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Zehnder Communications, Inc.
2024-03-28T04:00:07+00:00

Our Top Social Media Tools & Tips



Over the past two years, we've attended premier digital marketing events, including Nashville’s Social Media Tourism Symposium, Cleveland’s Content Marketing World, and New Orleans’s SkillPath Social Media Marketing Conference. And in the true spirit of social media and content marketing, we want to share what we learned. Read on to discover some of the best and latest tools, tips, and tricks in the social media world.

Research is a key element driving many brands’ social media strategies right now. Data on how your audience reacts to your content not only tells you how well past content pieces have performed; it also lets you know what type of future content will likely do well.

“Content and data should be inextricably linked; creating content without data is creating content in a black hole.” – Julie Fleischer, Kraft Foods, at Content Marketing World Conference, September 2014

Looking for in-depth, easy-to-digest social media data? Our top three favorite research tools are:

  1. Fanpage Karma. Fanpage Karma is a multichannel tool that monitors your (and your competitors’) Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, among others. We love the valuable insights this tool provides, like peak post times and top performance reports.

  2. SocialBro. SocialBro provides detailed Twitter analytics that can help you create share-worthy content and know your audience better. We’re especially fond of SocialBro’s community data, which estimates the worth of your overall audience and highlights specific followers that are considered highly valuable.

  3. Buffer. Buffer is an easy-to-use platform for scheduling and analyzing social media posts. Not only does Buffer provide valuable statistics on social media performance, but it also has the capability to integrate with Google Analytics.

Sharing is a social media component that originally accounted for the success of many social media platforms; and today, it’s no less relevant or important. As social media has expanded over the years, the ways to share through social media have multiplied.

“The end result isn’t a video itself. The end result is what people do after they watch the video.” – Rocky Walls, Candido, at Social Media Tourism Symposium, November 2014

  1. Responsive content. Responsive content is in-the-moment, relevant content produced in a way that lets your audience know that you’re present and alert. As the opposite of scheduled, drafted content, responsive content has to be executed quickly and timed perfectly. Oreo’s “You can still dunk in the dark” tweet from the 2013 Super Bowl power outage is a perfect example of responsive content — and this brand continues to produce spot-on, on-the-spot content that keeps their audience engaged and wanting more.

  2. Instagram takeovers. Instagram takeovers allow brands and individual community influencers to work together for mutual benefit. By allowing an influencer to “take over” your brand’s Instagram account for a day, you give your audience special access to new, unique content from a recognized leader — similar to how an exclusive interview would function in a traditional magazine. At the same time, your takeover influencer benefits by having him/herself exposed to a new audience.

  3. Infographics. Infographics are an increasingly popular type of content in almost every industry. These easy-to-digest, highly visual content pieces are an easy way to convey technical information; plus, their visual nature is perfect for sharing on image-focused platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.

Adaptive content is one way brands can keep up with the ever-increasing amount of social media platforms. Adaptive content can be repurposed, re-sized, and reused across multiple channels, boosting overall exposure and engagement. For example, a blog post sprinkled with perfect 100-character phrases designed for tweeting “adapts” to both your website and Twitter; including pin-able images in the same post can make the post adaptable for Pinterest, too. With an adaptive content strategy, you can get the “bang for your buck” in the fast-paced world of social media.

“The distribution of content is as important as content itself” - Ahava Leibtag, AHA Media Group, at Content Marketing World, September 2014 

  1. Use a multi-channel posting platform. Products like Buffer and Hootsuite provide simple ways to publish a single of piece content across different social media channels with one click. Of course, it’s best to customize the content piece to fit each platform specifically, but if you’re looking for a quick way to reach all of your followers at once, these tools make it easy.

  2. Make the most of your “B roll.” To get the most out of your content, re-use and repurpose existing and unused copy and images. For example, if you produced a short YouTube video, look at the B roll to see if any unused shots would make great content for other social channels.

  3. Create “evergreen” content. Although your social channels should have plenty of in-the-moment, highly responsive content, they should also have a foundation of “evergreen” content that’s relevant, on-brand, and able to be shared at all times. Evergreen content is not seasonal or event-driven; it’s content that’s relevant to your audience at any point in time. Evergreen content is great to have on hand during slow times, and also serves as perfect material to re-post across platforms as necessary.

Strengthen your 2015 social media strategy by following one (or all!) of the tips and trends above. Need help? Call or e-mail us today to learn more.

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