7 Often Overlooked Tips for Promoting on Social Media
By Ginny Jaques
Guest Columnist
Want to improve your chances of getting noticed on social media? Try these seven simple, yet often overlooked, techniques for increasing the success of your promotional activities on Facebook or Twitter.
1. Use an image or video in your Facebook updates.
Your friends and fans will scroll through their myriads of notices and only stop at the ones with images. (Admit it. Isn’t that what you do?)
Keep your camera in hand with an eye out for unique photo ops wherever you go. Personal photos are great because they’re unique, free, and you don’t need to get permission to use them.
2. Use the correct link format on Facebook.
When posting a link in your Facebook status (another good idea if you want attention), type the link into your message box, wait until Facebook turns the link into an image, then delete the link address from your message.
The link will stay in your status post, and you won’t clutter your message box with unnecessary characters.
3. Use a shortened URL for links you post on Twitter.
This saves more precious character space for your messages. My favorite (idiot-proof) URL shortener is at: http://goo.gl/
4. Design an attractive Press Release or “One-Sheet.”
Put it on the internet, either as a blog post or as a page on your website. This will turn an ordinary document into a handy link you can use to promote your book on social media.
5. Refer people to a specific URL.
When referring your friends to a specific post on your blog, or a specific page on your website, make sure you go to that post/page and copy the specific URL for that item, not a more general one for your blog or your website.
How many times have you clicked on links you thought would give you the specific info you wanted and ended up on some more general site? Frustrating, confusing, counter productive, right?
Always remember to click on the specific blog post title or web page, then highlight the web address for that item, copy it, and paste it into social media.
Like this: https://bloggingbistro.com/best-places-to-find-free-and-low-cost-stock-photos-online/
NOT like this: https://bloggingbistro.com/blog
6. Retweet retweets.
Whenever a tweeter retweets or favorites one of your promotional tweets, be sure to retweet and favorite their tweet yourself. Free promotion from another source is always good.
7. Learn the best times post on Facebook or Twitter.
If you post when few people are around, your posts will end up way down the line of messages when your friends finally go on Facebook or Twitter.
Social Times suggests good times to post and includes readable infographics.
Be sure to regularly monitor your Facebook Page’s Insights to see days of the week and times of day your fans are most likely to be online. (Note that Insights are tied to your computer’s local time zone.)
What’s your best simple tip?
We’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Ginny Jaques is a high school teacher, a technical editor and a writer, whose debut novel, Zinovy’s Journey, has received rave reviews on Amazon.
Great tip about timing for Facebook and Twitter. It can make such a difference to the success of your post and if you are going to do it, you want to get the most out of it 🙂
Good tips. I just have a problem with working out the best time as I’m in South Africa and want my local friends to see the post, but the prime time for them is when America is asleep!