, skip ahead.)

So, keep it simple. If that doesn’t come naturally, use a readability editor like the Hemingway App or Microsoft Word’s built-in Flesch-Kincaid scoring tool. When you use the “Xth-grade reading level” scale, a good rule of thumb is to shoot a few grades below your target audience’s formal education level.

As for length, currently, LinkedIn posts have a limit of 3000 characters. That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 500-600 words, which is way more than you need to share your average status update. And posts are truncated after 140 characters, so users have to click a “See More” button to read the rest (our next tip covers making that happen).

So how long should a LinkedIn post be? As always in marketing, put the user first. People come to LinkedIn to scroll along and consume short form content. So use as many words as you need to get your point across—and no more.

Tip #2: Finesse your LinkedIn headline

On LinkedIn, the opening sentence of your post doubles as your headline. And as advertising legend David Ogilvy once said, “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar.”

So make sure your first line or two grabs attention and compels your reader to click that little “See More” link to open and read the rest of your post.

Here are some real-life examples of eye-catching LinkedIn headline examples—and how you can take inspiration for your own posts:

“My biggest rookie mistake was 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 cringey. Here’s what happened.”
– Jess Cook, starting her post with a personal anecdote, aka, LinkedIn catnip

“What the hell happened to blog posts? I feel like the places where I consume the best content right now are not on blogs.”
– John Bonini, sharing a hot take, and making sure to back it up with a solid argument

“There are few worse feelings than a case of serious buyer’s remorse during your first week or two at a new job.”
– Ashley Amber Sava, nailing a compelling metaphor, which catches attention by framing a familiar concept in a new way.

Tip #3: Jump on the latest bandwagon

Jumping on the latest bandwagon is usually bad marketing advice. But on LinkedIn, it will probably pay off.

That’s because the LinkedIn algorithm dictates what content appears in users’ feeds. And while nobody knows exactly what ingredients make up the secret sauce, we can deduce that algorithm is constantly recalibrated.

At the same time, LinkedIn likes to experiment with new content types. Sometimes those features fail, like LinkedIn Answers or LinkedIn Stories. Sometimes their popularity wanes or reach declines, like LinkedIn Articles.

But when new features and content types are launched, the platform algorithm tends to reward the early adopters by boosting the organic reach of these new post types. That’s why your favorite LinkedIn ifluencers all seem to start posting polls, or PDF carousels, or whatever flashy new format is available, at the same time. They know the algorithm overlords will favor their experimental new content.

So go ahead — hop on that bandwagon. Experiment with the latest content feature. You’ll probably see some positive results, at least for a while. Just don’t rebuild your whole marketing strategy around the latest trend. That is always bad marketing advice.

Tip #4: A little visual interest goes a long way

We know you came here for tips on how to write a good LinkedIn post. And this isn’t Instagram. Words still rule the roost on LinkedIn.

But images, video, and other visual content are worth including, at least every once in a while. For one thing, they liven up your profile page when people go to check out your content. For another, the engagement numbers don’t lie:

Posts with videos are 20x more likely to be shared than other types of posts
Posts with images typically see a 98% higher comment rate than those without
Native documents — PDF carousels that you upload directly to LinkedIn — generate 3x more clicks than other types of content

So when you have a bit more time to spend on how to write the perfect LinkedIn post, consider adding a photo, a meme, an infographic, a screenshot, or even just an emoji or two. You really will find a little visual interest goes a long way.

Tip #5: Write for an audience of one

This last tip isn’t about gaming the LinkedIn algorithm or hacking the feed. It’s just a good writing tip.

Once you have an idea for a post—maybe a story about a time you learned a hard lesson, or your spiciest take on remote work, or an actionable tip about succeeding in your industry—think about the person in your network you’d most want to read it.

Picture the exact coworker, peer, customer, manager, whomever you think could really find value in what you have to say. (And if you can’t, you probably need to come up with a different idea.)

Now, write your LinkedIn post as though you’re talking to them. Then, read it out loud. Simplify any parts that make you stumble or sound unnatural. Hit publish.

And sit back to see how content written for an audience of one tends to resonate with a whole lot more.

LinkedIn Post Examples

LinkedIn Post Example #1

Now, let’s bring all these best practices for LinkedIn posts together and look at a few examples of posts we love.

^{One way to write good LinkedIn posts: use a catchy opening line and provide tips in bullet-point style for scannability.}

Fun fact: This post from content marketing leader Erin Balsa started as a comment she left on another marketer’s post. But instead of resharing the original post, she came up with her own post on the same topic (and tagged the OG writer to give her credit). Often learning how to write a LinkedIn post involves getting inspiration from other people’s existing posts.

Takeaways:

Catchy opening lines make you want to read more
Bullet-point lists are easy to scan and read
Good tips, like Erin’s, are simple and actionable

LinkedIn Post Example #2

^{Brendan’s LinkedIn post offers actionable marketing tips in a familiar itinerary format.}

Growth marketer Brendan Hufford uses some powerhouse tactics here, like an intriguing metaphor in the opening line and an easily scannable but engaging format. It’s easy to picture him writing to an audience of one with this post—maybe even a former boss. But, his post is relevant to almost any working professional, regardless of discipline or seniority level. And his comments are full of people sharing their firsthand experiences and ideas about how to make this problem better.

Takeaways:

Playing with format keeps things interesting—in this case, using a daily schedule for the bulk of the post
List-style posts are easy to scan (it bears repeating)
Bringing familiar concepts to life in an unexpected way starts conversations

LinkedIn Post Example #3

^{We love this LinkedIn post on keeping the messaging simple, and the carousel is one of our favorite formats.}

Messaging and positioning expert Emma Stratton uses LinkedIn carousels in smart, practical ways (and gets that experimental content bump from the algorithm while she can). Her tips on simplifying language are easy to read and put into action thanks to helpful before-and-after examples.

Takeaways:

Examples make how-to advice come to life
Carousel posts add visual interest to your feed
Helpful text gives context to visual content
Clear CTAs help readers follow more of your content (Emma includes her newsletter signup link in the comments of every post)

A Few Last Words About LinkedIn Posting Best Practices

Bottom line: Learning how to write a LinkedIn post is a great first step, but the best way to get better at posting on LinkedIn is to start posting on LinkedIn. If your own status updates are too intimidating, start by commenting on other people’s posts and reposting your favorites. Then, when an idea hits you, write your own take. And just keep doing it. (Just be sure to avoid these top LinkedIn no-nos).

See what topics your network cares about, experiment with different post lengths and formats, and pay attention to which posts perform well and which ones fall flat. You’ll find your rhythm, and your people. Ready for more expert tips? Need to expand your efforts to your company page? Check out our ebook “10 Things B2B Companies Should Be Doing on LinkedIn”.

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How to Do Social Media Marketing Using Marketing Automation

Rithesh Raghavan — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 13:00:00 +0000

Social media marketing is an essential part of business success, and the future of managing this important channel lies in automation. However, many businesses have failed to understand how to connect with leads, convert them into customers, and expand their relationships on social media by leveraging marketing automation. Today, let’s discuss how to do social media marketing with the use of marketing automation.

In this article, you will learn more about:

The efficiency of social media marketing automation
The difference between marketing automation and social media post scheduling
The measure of the effectiveness of social media marketing automation
How social media marketing automation creates a positive customer experience
How social media marketing automation helps generate leads
Why marketing automation is suitable for social media campaigns

You’ll also learn more about how marketing automation and social media marketing work together to generate great brand awareness and brand loyalty.

Let’s do it!

Social media is an essential marketing channel, but many businesses simply don’t know how to make time or find the resources to dedicate to social. If this sounds familiar, combining marketing automation and social media might be the solution.

Automating social media marketing goes beyond scheduling content. To get it right, you have to plan and map your content to your larger marketing initiatives and then trace that back to what your audience wants and expects to see and learn on your social channels. With marketing automation, you can listen to your audience and then develop your content accordingly to enhance the customer experience and increase lead generation.

You can then act on that data with automated marketing campaigns including channels like email, and, you guessed it, social media. Repurposing content, extending campaign efforts with calls to action to campaign assets, and sharing the personal side of your brand are all ideas you can achieve with social media automation.

Social media campaigns offer the perfect opportunity for B2B businesses to interact with potential buyers and develop new relationships. Marketing automation provides the platform you need to have the one-on-one conversations that move the needle with your target audiences. When paired with a great social platform like Oktopost, it helps save time by eliminating repetitive tasks, allowing your staff to focus more on planning and executing creative and engaging campaigns.

Scheduling and Monitoring Posts

Your marketing automation platform of choice will let you plan and schedule posts, including attachments and links. And with Act-On, you can follow certain companies, trends, and hashtags to get a gauge of what your prospects and customers are engaging with. And, of course, our platform includes an easy-to-use calendar you can use to manage your daily, weekly, and monthly posts and views. This helps you check every post across different social media platforms from a central location.

Better still, you can follow every scheduled task and action. And with our robust and streamlined reporting tools and dashboards, you can view your progress, make real-time improvements, and pass great leads to your sales team.

Assessing Leads

An integrated marketing automation platform will allow you to assess leads that interact with your social media content. For instance, Act-On’s social media dashboards help monitor specific posts that a lead likes, shares, or retweets. You can use this with built-in social media analytics to identify the posts that are more engaging and ones that need improvement.

On the other hand, a traditional social media scheduler cannot show you the “hottest leads” and ones that need more nurturing or further engagement. A marketing automation solution with an integrated social media platform will also give you the opportunity to assign lead scores to your vital social media connections. Based on their score and behaviors, you can easily personalize their journey based on how they’re engaging with your social content.

Instant Notifications

With custom-built workflows, marketing automation will notify your team when a lead reaches your desired score via social, web, email, or any other digital engagements. Pinpoint social media monitoring allows you to understand how each prospect is interacting with your social media posts to help you determine when they’re in a position to reach out and amplify the sales cycle. You can use this chance to connect with the target and determine what they may want from the organization.

The most successful organizations know how to do social media marketing effectively using marketing automation. These companies utilize the power of marketing automation platforms to improve their existing social media strategies. You can generate better leads and create a better customer experience for improved sales by integrating marketing automation with social media marketing.

To learn how Act-On can help you align your marketing automation and social media marketing for a seamless onmi-channel marketing experience, please reach out today to book a demo with one of our marketing automation experts.

About the Author

Rithesh Raghavan is the Director at Acodez, a Digital Agency in India, and the co-founder of Acowebs, an online store for eCommerce plugins. Having a rich experience of 15+ years in Digital Marketing, Rithesh loves to write up his thoughts on the latest trends and developments in the world of IT and software development

5 Tips to Boost Your Social Media Engagement

Act-On — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In a world where individuals are accustomed to having the information we need at our fingertips, social media has become an essential marketing distribution channel.

One reason social media is so effective is that it makes it fun and easy to consume and share information. Individuals can share ideas, pose questions, and have meaningful conversations with peers from all over the world without even having to leave their desks. And thanks to the rise in mobile usage that has occurred during this past decade, individuals now have access to social media pretty much everywhere they go.

Because social media is the place to be, however, it can be very easy to get lost in the crowd. To avoid having your target audience breeze through your posts, you need the perfect social media engagement recipe to make your followers stop scrolling, check out what you have to say, and take action.

While it will take some work to fine-tune your social media engagement strategy, the process is easier than you think if you have the right tactics in place. Today, we’re sharing 5 engagement tips to help you boost your social media game and earn more clicks, shares, and conversions.

1. Lean Into the Power of Employee Advocacy

Creating an effective social media engagement strategy is not a one-person job. If you want to get in front of your target audience and improve engagement, it helps to have as many people as possible sharing your content.

Getting your followers to engage with your content is the ultimate goal, but that can only do so much if you only have a few followers to start with. That’s why encouraging employee advocacy is a great way to build your social media presence. Having your employees engage with and share your organization’s recent posts on their own social channels can help you secure better placement on social feeds so you can reach more prospective customers and grow your audience.

Act-On’s Advanced Social Media Module makes it extremely easy to mobilize your employees to share your content. The tool allows you to use boards to organize your post by topic, making it easy for your employees to find and share posts that are relevant to them and their followers.

While you can’t force your colleagues to be active on social media, you can definitely encourage participation by giving them some sort of incentive. For example, you can create a leaderboard and give prizes to the employee advocates who share the most posts or generate the most engagement on social media per month.

2. Be Consistent and Tell a Story

We often hear about posts that have “gone viral.” For many social media creators and influencers, those 15 minutes of fame are the ultimate goal. Unfortunately, businesses can’t expect one noteworthy post to lead to long-term social media marketing success. If you really want to drive ROI from your social media marketing efforts, you should tell compelling stories that keep your followers engaged and coming back for more. If your followers know what to expect from you, they’ll be more likely to notice and interact with your content when it pops up on their feed. And, if they really love what you’re doing, they might even take the extra step to visit your profiles on their own.

But what do I mean when I say that you should tell a story? What I’m getting at is that your social media content should be curated to support campaigns highlighting certain customer pain points and topics of interest. Another important piece of this is that your social media engagement efforts should align with the rest of your marketing efforts so that the messaging your audience is seeing is consistent wherever they go. So, for example, if you develop an email campaign aimed at top-of-the-funnel contacts in the manufacturing industry, you should create content that opens the door for this segment to continue to engage with you on social.

Adding another marketing activity to your day is probably the last thing you want to do. However, investing in an automation tool that allows you to schedule posts ahead of time, will allow you to easily deliver timely content that aligns with the rest of your marketing efforts.

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3. Take Advantage of Current Events and Trends

Timeliness is key when it comes to obtaining strong social media engagement. Creating or curating content that is “trending” can also improve your chances of appearing at the top of social media feeds — making sure your audience sees your posts in the first place. So, latching on to current events and trends is an excellent way to get your content featured and capture the attention of your target customers.

That doesn’t mean that you need your eyes on social media at all times to take advantage of every potential opportunity. Instead, you can set up Google Alerts for terms related to your target audience and industry. You can also monitor relevant hashtags to see what your audience and competitors are posting. Then use their content as inspiration that informs your overall social media strategy.

A good portion of your social posts should direct your audience to a webpage or asset that will motivate them to keep progressing through the customer journey.

Using your social media channels as a content distribution platform is a great way to direct your audience to resources that provide the information they need to move to the next stage in the sales funnel. For the best results, we recommend that you use a mix of gated and ungated content.

Ungated content, such as blog posts, is a great way to get potential customers on your website so they can start browsing and learning more about your products or services. Conversely, gated content — such as eBooks that your contacts can access by filling out a form — allows you to collect important contact information that you can use to inform your marketing strategy and create more compelling customer journeys.

5. Use Data and Analytics to Optimize Your Efforts

While social media provides you room to get more creative with your marketing efforts, you still want your work to generate results. If you’re not already keeping an eye on your data and analytics and optimizing your social media engagement efforts accordingly, you should definitely start.

A few KPIs to measure social media engagement include:

Impressions: Knowing the number of people who see your posts allows you to understand if your content is getting prominently featured on social feeds.
Follows and Unfollows: You want to secure an audience that is eager to view your content and hear what you have to say. Tracking how many followers you gain week-over-week can provide you with an idea of whether your efforts are attracting new potential customers.

Clicks: As I mentioned above, you should create opportunities on social media for your audience to engage with you through other marketing channels. If your social media posts are not motivating your audience to download an eBook, sign up for an email newsletter, or perform other actions that advance them along the sales funnel, you need to re-think your efforts.
Shares: A share shows that a follower not only found your post interesting enough to stop scrolling but also to share it with their audience. On top of that, having followers share your posts helps you get more eyes on your content and improves your chance of showing up on social feeds. Keeping track of which posts are getting the most shares can help you see how to continue to enhance your social strategy for maximum engagement.
Attributable Conversions: Social media should play a key role in your demand generation and customer acquisition efforts. Being able to trace conversions back to your social media efforts is a good way to gauge if your strategy is working.
Attributable Revenue: Speaking of conversions, the ultimate goal for any company is to gain new customers and increase ROI. You should also keep track of revenue generated by specific campaigns and posts, and use your findings to optimize your efforts to help you meet your revenue goals.

Having access to these metrics will show you where you stand and where you can improve so you can continue to grow your audience and reap the rewards of this powerful medium.

Investing in a robust marketing automation platform will help you align your social media strategy with top-notch execution and reporting. Act-On equips you with the tools you need to automate your marketing efforts to Act-On equips you with the tools you need to automate your social media efforts, streamline processes, and measure results. Even better, the time you’ll save on tedious manual processes will allow you to focus your energy on innovating your social engagement strategy.

If you’d like to take a peek into Act-On’s Advanced Social Media module and learn how we can help you implement your entire digital marketing strategy, please schedule a demo with one of our marketing automation experts. They can show you what makes our platform so unique and walk you through a variety of use cases related to your needs and interests.

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5 Tricks for Writing Social Media Headlines That Generate Engagement

Act-On — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

We all know social media is a powerful tool, but understanding how to leverage it to its full potential remains a mystery for many marketers. While influencers make getting followers and engagement seem like a breeze, most of us are struggling to create posts that match the algorithm (which is different for every platform) and get noticed by our target audience.

Despite how difficult it is to achieve social media success, it’s a crucial component of any robust digital marketing strategy. When a large percentage of your target audience is constantly online, you’re missing out on the opportunity to promote your product, build brand awareness, and engage your prospects and customers if you don’t invest the proper resources on social media efforts.

There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy that guarantees social media success, but there are a few steps you can take to improve your chances. These 5 tips will help you write social media snippets that generate engagement and drive ROI.

1) Ask Questions That Get Your Audience Thinking

One of the biggest challenges with social media is finding a way to stand out from the crowd. While it’s very easy to post a pretty picture that motivates somebody to “Like” your post, it’s much more difficult to write a social media snippet that strikes a chord with your audience.

Asking a question is one proven tactic to increase engagement. Try asking your audience about a feature they’d like to see from your product or solution, how they’re using it, common challenges they deal with on a regular basis, or anything else that sparks a conversation about your brand. (But be prepared to answer difficult questions.)

This method works because it gives your audience an opportunity to voice their opinion and provides you a chance to make them feel heard by responding to their comments. You can even continue to fuel engagement down the line by using the insights you gather to inform your product development, marketing efforts, and social media strategy moving forward.

2) Don’t Forget to Include a CTA (When Appropriate)

Motivating your audience to complete an action that brings them one step closer to reaching the end of the buyer journey is an essential aspect of every demand generation initiative. Therefore –– just like you do in emails, landing pages, blogs, and your website –– you should aim to include some sort of call to action (CTA) in your social media posts.

Prompting your followers to answer a question, as we previously discussed, is one type of CTA, but there are so many other prompts you could also consider. These are just a few examples of CTAs you can leverage to generate engagement on your social media posts:

Encourage Your Followers to Tag Their Friends: Ask your followers to tag a friend or two who will find your social media post useful or interesting. This will help you get more eyes on your post and increase your brand awareness.

Invite Followers to Visit a Product Page or Download Content: If your goal is to attract more leads and hand raisers, invite your followers to visit a product page or fill out an adaptive form in exchange for a piece of relevant content. This will help you collect data and behavior insights so you can continue to engage with these contacts outside of social media.

Ask Followers to Sign Up for an Event or Webinar: Webinars and events are a great way to engage your target audience, but you have to get them to show up first. Promoting your event on social and asking your audience to click on a link to a landing page to learn more is a great way to build you list of attendees. From there, you can ask them to share the event’s hashtag on their personal feeds for a free gift.

As you can see, your CTAs will vary depending on the purpose of your post and desired outcome, but they are a crucial part of building relationships with your followers beyond your social media profiles.

3) Review Trends for More Successful Social Media Posts

Even if you already have accurate buyer personas and a good understanding of your target audience, it’s important to remember that different channels require different messaging and content. Some efforts are better suited for email, your website, or social media. Therefore, you have to know what type of content your audience is looking for on social. An easy way to find out is to look through your data to see what kind of posts are inspiring your audience to stop scrolling and engage.

Use the posts that garner more “Likes,” generate engagement, and motivate your followers to visit your site as a model for future posts. This not only helps you share content that your audience has already demonstrated that they like, it also helps you be consistent which, in turn, makes you more recognizable and memorable.

4) Latch On to Current Events or Trends That Might Resonate With Your Audience

We all know how hard it is to get noticed when posts about a recent event or current trend are taking over social media. But rather than viewing these moments as obstacles, take advantage by latching on to them whenever it makes sense to do so.

Case in point, the holidays are a great opportunity for you to promote your brand. For example, you could create a post around the New Year suggesting that your followers should make it a resolution to tackle a problem that only your product or service can solve. Posts like this improve your chances of showing up on people’s newsfeed and enable you to talk about a current topic that is likely resonating with your audience while also promoting your product. That’s a win-win-win situation, if you ask me!

5) Delivering the Right Message at the Right Time Is the Key

You need to provide your audience with personalized messaging that speaks to their interests and pain points.

A marketing automation platform such as Act-On can allow you to track your website visitors behavior to determine which pages on your website are driving them to visit your social media profiles. This allows you to monitor trends among your audience to produce more relevant content that matches where your customers are in the buyer journey and builds upon information they already know.

Improve your timing by posting when your audience is most likely to see your posts. Have target customers in different time zones? Not a problem! A social media scheduling tool like Act-On’s advanced social media module enables you to automate your social media efforts to help you build an active social media presence without having to live in front of your computer screen.

Social Media Is an Extension of Your Overall Marketing Efforts

Generating results from your social media efforts goes beyond writing witty posts that grab the attention of your audience. If you truly want to drive ROI from your efforts, social media should serve as focal point of your current marketing plan to help you engage, nurture, and keep moving your leads and customers through the buyer journey.

The idea of going beyond social media might seem like a handful when you’re simply trying to get the gist of it, but crafting and executing a cohesive and effective digital marketing strategy is within reach. A marketing automation platform like Act-On enables you to personalize and automate the majority of your marketing efforts so you can bring your ideas to life and reap the rewards that come from a more robust and personalized marketing strategy.

Interested in learning more about how Act-On can empower you to own the customer journey from beginning to end? Schedule a time to talk to one of our experts to learn more about how Act-On can help you launch better marketing campaigns that drive even better results.

How To Create a Social Media Employee Advocacy Program

Act-On — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

There’s no denying social media is an effective and essential communication tool for any business, but it’s limited to reaching a brand’s existing following. And since posting the same material to the same audience over and over again doesn’t yield a good return on investment, it’s time you started branching out beyond your current following — which brings us to today’s topic: how to create a social media employee advocacy program.

The numbers speak for themselves.

Brand messages have a 561% higher reach when shared by an employee rather than company accounts
Collectively, employees’ social networks are 10 times larger than corporates’
Employee posts generate 800% more engagement than corporate posts — and convert 700% more leads

Now, before you start barking at your co-workers to start sharing every single piece of branded content, gather key stakeholders to develop the purpose and strategy behind this new initiative. Today, we’re going to learn how to do just that in order to create an effective social media employee advocacy program that:

Excites and activates your employees
Builds credibility and authenticity for both employees and the organization

Let’s learn how!

What Is Social Media Employee Advocacy?

Social media employee advocacy is when a company empowers their workers to promote their brand on social media while also positioning themselves as thought leaders within their peer group and industry. Typically, employee advocates will post things to their social media accounts like:

Company, team, customer, or individual recognition (awards, features, mentions)
Workplace culture and team involvement (i.e. volunteering, office celebration)
Event attendance or exhibition
Customer spotlights
Service or product announcement/update
Relevant thought leadership — whether from the company blog, industry influencer, customer use case, etc.
Career opportunities at the company

When employees share news, insights, and shout-outs related to their company, they’re not only cultivating brand awareness on behalf of their employer, they’re also nurturing credibility based on who they are as professionals. (This is especially important for sales professionals — more on that shortly.)

Employee advocacy on social media represents authentic engagement, interest, and professional development in their expertise — not a promotional sounding board for the business. We are all invested in our careers, and part of establishing our personal brand is how we present ourselves on social media. Employee advocacy should amplify this and empower individuals to act as knowledgeable and engaged professionals rather than forcing people to mindlessly copy and paste sales pitches that only serve the company. When done right, social media employee advocacy is a win-win for employees and organizations alike. The employee is able to bolster their personal brand as a professional while the company gains cost-effective brand awareness to fresh audiences, which leads to increased site traffic, conversions, revenue, and even new talent acquisition!

How to Kickstart Your Employee Advocacy Program

Implementing an employee advocacy program is a marathon — not a sprint. Like I mentioned above, establishing a strategy and purpose early on is essential for gaining maximum interest and involvement. So, without further ado, here’s a 4-step guide for launching your employee advocacy program:

Figure out your goals and objectives for your social media employee advocacy program — and be specific. What metrics are you measuring? What do you want to accomplish (other than something vague like “get more brand awareness”)? How does this play into your overall social media strategy? You’ll want to have a clear understanding of what you and the company expect for this employee advocacy program before jumping into launch-mode.
Become familiar with the social media tool you’ll be using to promote employee advocacy so that you can help onboard your peers. Take advantage of any training resources at your disposal, and work with your account manager/customer success representative to get the most out of its functionality. This will help you communicate how-to’s and also recognize any limitations within the platform.
Determine which department will have the greatest impact and benefit the most as social media employee advocates (*HINT: It’s Sales), train them how to use the software, and develop a regular sharing cadence. Once this team is fully onboarded and participating, move to other impactful departments, such as your leadership and marketing teams.

(Why Sales? Because their role and methodology has completely transformed within the past decade. While technology obviously plays a major role in closing the deal, authentic connections remain the biggest factor in any business relationship. Engaging on social with a salesperson is fun and personal than a cold call, and it creates a foundation for those initial sales calls because the prospect will now recognize the name and brand. It’s no surprise that sales professionals who use social media in their daily activities achieve 78% more sales than those who don’t, right?)

Create social media content that is authentic and valuable for customers and employees alike. Your staff wants to grow as professionals and become recognized as experts in their field, and sharing useful insights with their industry peers and colleagues helps them do both.

As you write your social copy, try to gain a little perspective. Account managers want to celebrate customer success rather than tout how your company helped them achieve those wins. Engineering departments are proud of achieving great positioning in product reports and are eager to share their accomplishments. Sales loves to serve as a credible and educational resource for hot leads, which means they might want to share engaging thought leadership content. Social posts that resonate with more employees will prompt more shares, clicks, engagement, and, ultimately, revenue.

The Do’s and One Big Don’t of Employee Advocacy

Do incorporate the employee advocacy program into onboarding for all new team members. This includes setting them up to use the platform successfully and reviewing company policies as they relate to social media.

Do use a social media tool with a good employee advocacy feature (like Act-On’s Social Media Advocacy Tool)

Do occasionally encourage friendly competition — especially if there’s a certain event, go-to-market, or piece of content to emphasize.

Do create content that appeals to different departments outside of Marketing and Sales. If you aren’t sure what they like to share and engage with, ask!

Do set up notification emails for your employee advocates to alert them whenever you post new messages. (Bonus if they can directly share the post from the email!)

Don’t require employees to post to social media. Employee social media accounts are their own, and they should be able to decide if and what they want to share. Some people aren’t active on social media and others are particular about keeping work and personal completely separate — and that’s okay. Encourage your employees to participate, but never make it mandatory.

Improve Your Social Media Employee Advocacy With Act-On’s Advanced Social Media Module

Social media can be a tough nut to crack, especially for smaller B2B companies, which is why employee advocacy is such an important part of any successful social media strategy. If you’re ready to take your social media marketing game to the next level, you should reach out to one of our digital marketing experts to learn more about Act-On’s Advanced Social Media Module.

LinkedIn B2B Marketing Strategy: 5 Powerful Reasons Why Social Is So Important

Act-On — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re a B2B marketer, there’s no doubt that your customers are doing more research than ever before making a purchase. But what’s changed in the past decade is where they’re finding that information. Here are five reasons to add a LinkedIn B2B marketing strategy to your marketing mix.

The average decision-maker reads at least 10 pieces of content before finalizing his or her purchase decision. And customers are not only demanding reliable content, but they’re also consistently turning to a key place to find it — and that’s LinkedIn.

Studies show that 80 percent of B2B leads come from LinkedIn. What’s more, other social media channels produce less than 19.67 percent of all leads, making LinkedIn the largest producer of all. Still not convinced? Check out these five reasons why having a solid LinkedIn strategy can help you maximize results.

LinkedIn groups provide niche outreach.

The majority of LinkedIn users, 81 percent, belong to at least one group, which makes them the perfect place to generate more prospects. But how can you find the best groups and maximize your marketing efforts in those groups?

Type terms relating to your target market in the search bar located at the top of the LinkedIn home page. For example, if I want to target people who market technology, I might enter “technology marketing.” At the top of the page, you will see several tabs. Click on the one that says “Groups.” In this example, the technology marketing keywords generate 1,622 groups. Start by finding a few to test and requesting permission to join.

Once you’ve joined, leave comments in existing conversations and focus on adding high value. In addition, it’s very powerful to start posting high-quality content to groups. There are more than 130,000 posts published weekly on LinkedIn Pulse, but only a fraction of this content is posted to groups. Plus, the credibility of this platform is high, with 71 percent of users reporting they feel that LinkedIn is a credible source for professional content.

Create a plan to integrate LinkedIn into your existing content marketing strategy. For example, you might create a blog post on a trending topic and publish it to the company blog. Take that content and also post it to LinkedIn groups and share it through LinkedIn updates to generate maximum exposure.

Key takeaway: LinkedIn groups are a powerful way to get in front of specific target markets and contribute in a meaningful way. Join groups, post content, and contribute in an authentic way to generate results.

It’s a hidden opportunity to drive greater traffic.

One great benefit of LinkedIn is that you can use it to generate not only leads but also traffic for your company’s website. How? It starts with creating great content that’s not only interesting but also truly amazing ― the kind that leaves people wanting to read more about what your company does.

For example, let’s say that you publish a post to LinkedIn Pulse. At the end of that article, you can link to other popular pieces of your content. Review analytics to discover what pieces of content prospects like best, and then link to this content to drive prospects to your website and create a steady flow of traffic.

10 Things B2B Companies Should Be Doing on LinkedIn

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Make sure that once prospects finish reading the content, they know what to do next so you don’t lose them forever. Create strategic lead magnets to entice prospects to provide their email addresses. This could be a high-value white paper that addresses a specific pain point or some other piece of amazing content. Once you collect emails, you can start nurturing, providing value, and moving those contacts closer to the sale.

Key takeaway: Drive more traffic from LinkedIn to your website by strategically linking to related content at the bottom of your posts. Then create a plan for how to move those visitors into a nurturing strategy.

You have the ability to tap into the genius of thought leaders.

LinkedIn recently implemented a new feature that allows users to identify and learn from top influencers in specific industries. Check out this tool and identify hot influencers related to your niche. Share their articles in your groups and LinkedIn updates to start building a reputation by association and capturing influencers’ attention.

You should also start commenting on the content of these influencers. Why? Your target market is reading these articles, and influencer content typically receives the highest number of views. By leaving useful and valuable comments, you will drive exposure and even traffic to your business. Plus, you can review an influencer’s most popular content and use those topics as inspiration for your own content.

Key takeaway: LinkedIn is a great place to focus on influencer marketing efforts. Use this platform to discover powerful influencers and then implement a few key strategies to leverage that content and piggyback on it for future marketing efforts, making powerful influencer connections along the way.

It makes generating inbound leads more effective.

Prospective customers search for companies like yours each day through LinkedIn, but the key is getting found. You can optimize your company page with keywords related to your business to generate more exposure, but once prospects arrive at your page, it’s also critical to make an impact.

For example, check out Microsoft’s LinkedIn page. At the top, it starts with the basics of what the company does, along with website and location details. But what makes this company’s LinkedIn page unique is the depth of its content. For example, the company features behind-the-scenes insights from the creators of products and tips for marketers. In the “Recent Updates” section, you can see the content that the company is sharing, which can include tales from the Microsoft Stores’ media hubs and other hot, new content.

Key takeaway: Create a strong LinkedIn page so that once you get found on the platform, prospects are already presold on your company and products before they contact your sales team.

It empowers you to uncover powerful marketing insights

One of the most valuable benefits of using LinkedIn in your marketing efforts is the ability to listen to what customers are saying. Every product is built around a pain point, and that pain is what drives prospects to purchase.

For example, perhaps marketing tasks are time-consuming and the prospects need a method for automating and streamlining those tasks. Whatever the pain point, you need to continue learning more so you can create marketing that truly resonates with your customers. You can learn the exact language that customers use to describe their problem and in turn use that language in your marketing to instantly build a more powerful connection.

Join groups, listen to conversations to find out what people are talking about, and tie those conversations back to your products and services. These insights can be powerful ammunition for blog posts, white papers, and even case studies as you zero in and focus on the specific problems that customers are facing.

Key takeaway: Set aside a small amount of time each week to listen to what prospects are saying in key groups. Make notes, and use that intelligence to shape your content marketing and overall strategy.

A few last words

Your company likely has a presence on LinkedIn already, but at the end of the day, it’s important to ask whether your presence is strong enough and whether you could be doing more. This is where testing becomes so important.

Test some of the above strategies to determine the effect on your leads and engagement with prospects. Review those results, and iterate as needed to create a LinkedIn marketing strategy that is powerful and effective. Because there has never been a time when you can reach so many prospects at once with such a high level of trust, by fine-tuning your LinkedIn marketing strategy, you can generate greater results now and in the future.

10 Things B2B Companies Should Be Doing on LinkedIn

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8 Powerful Tips for Going Viral on LinkedIn

Act-On — Tue, 30 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve all heard the story. Somebody publishes a post on LinkedIn, and nearly overnight it goes viral, soliciting massive amounts of traffic, shares, and comments — and, consequently, a sharp spike in both leads and sales. Was it due to skill, luck … or maybe a little of both?

LinkedIn is a valuable channel to publish content, especially for B2B marketers. In fact, 93 percent of B2B marketers report social media as their No. 1 tactic for content creation and distribution. Plus 79 percent of B2B marketers report that LinkedIn is an effective source for generating B2B leads.

More than 106 million users log on to LinkedIn monthly and actively engage with content. There is a huge opportunity to capitalize on the fact that all these professionals are actively seeking, reading, and sharing content through the platform. But what should you do if you’ve never published a viral post, yet want to boost your odds of capturing attention on a viral scale? Here are a few tips for getting started.

Select a winning topic

Not sure how to select a winning topic? If so, don’t worry — research will point you in the right direction. Use specific keywords to explore different themes. For example, let’s say you want to publish an article about content marketing. You can use tools such as BuzzSumo to analyze the most popular posts on LinkedIn, ranked by social shares.

In addition, you can identify influencers in your industry, which helps with promoting your content and increasing your company’s exposure. The results of the research will unveil trends about your target market and what they read and share. For example, perhaps right now people are gravitating toward content about video marketing. If so, you can craft content with a new angle using that proven topic.

Key takeaway: Selecting the right topic is the cornerstone of LinkedIn content success. Don’t trust your gut; instead, rely on research to pick a topic with the greatest chances of going viral.

Make more comments

Do you want to boost the odds of your post going viral? If so, after publishing an article, carve out time to reply to comments. LinkedIn’s “top voices” made 10 times more replies and comments to their articles when compared to the average LinkedIn publisher.

For example, check out the article “11 Simple Concepts to Become a Better Leader” that went viral on LinkedIn. To date, the article has harnessed almost 28,000 likes and well over 300 shares; however, it also has more than 7,500 comments. Replying to every single comment on a popular post may not be possible, but in the beginning, you can reply to most comments to give your article the push it needs to harness attention. As time moves on, replies may be less frequent and more difficult to keep up with.

Key takeaway: Reply to comments after publishing a post to boost engagement and increase the odds of additional exposure.

Use posts with proven success

There is some confusion about posting previously published content to LinkedIn. Will it hurt your SEO rankings? Is it bad for your LinkedIn reputation? And equally important, will it hurt your chances of producing viral content? The answers may surprise you.

Duplicate content essentially takes content that you posted elsewhere, such as your corporate blog, and reposts that content on LinkedIn. This is a good strategy when the content has a proven performance record. For example, consider something that you posted to your blog that has received the highest engagement of all your posts. What should you do next to get that content in front of a larger audience? Here are a few tips for using this strategy successfully:

Wait a week after the original content is published to your site before publishing it on LinkedIn. This length of time should provide Google with an opportunity to index the original piece of content first.
Use the original article as an outline, and then expand that popular content into a more detailed post. Or take a slightly different angle. For example, if you wrote “The 5 Best Ways to Promote Your Website,” next write “The 5 Worst Ways to Promote Your Website.”
Consider including a reference to the original by saying something like “A version of this post originally appeared on XYZ” and then link to the older piece.

Key takeaway: There is not a big penalty for repurposing your content on LinkedIn. As a result, this is a good strategy for leveraging proven content on the LinkedIn platform for greater performance.

Engage editors of key sites

Do you want to boost your odds of going viral? If so, you must get the attention of editors of LinkedIn or another relevant site. But how? It’s simple: You must tell them about your amazing content. Here are a few tips:

Publish a great post.
Tweet the link to your post with “@LinkedInEditors” and include a quick summary of what your article includes.
Start engaging with the editors on Twitter, so they get to know your name. Leave comments on posts; share work that they publish to the social media platform.

Key takeaway: Editors may read your content, think that it’s great, and share it with their audiences, boosting the odds of your getting featured on one of their high-visibility channels. But you must first get in front of those editors.

Understand LinkedIn channels

LinkedIn channels are essentially categories that LinkedIn members can follow to learn more about topics that interest them. Some of these channels have massive audiences. For example, Leadership and Management has 24.4 million followers, Entrepreneurship has 16.3 million, and Marketing and Advertising has 14.4 million.

Being featured on one of these channels harnesses massive amounts of attention and the momentum that you need to go viral. But how do you get featured?

First, identify the channel on which you would most like to appear. For example, if you’re targeting marketing managers, you’ll probably want to be seen on the Marketing and Advertising channel. Then select your topic with this specific audience in mind. Articles that fit the audience and the channel are more likely to get picked. You can also check out LinkedIn’s editorial calendar, which provides insights into preferred themes for each month.

Key takeaway: Boost the odds of capturing editors’ attention by creating content with a specific LinkedIn channel in mind. Articles featured by the channel can elevate performance levels, moving your results from average to viral.

Optimize your headlines and graphics

Headlines and graphics are key to the success of your LinkedIn article. After selecting the right topic, you can draw readers into the content more effectively through a carefully crafted headline. For example, check out this headline titled “Why Steve Jobs Didn’t Listen to His Customers.” The headline captures attention because it makes an unexpected statement.

Visuals are also proven to capture results. For example, tweets with images receive 150 percent more retweets than those without them. In addition, BuzzSumo analyzed over 1 million articles and found that those with images placed once every 75 to 100 words received double the social media shares than those with fewer visuals.

Key takeaway: Check out featured LinkedIn articles. Can you find commonalities in the headlines? View high-performing articles as a template, using them to inspire your efforts as you create headlines and select visuals.

Publish with purpose

You’ve identified the best target audience, a high-performing topic, and a sound strategy for increasing the odds of producing viral content. But an important part of the overall equation is timing. You must get in front of viewers at the precise time of maximum impact. Each social platform is different, of course, so you’ll need to determine the optimal time to publish content on LinkedIn.

According to LinkedIn, the best times to post are between Tuesday and Thursday, in the early morning, at lunchtime, and in the early evening. In addition, there is a sweet spot between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Tuesdays.

Key takeaway: Publish during the times of highest impact, but continue to monitor the results. For example, while most posts may get the best results on Tuesdays between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., you may have better results on Wednesday evenings. Test to find your particular audience’s sweet spot.

Give readers something to do

Publishing a viral post is a great accomplishment, but it’s a lost opportunity if it doesn’t include an action step for the reader. For example, after reading the content, what should the audience do next? Maybe it’s downloading an eBook with powerful marketing insights, which gives you a chance to collect their email addresses and start moving them through the sales funnel. Or it could be something small, such as driving them to your blog to read more. Select an action that fits into your strategic goals for the content.

Key takeaway: Without a call to action, you haven’t truly seized the full opportunity of publishing content to LinkedIn — especially if that content goes viral. Define a call to action for each piece of content that you create for LinkedIn.

Stacking the deck

LinkedIn provides an increasingly large and influential platform for marketers to get their content seen. There is no guarantee that your LinkedIn post will go viral, but you can stack the deck in your favor when you use these tips.

Social Media Marketing Archives - Act-On

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1. Re-using your content = improved ROI!

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5. Reposting content on social media is incredibly easy to do

6. Reposting content on social works

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How to Write a LinkedIn Post like a Pro: 5 Tips

Tip #1: Lower the reading level — and keep it simple

Tip #2: Finesse your LinkedIn headline

Tip #3: Jump on the latest bandwagon

Tip #4: A little visual interest goes a long way

Tip #5: Write for an audience of one

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