If your social strategy is struggling, maybe it’s time to try something different.

As far as I can tell, there are three schools of thought when it comes to developing a social media marketing strategy.

The first is a focus on using the latest new tactics available. The reality of the social media marketing landscape is that there are plenty of businesses that subscribe to this ideology.

Businesses like Marketing Land revolve their entire content strategy around tackling every change in the industry and turning it into something valuable for their audiences.

And can you blame them? When the industry seems to unanimously support a new tactic, it’s easy to assume that your strategy needs an upgrade.

The second school of thought operates on the opposite end of that spectrum. Instead of focusing on what’s new and exciting, these businesses work using tried-and-true methods that have been proven to work over and over again.

Novelty is nice, but these brands care more about being able to look at data and point to exactly what makes their tactic valuable.

A perfect example of this is the content that Buffer produces.

While they’re certainly able to draw inspiration from current events, they’re more than willing to focus on specific, relevant topics that go beyond the scope of recent trends.

Each approach definitely has its perks.

When it comes to the first ideology, having a focus on novelty means that your social media strategy is constantly evolving to address the changing social media marketing landscape.

But the second ideology offers a reliable result day after day. While it may not be nearly as sexy or exciting, there’s no getting around the fact that it gets results.

Both of these styles have their ups and downs. But I actually don’t want to discuss these today.

No, I want to talk about the third school of thought, one that often gets lost in a sea of social media marketing strategies.

The ideology I want to focus on today is one that revolves around identifying unique, underutilized tactics and incorporating them into your social media strategy.

At this point, some of you might be wondering why any business would use this as the foundation for their social media strategy.

The answer is that while it may not revolve around the latest toys or the most common social media marketing practices, underutilized tactics can give your brand a major advantage.

The reason why is pretty obvious. If there’s a social media marketing tactic that’s being undervalued, it puts your business in a unique position to make the most out of it.

The problem with both the previous schools of thought is that most of the tactics that you’ll be using are also being used by most of your competition.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, of course. But you have to admit that it’s harder to stand out on social media when you’re doing exactly what 10 other businesses in your industry have done.

So, in an effort to develop a social media strategy that actually switches things up and generates results, we’re going to be looking at some of the most undervalued tactics in the industry today.

By the end of this article, you’ll have a list of five tactics that aren’t just effective, but that are also completely underrated and just waiting for your brand to take advantage of them.

Sound good? Great.

With that out of the way, let’s dive right into the first tactic, which is all about making the most out of your social media platforms. [click to continue …]

When it comes to marketing, exposure is the name of the game.

Having high-quality content is great, but it means nothing if there’s no one actually reading it.

With that in mind, it’s no wonder that brands and businesses from all over the world are doing everything in their power to increase their exposure on social media.

At this point, there are a variety of ways that you can do this.

And while certain tactics, like using social media ads or relying on organic traffic, can certainly be helpful, there’s nothing quite like word of mouth to get people talking about your product or service.

The average consumer today is more likely to do business with you if there are other people willing to vouch for your business.

Just take a look at the data that Impact found, analyzing the importance of word-of-mouth marketing.

Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool, but it’s difficult to get because it’s so reliant on what others say about you.

One of the easiest ways to get this type of validation is by getting your audience to share your posts and content on social media.

Of course, getting them to actually do that is easier said than done.

The average consumer isn’t likely to stand by a product or service unless they truly believe in it. Before you ask people to share, you first need to be sure that your content is worthy of sharing.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll have to ask your audience (both directly and indirectly) to share your content.

I’ll be the first to admit that this can be tricky, especially since every brand on social seems to wrap their posts up with “don’t forget to like and share this!” these days.

Standing out on social is going to directly influence how much exposure you gain through this method.

That’s why  I’ve put together a list of my favorite original ideas to increase sharing on social.

If you use the same tactics as everyone else, you’re going to end up with the same results and the same exposure.

I don’t know about you, but I’m willing to put in a bit more effort if it means having a more successful social media marketing strategy.

By the time we’re done here, you’ll be on the path to increased social media engagement and exposure. [click to continue …]

At one point or another, you’ve probably asked yourself if Twitter is actually helpful for growing your business or if it’s a total waste of time.

The truth is, it’s only helpful for promoting your brand if you know how to use it in the right ways.

When I first started on Twitter, I didn’t know much about growing my name on the platform.

After some work, I now have over 270,000 followers. It didn’t happen overnight, though. Like my header image says, you’ve got to make your own luck.

Here’s how you can harness the social power of Twitter to gain followers, fans, and customers who love your products and services (and what you have to say online).

But first, you’re going to want to set measurable goals before diving in. You need to outline exactly what you want to get out of using Twitter. [click to continue …]

It’s true. Digital advertising on Facebook is effective and should be a key part of your marketing strategy.

You can run ads within just a few minutes of setting up your account.

And the diverse audience targeting makes it one of the easiest platforms when it comes to online advertising.

You can target household income, spending habits, laser-focused demographics, and more.

But that also produces a major problem for back-end advertisers:

More metrics than you can possibly keep track of.

When marketing reports and KPIs are due by 5 p.m., what numbers are you compiling?

It’s almost impossible to choose because Facebook has so many metrics to pick from and nearly endless data.

And according to TechCrunch, they plan to add even more!

I don’t need to tell you that marketers have busy schedules with a ton on their plate, so adding more complications, more metrics, and more time (that you don’t have) is not going to fly.

So, what do you do? How do you manage it all?

For starters, you come to terms with the fact that you shouldn’t try to manage it all.

Simply put, you need to narrow your focus to track specific metrics if you want to be more productive.

So let’s take a look at four important Facebook Advertising metrics that you need to start tracking ASAP. [click to continue …]

You’ve just written an amazing 2,500-word, long-form blog post.

It took you all week to write and perfect and it’s beautiful.

It has dozens of images and even a step-by-step walkthrough to help users get the most value.

You followed all the rules.

But after checking your analytics, you notice you only have a few social shares.

What about all the promotion you did on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn?

Or all the friends you asked to share it for you?

Even with all your efforts, the post has still only received a couple likes and one or two retweets.

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Getting social shares on blog posts is one of the hardest things to do.

There are millions of blog posts published every day, so competing for traffic and attention makes it pretty difficult to get noticed.

But you need those social shares if you want your blog post to drive more inbound traffic.

If you want more customers (and you do), you need to keep blogging.

So what do you do when your blog isn’t driving the social shares it needs?

Thankfully, there are a few hacks that will help you get more traction and help you get people to share your content more often — and actually enjoy sharing it.

I’ve used these same methods and tools with my own content and I’ve noticed dramatic increases in social shares.

I’ve even been able to drive thousands of social shares when I had no followers.

So let’s take a look at five hacks to quickly boost your blog-post social shares.

[click to continue …]