The Ultimate Social Media Tip Sheet

101 Top Social Media Tips and Tactics From 2013

In 2013, the social media world evolved, aided by our ever-present, always-on mobile devices and expanding content marketing.

The ability to use mobile devices to capture photographs and videos of ourselves (as well as others) made selfie the word of the year.

Further, social media continued to dazzle the financial world. 3 of the top highlights were:

• Yahoo purchased Tumblr for $1.1 billion promising not to screw it up.
• Twitter IPOed with a #Ring.
• Snapchat turned down $3 billion.

The ultimate 2013 social media tip sheet

Here is the ultimate 2013 social media tip sheet containing 101 tactics based on our top 5 articles. They incorporate the unwritten social media rules.

1. Know your target audience and their hot buttons.
2. Write regular features responding to your audience’s needs and interests.
3. Include a featured image as a reader magnet.
4. Craft alluring headlines to attract an audience.
5. Format blog posts to facilitate consumption. 
6. Ask visitors to follow you on Facebook and Twitter in your sidebar.
7. Include social sharing icons at the top and bottom of every blog post.
8. Complete your personal profile. 
9. Create a blog profile. 
10. Incorporate your blog’s brand into your Facebook timeline photograph, Twitter image and background. 
11. Participate on Facebook and Twitter.
12. Get your blog buddies to cross promote each other’s blog posts.
13. Monitor what your competitors are doing on Facebook and Twitter.
14. Like your post on your own Facebook profile.
15. Share your post on your blog fan page.
16. Create a graphic of your post information.
17. Pay for views using Facebook’s promoted posts.
18. Create a Facebook app to encourage blog email registrations.
19. Tweet each blog post three to four times the day it’s published.
20. Break blog posts into tweetable chunks.
21. Pre-format tweets for reader use.
22. Add optimal hashtags to extend reach.
23. Use a scheduling tool to publish your tweets. 
24. Thank people for sharing your blog posts. 
25. Participate in relevant Twitter chats.

from 25 Tactics to Promote Your Blog via Facebook and Twitter

 

26. Craft attention-getting titles.
27. Use images at the top of each post, preferably a photograph of people. 
28. Claim authorship of your content on Google.
29. Play well with other bloggers
30. Link to other blogs and reference bloggers in your blog posts.
31. Create a list of influencers in your category
32. Interview rock stars in your category via podcasts.
33. Talk with experts in your field via video.
34. Leave comments on other blogs.
35. Write guest blog posts.
36. Invite guest bloggers.
37. Incorporate “ClickToTweet” into your posts to encourage tweeting.
38. Create pinable images. 
39. Build attractive infographics.
40. Share your blog content across social media platforms. 
41. Expand shareability on social media, especially Twitter with hashtags.
42. Chop your column into a set of tweets and drip out over time.
43. Create a pinboard specifically targeted at your posts.
44. Leverage LinkedIn Groups to target content delivery.
45. Create a public profile for your blog on various social media networks where appropriate. 
46. Link to your blog in your social media profiles
47. Leverage conversation on other social media platforms.
48. Place images on Flickr that link back to your website.

From Social Media: 23 Ways To Promote Your Blog

 

49. Understand where and how your target audience uses social media by creating a social media persona.
50. Focus your social media efforts on those platforms where your target audience spends their time.
51. Understand your target audience’s social media habits to ensure that you’re placing the appropriate content on these platforms at a comfortable rate of engagement.
52. Post social media content that’s formatted for easy consumption.
53. Leverage the power of your audience’s circle of friends.
54. Write great Twitter-friendly headlines to attract attention.
55. Create branded content that’s appropriate for Facebook consumption.

From 2013 Social Media Trends and Your Business-7 Actionable Social Media Tactics [Research/Charts]

 

56. Including one or more hashtags in a tweet increased the tweet’s likelihood of being retweeted by over 55%.
57. Use 3 or less hashtags in a tweet
58. Including quotation marks in a tweet made it 30% more likely to be retweeted than those that didn’t contain quotes.
59. Tweets containing images uploaded to Twitter’s native image system (aka pic.Twitter.com) were almost twice as likely to be retweeted.
60. Tweets containing Twitpic images increased retweets by over 60%.
61. Tweets containing Instagram images suppressed retweets by over 40%.
62. Tweets containing Facebook images (aka FB image links), suppressed retweets by almost 50%.
63. Words matter for calls-to-action.
64. The top of the CTA list were “please help” and “please retweet”.
65. Even when characters are limited make sure your message is clear to your audience.
66. Manners matter more than character count.
67. Including the words “retweet” and “spread” improves reach.
68. “Visit” is at the bottom of the top phrases since it’s the closest to sounding like a promotion. 
69. The longer the tweet, the more likely it will be retweeted up to roughly 120 characters.
70. Between 100 and 115 character tweets are one third more likely to get retweeted than tweets outside of that range.
71. Over 120 characters, there’s a big falloff in retweet probability.

From 16 Ridiculously Easy Ways To Increase Retweets

 

72. Share your content across social media platforms.
73. Include social sharing on your website and blog.
74. Respond to prospects and customers on social media venues.
75. Link to information on your blog and website in your blog posts, SlideShare presentations and social media interactions.
76. Write guest blog posts.
77. Pimp your products on Pinterest.
78. Understand what your competitors are doing.
79. Ask open-ended questions on social media.
80. Nudge customers to rate and review your products.
81. Encourage customers to share their photographs and stories.
82. Spotlight your customers.
83. Provide perks.
84. Make them feel special.
85. Answer customer questions.
86. Explain how to use your product.
87. Educate your market.
88. Respond on forums and Q&A sites like Quora.
89. Optimize your social media profiles.
90. Build your blog publishing empire.
91. Show your face.
92. Claim your authorship and location on Google.
93. Reconnect with colleagues and friends.
94. Take social media offline.
95. Think win-win.
96. Establish a robust content marketing editorial calendar.
97. Test social media advertising.
98. Incorporate a social media call-to-action.
99. Create a Sale of the Day Tweet.
100. Provide recipes and patterns that link to your product pages.
101. Show customers how to style your products.

From 31 Actionable Social Media Marketing Tips Based On Research

 

While most of the tactics included in this 2013 social media tip sheet will continue to be effective, it’s important to continually test and measure your results.

What else would you add to this list and why?

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen

---

 

 

Related Articles

• Top 12 Actionable Marketing Blog Posts of 2012
• Top Actionable Marketing Blog Posts of 2011

Photo Credit: …