 By Mike Scott, Head Storyteller, Storyteller Media (@mikescottnow)
As we go into 2017 one thing that is clear is that everything in Social Media Marketing will change. What worked for you last year or even last month may not work for you at all moving into the new year. If you want to make more of an impact with your Social Media Marketing and drive results, utilize these strategies. 1 – Build Deeper Relationships Ok so if you have followed me at all you will have seen that in almost every blog or vlog I talk about engaging with your audience. The problem is no matter how much I write or talk about it I still see the same engagement opportunity with a majority of accounts I review. So while this is nothing new its still a huge opportunity if you take the time to build deeper relationships.
2 – Focus on Storytelling Instead of Marketing I know, “Storytelling” is a buzz word that everyone uses but not to many explain exactly what they mean and how you can use it for your business or service. To me its completely changing your mindset about how you are currently marketing on Social Media. Are you still posting coupons or pictures of just your products/service with little or no story behind them? Are you still filling your feed up with only promotions of your product or service? Are you involving your staff and their personal stories? Here are a few questions to ask as well as below I will list exactly how you can implement Storytelling.
3 – VIDEO! VIDEO! VIDEO! Have you seen how every major platform has a video feature? Youtube Live, Facebook live, Snapchat, Instagram Stories, Periscope and the list goes on. As we jump in 2017 video is and will dominate the Social Media Marketing landscape. With all the options your probably thinking what should I focus on that will have the best ROI? For example my company Storyteller Media is heavily focusing on featuring local businesses using Youtube (Still in my opinion the one of the top leaders in video…plus they are owned by Google so from a SEO perspective it doesn’t get much better), Instagram Stories and Snapchat. Check out a few ways and reasons why we are focusing on the these Platforms and how you can as well.
These are just a few ways to crush Social Media Marketing moving into 2017. Like I said it will change and continue to change so you must be willing to either take the time to be a practitioner or invest into working with someone who does so you don’t get left behind. As always, please do not hesitate to reach out with any comments or questions. Talk soon, Mike Scott Origianlly Posted on www.creationagency.com blog.  By Gareth O’Sullivan, Social Media Influencer (@_GarethG) Instagram has over 500 million monthly users, that’s a crazy number! In order to succeed on Instagram you need to implement these 5 powerful tips. 1 – Optimising your Instagram profile (bio, profile image, link *tracking data?*) Before you even begin posting, you should optimise your Instagram profile for the best results. By this I mean, have a professional layout or a specific layout that allows you to connect with your audience. You could do this via the use of emoji’s in your bio, a motivational quote, a funny joke, your slogan etc. Then, you will need to think about your Instagram profile image. Are you going to use your company logo so people can gather who you are fairly quick, or are you going to use a picture of your team/important person? – Giving that personal touch to connect with your audience more, as they’ll know they are connecting with an actual human. The choice is yours. Lastly, I would highly recommend taking advantage of Instagram’s website link feature. As you can’t place clickable links in your Instagram posts, you should place your link in the bio. The link could be your website, another social media profile such as your Twitter account, a landing page, your latest blog post etc. Take advantage of the feature! 2 – Creating content and posting regularly In order to receive a lot of engagement and follower growth, you need to be posting content that your audience will find interesting. It needs to be eye-catching and make them want to engage. The best way to achieve this is to sit down and think what kind of content you want to be publishing, the type of tools and apps you may require, the layout of your posts etc. If you’re looking to publish images without any text on them, but are high quality and eye-catching then I’d recommend using apps like VSCO which makes your images much better.  If you prefer to publish content that will include text then I’d suggest using apps like Canva. This tool is brilliant and very useful to create stunning images on Instagram. Here’s another example of what can be done in Canva.  Once you’ve got an idea of the content you’ll be publishing, you need to have a plan on how often you will publish. Ideally, you should share content on Instagram at least 3 to 4 times a week, however, if you’re able to share content every day then and apply these top tips then you’re on your way to Instagram success.
3 – Identify target audience ~ follower growth Gaining followers on Instagram is great, but are they really targeted and find your content interesting or are they just expecting you to give them a follow in return? To gain a targeted Instagram following for the best engagements on your post, you need to identify suitable “Influencers” on the platform that specialise in your industry. Once you’ve found these influencers or large accounts, you can then look more into the followers of those accounts and identify if they are part of your target audience. If they are, then you should see what kind of content they engage with, who they follow etc. This can be a long process however once you’ve found the top accounts that have a great targeted following, you can then start engaging with those followers and more than likely if they find your content interesting they will check out your profile! 4 – Discover suitable hashtags Whilst it’s great to use various hashtags in your social posts, it’s vital to make sure they are suitable and actually help you reach a larger audience and increase your engagement. Every time I post on Instagram, I’ll check out and research some new hashtags to use to increase my reach and post engagement. A great way to discover top hashtags is to use Instagram’s search feature. Go ahead and type in a specific hashtag for example “#Entrepreneur”, you will see various other hashtags such as “#Entrepreneurmindset” “#Entrepreneurlife” etc. It’s a good idea to jot those down on the notes app on your smartphone. When you click on one of these hashtags, you will also see the “related” hashtags at the top, jot those down too and include them in your posts. These will help your post reach even more people that browse and share content using those hashtags. 5 – Engage, engage, engage After identifying your target audience via hashtags, influencers and large accounts, you should then start to engage with them. Not just by liking their content, but leave an interesting comment that shows you have actually took the time to write and not just an emoji or random message. You can also engage with them by following their account, tagging them in suitable posts etc. A successful process I have found that works for me is by finding my target audience, leaving a like on their content, then 5-10 minutes later, leave a comment and maybe follow them. They will then get different notifications at different times which then, they may decide to check out your profile and potentially engage and follow you. I hope you found these tips helpful, if you did, let me know in the comments or drop me a tweet @_GarethG! Don’t forget to connect with me on Instagram too! Gareth is a versatile digital marketer with experience on various social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and many more. Gareth also writes various blog posts like this one. You can follow and stay connected with Gareth onTwitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. You can also contact Gareth directly on his site here. Originally posted on www.garethosullivan.com 
By Mike Scott Head Storyteller at Storyteller Media (@mikescottnow)
Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Stu Heineck on his podcast Contact Marketing Radio. Contact Marketing Radio is hosted by How To Get A Meeting with Anyone author and agency founder Stu Heinecke, our Internet radio show and podcast is our way of recording the knowledge base of Contact Marketing. In each episode, Stu interviews prominent thought leaders and top marketing and sales executives and asks, "When you absolutely have to break through to someone of great importance, how do you do it?" Stu and I cover how businesses and brand can use storytelling in their social media marketing efforts. We go over some real practitioner hacks that you can use in your social selling process. Thanks again Stu for having me on the show, excited to have the opportunity to be connected with you! As always, thank you so much for taking the time to check out my posts and if you have any comments, questions don't hesitate to reach out! Talk soon Mike |
 About Storyteller MediaStoryteller Media helps businesses connect to their audiences by creating and distributing creative, headline grabbing content that drives measurable results and ROI. We are social media agency built around helping you tell your story to the world. We were founded on the idea that everyone has a story to tell. Archives
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