6 Rules of Social Media Marketing You Can’t Break

Marketing on social media is not without its mistakes. Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us. Sometimes, what we need are some rules to guide us.  Here are some social media marketing rules you should never break.

Rule #1: Always Listen

There is no social strategy without social listening. If you’re confused as to where to start with a new project, invest in a listening platform. What is your target audience talking about? What are they complaining about? What kinds of behavior do they value? What holes in their needs can your product or service fill? What is the tone of the conversation? You can learn a vast amount by just listening, and when you finally enter the conversation yourself, you’ll have as much passively learned as actively learned.

Rule #2: Make Quality Content your Top Priority

If you don’t have quality content, then you don’t really have any real value to your social following. Focus on creating a backlog of solid content before pushing your message out on social media, because your brand is only as good as what you can offer your potential leads or existing customers. Hire good writers and other content creators that you trust; it’s worth it if it means your content has an upper hand against the competition’s.

Rule #3: Social is About Relationships

It’s easy to forget in the digital world that what’s happening behind our computers is humans interacting with humans. Bryan Kramer wrote on his own practices in his book, “There is no more B2B or B2C, it’s H2H: Human to Human” (excerpts on www.bryankramer.com) and it makes for very useful reading here. Personalization goes a long way in a sea of mass messaging. If you’re feeling like your communications are falling prey to stale, routine language, take a step back and remember that social is a conversation and followers are humans, just like you.

Rule #4: Think Before You Post

Nothing makes for better scandalous news than a social media blunder, especially from a brand. Don’t be a news item. The way to ensure that you minimize your risks of social mistakes is to always—always—make it a policy to think before you post. Make it a habit to have an extra pair of eyes look over your post before you post it, or have a set of personal rules each post has to follow (i.e, would you say this to your mother? would you trust a brand that would say this?).

Rule #5: Influencers Will Always Influence

If you feel that traditional advertising limits you, keep in mind that influencers can be your way out. The new wave of social media is all about original word-of-mouth selling through influencers. If you connect with the right ones, your brand can experience a huge jump in exposure and social standing. Make sure you have an strategy for influencers and that begins with Rule #1 – Social Listening.

Rule #6: Always Be Consistent

We all know the saying that slow and steady wins the race. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by brands that rush in to entice with real-time marketing, trending topics, and newsjacking tactics, bear this one rule in mind: a consistent presence is a trusted presence. The more regular your social activities are, the more followers you’ll get. While followers might be swayed temporarily by the newest, brightest things, what they value long-term are brands they can rely on, brands that show up at the same time, all day, every day.

It can be easy to get caught up in the latest social platform or tool and forget the basics. Hopefully these unbreakable rules are helpful in guiding every strategy.