Social media has become such a prevalent part of everyone's lives that it only makes sense for businesses to use the platforms as a way to market their products. In fact, 74% of people say they use Facebook for professional purposes (HubSpot). But with all this competition between marketers on social media, and the constantly changing features on Instagram, Facebook, etc., it is no longer enough to simply maintain a presence on social media. Instead, marketers need to have a good understanding of all the features and updates, and they need to come up with a cohesive marketing plan to avoid adding clutter to platforms that are already very busy. Using the right hashtags, having quality live streams, or posting fun and compelling Instagram stories all factor into the effectiveness of your social media marketing. Not so easy to keep up with all the features when social media gets more and more complicated and trends change almost everyday, is it?

That's why we have put together a compilation of resources that talk about strategies to optimize your social media marketing plan, as well as some resources that provide the inside scoop on features that are important to marketing.

If you think you could use some helpful tips and an inside scoop into social media features, here's what we're talking about...

This blog post is part of Your Definitive Guide to Lead Generation” blog series.

 

 

Articles

How to Use Hashtag Intelligence to Generate Better Leads via Inc.

“Using hashtags effectively can accelerate your company's growth, increase brand awareness, help connect you with influencers and prospects, and improve the overall effectiveness of your marketing campaigns”

Hashtags do more than make your post seem more exciting; in fact, they can play a big role in determining how effectively your post generates brand awareness and leads. This article discusses how to choose the best hashtags for your company and post, and how these hashtags can help optimize your social media marketing strategy.


Instagram Algorithm: What you Need to Know to Boost Organic Reach via HooteSuite

“So much content is shared on Instagram that it’s estimated people miss 70 percent of their feeds, on average.”

Instagram has recently adopted an algorithm similar to Facebook when it comes to deciding which posts will be on a user's feed and where on the feed they will be featured, as opposed to the old reverse-chronological set-up, making it more complicated for business's to make sure their posts are viewed by all of their followers. This article provides their inside scoop on the new algorithm as well as 7 tips to ensure your posts are optimized to get the most views.


How to Use New Social Media Features for Customer Retention via. Business 2 Community

“Some marketers still build their sales funnels based on older social media retention tools because they worked in the past. So they allocate fewer resources and time to learn new features and end up retaining less loyal customers. You can’t think like that, though”

This article goes over how the relatively new features on social media such as Instagram stories, Facebook live broadcasts, and social media chat-bots can have huge potential for marketing and customer retention. For each feature, the article presents some effective examples for their use, as well as some essential tips to get the most benefit out of these features.


Want to Create a Trail-Blazing Social Media Campaign? Here Are 13 Tips From Brands like Airbnb, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks via. Buffer Social

“Through case studies of successful social media campaigns by companies like Airbnb, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks, you’ll learn actionable tips on increasing the reach and engagement of your next campaign.

This article outlines 13 successful social media campaigns of various corporations and goes over how they used social media features in a unique way to make their campaign successful. Insight into how brands worked around social media limitations, and a take-away from each case study that can be applied to your marketing campaign. Also goes into unique features, and social media platforms such as Musical.ly and even Emoji!

 

 

Video

10 Questions to Ask When Creating a Social Media Marketing Plan via Entrepreneur (2:25)

“Ever heard of the saying 'Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail'? This old adage rings true when it comes to social media marketing”

Managing social media isn't easy, it requires some planning and thought. This video quickly outlines the essential questions you need to consider before mapping out your social media marketing plan. Should you post on all platforms? How many times a day should you post? The video provides optimal suggestions to these vital questions and more so that you can have a solid plan for social media marketing success.

 

 

Infographic 

The State of Social Media Marketing via MarketingProfs

“US B2B marketers alone are projected to spend more than $100 billion on social media advertising by 2017”

Infographic outlining relevant social media marketing statistics that can help understand the usage of different platforms and aid in planning allocation of resources towards social media for marketing purposes.

Do you have any useful tips on using new social media features to maximize post views and effectiveness? If so, comment below!

Interested in improving the rest of your digital marketing strategy? Our free tool will assess the maturity of your current ecosystem and provide you with suggestions for growth. Click here to take the assessment!

 

Assess My Strategy

 

 

Originally published June 14, 2017, updated August 24, 2017
Tags: Marketing Instagram Instagram Marketing Digital Marketing B2B Marketing