The New Year is here and it’s time to finalize your social media plans for 2019. This guide will give you 20 social media marketing tips to help fill your social media calendar and five strategies you can use to improve engagement across your social media profiles.
Social media marketing tips to fill your social media calendar
Here are some social media marketing tips you can use to build a regular publishing schedule in the New Year:
1. Jokes
One of the best ways to gain notice on any social media platform is to publish and share jokes. You don’t need to be funny yourself, either. If you take an already popular joke and present it in an interesting way, people will be drawn to it.
Don’t know any industry-relevant jokes you can repurpose for social media? Chances are you can find at least a few good ones with a quick Google search. You can also ask employees or other colleagues what jokes they’ve heard working in the industry.
2. Predictive text games
A fun way to get your audience communicating with you—and each other—is to ask them to finish a sentence with their phone’s predictive text. This is one of the best social media marketing tips for Twitter since Twitter is more word-based than other social media platforms.
This is also one of our most beloved social media marketing tips because it’s a great way to bring some humor onto your feed without actually having to be funny—all you need is a little luck with your own predictive text to get the ball rolling.
3. Practical tips
Your social media channels should provide value to your audience, and one of the easiest ways to do this is by publishing practical tips. Brainstorm a list of practical tips related to your industry and turn them into several different types of content:
- Post the tips directly to Twitter
- Write your tips out on a simple one-color background and post the images to Instagram
- Create videos of you demonstrating each tip and post them to YouTube or Instagram Stories
- Compile all of your tips into an infographic and share it across social media channels
4. Quotes from industry leaders
This is one of our favorite social media marketing tips because posting quotes from industry leaders shows others that you know who is important in your niche. As long as you attribute the quote to the right source (if it’s contested, you can say ‘Anonymous’ or ‘Source Unknown’), you can use quotes in many of the same ways you can use practical tips.
View this post on InstagramOf The Categories Of F. Scott Fitzgerald
. #lifequotes #life #fscottfitzgerald #quotes #fall #levi .
A post shared by Łėvī Āçķęrmān (@levi_ack_erman) on
Always keep an eye out for quotes that can become potential social media ideas. You can even follow specific social media accounts or newsletters just to source quotes. As a writer, one of the newsletters I subscribe to is the A Word a Day newsletter. I like the words, but I use it more for the “Thought for the Day” section, where I can almost always find a post-worthy quote. One of the best social media marketing tips I can give you from personal experience is to find a similar newsletter or another source of quotes relevant to your industry.
5. Infographics
We already sort of discussed this in the section on practical tips, but an infographic can be created with any set of facts. Infographics can increase web traffic by up to 12%, making them a vital part of many marketing strategies.
You don’t need to be a graphic design expert to make your own infographics either. All you need is a free Canva account and our guide on how to create an infographic.
6. Make your own GIFs
GIFs are one of the most powerful communication tools available on social media networks today, but many brands aren’t taking full advantage of them. If you want to stand out from other companies in your niche, go the extra mile and create your own GIFs.
This might sound intimidating, but there are several programs available that can help you make a GIF in a few simple steps. We’ve even published a guide to making animated GIFs right here on Revive.Social!
7. Answers to common questions
Do you see newbies to your niche asking the same questions on social media time and time again? One of the best social media marketing tips is to collect these questions and then write up your answers to them. You can publish them one at a time or create a large “Commonly Asked Questions Answered” thread, article, or video.
Another thing you can do is post excerpts of the FAQ on your website to your social media. This will only work for some brands since your answers will need to be both informative and entertaining to get shares on social media, but it’s worth trying.
8. Links to resources and products you love
What tools make your life easier on a daily basis? What do you use in your business or in your personal life that you cannot recommend too often? If you notice yourself bringing up a specific product, resource, or service in several conversations, consider posting a link for your wider social media audience as well.
Link posts won’t work for every platform but they can be incredibly powerful on sites like Twitter. You might also get a thank you and/or a retweet from the person whose link your sharing.
9. Curated content
While we’re on the subject of sharing others’ work, let’s talk about curated content. This is content you find around the web, both on social media and from other sources, and share on your social media platforms. Anything originally published by somebody else can qualify as curated content.
You don’t exist in a bubble, and your social media profiles shouldn’t either. You want to show that you’re in touch with what’s happening in your niche by regularly posting curated content.
10. Questions for your audience
Asking your audience questions is a great way to encourage engagement, get to know your followers, and even gather more social media ideas. You can ask them anything from how their day is going to what your next blog post or video is about.
The easiest way to do this is to post a status with an open-ended question. For platforms like Instagram and Pinterest you can publish your question on a colorful background. Other platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, allow you to create polls so your followers can choose between pre-selected options.
11. Challenge your audience
Want to boost audience engagement even more? Challenge your audience to do something interesting and new.
You can post any kind of challenge on social media, but the most successful challenges ask people to post images or videos of them doing a specific thing on social media. People love these challenges because they encourage creativity and provide inspiration for what to post on their own social media profiles. And if they tag you when they participate, some of their followers will naturally end up checking you out too.
12. Themed days
One of our favorite social media marketing tips to run regular themed days on your social media channels. And the best part about this strategy is that some of the most popular social media platforms, like Instagram and Twitter, already have popular themed days you can become part of.
Some themed days you might want to participate in are #MotivationMonday, #ThrowbackThursday, and #FF (Follow Friday). You should also research popular hashtags in your niche to look for themed days that are more specific to your niche. Once you’ve established an audience you can even create your own themed days and get them to participate!
13. Holiday-themed posts
Using a holiday theme for your social media posts is a great way to generate content ideas and to connect with a wider audience. Every major holiday has at least one popular hashtag associated with it. For example, the hashtag #christmasdecorations has over two million public posts. These hashtags can put your images in front of users who are interested in your work but may not know the best keywords to search for in your industry.
#christmasdecor #christmastree #homedeco #homeinspo #inspirations #interiorismo #interior #interiorstyling #style #instagood #pictures #picoftheday #home3You don’t have to stick with the big, recognizable holidays either. A quick Google search will reveal that somebody, somewhere has created a silly holiday for every single day of the year. There’s even a “Dentist’s Day”!
Most of these holidays won’t have a popular hashtag (with certain exceptions like #talklikeapirateday), but if your business uses a humorous brand voice they can be a great way to fill your social media calendar.
14. Sneak peeks
Sneak peeks are great for two reasons: they get your audience excited about what you’re working on, and when done right they make your audience feel like part of a special club. After all, they’re seeing something first.
The easiest way to do this is to create images and short videos revealing your next product or service in action.
If you can’t share the specific details of what you’re working on due to NDAs, you should focus on creating behind-the-scenes content of you working.
15. Behind-the-scenes content
As we mentioned above, another one of our favorite social media marketing tips is to create behind-the-scenes images and videos of you doing the work.
If you don’t feel comfortable actually working on camera, or you’re concerned about sensitive information accidentally being recorded, you can stage the photos instead. Just make sure you actually look like you’re working – dress for work, stay at your desk, and keep your eyes focused on the ‘work’ you’re doing.
You might be able to create some of this content on your own, but we strongly recommend enlisting an employee or even a friend to help you. This allows you to get a greater variety of shots from all kinds of angles, and you can use the photos from one session to create several days’ worth of social media content.
16. User-generated content
Once you’ve started to build up an audience you can start filling your feeds with user-generated content. One brand that does this particularly well—so well that we’ve talked about it before—is GoPro. They frequently run campaigns asking fans to submit their best videos or to post them to their own social accounts with a specific hashtag.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by GoPro (@gopro) on
#GoProAthlete @nicktroutmankayak leveraged Time Lapse Photo Mode on #GoProHERO7 Black to capture a tandem tour in Tennessee with his son, Tuck. 
• Grab #GoProHERO7 Black from GoPro.com today + we’ll toss in a branded beanie, 32GB SD Card, Dual Battery Charger, + Bonus Battery. • • • #GoPro #GoProGrom #Paddling #Kayaking #FamilyAdventures #GetOutside #RockIslandStatePark *promo valid in limited regions, see GoPro.com for availabilityOn most social networks the easiest way to add user-generated content to your feed is to re-share content your followers have already published on their social media accounts. You can ask them to post something specific, or you can simply share appropriate content when you see it in their feeds.
The other way to post user-generated content is to get users to submit their content to you, then publish it to your own feed and tag the creator. This tends to work best for brands with large audiences, as only a small percentage of people will go through the extra step of submitting the post. However, if you have the audience, this is one of the best ways to fill your social media calendar – and show your fans that you appreciate them.
17. Customer reviews and testimonials
Technically we could have filed this one under “user-generated content”, but testimonials and reviews are so important that we decided to devote a separate section to them. If you don’t have any testimonials, check out the guide to getting client testimonials on our sister site, CodeinWP.
The easiest way to use reviews or testimonials for social media is to select the best quote from the site and share them in a status, but we highly recommend creating an image around the quote to maximize engagement.
18. Special discounts
What better way to reward your audience – and encourage them to become paying customers – than to offer them a special discount? Even a small discount of 10% off, or free shipping, can inspire your followers to take the leap and buy your product. Coupons also make convenient images, and they don’t have to be complex:
You probably don’t want to offer special discounts all the time, but offering your audience a special discount every few months is a great way to keep people engaged. These discount posts are also great opportunities for paid promotions.
19. Live events
One of the most exciting opportunities the internet provides is the chance to host live events that all of your fans can attend, regardless of where they live. Your event doesn’t need to be long, either – many livestreams are half an hour long or even shorter. And since you can do these events in your office, you don’t even need to worry about the travel time usually associated with live events.
If you’re interested in adding live social media events to your marketing plan this year, check out our guides to Facebook Live and YouTube livestreaming.
20. Targeted ads
We’ve placed this item last in our collection of social media marketing tips because it should be the smallest portion of your content, but targeted ads are increasingly important across social media networks. If you aren’t already running paid ad campaigns on social media, now is the time to start. The markets will only grow more crowded if you wait longer.
If you need help figuring out how to incorporate paid advertising into your social media mix, check out our guides to Facebook advertising and Instagram advertising.
Final advice
Choose the social media marketing tips you’re most interested in working with and schedule your social media campaigns for the next few months, but remember to be flexible.
The post 20 Actionable Social Media Marketing Tips for 2019 appeared first on Revive Social.