Market for social media management tools grow over 100% to $970 million in 2016, from $389 million this year. Companies that are still waiting to enter in the ever growing arena of social media will soon find alienated from the rest of the corporate sector

1. 30 Tips for Effective
Social Media Marketing
Hammad Siddiqui
http://hammadsiddiquiblog.com
Twitter http://twitter.com/hammads

2. “Market for social media management tools
grow over 100% to $970 million in 2016,
from $389 million this year.” – Bloomberg
Shift in the trends is evident and marketers
need to understand this to remain in the
market!

3. Companies that are still waiting to enter in the
ever growing arena of social media will soon
find alienated from the rest of the corporate
sector
I AM SURE YOU DO NOT WANT TO
BE IN THAT LEAGUE!

4. Social media has changed the way
marketing was done!
Follow these tips from Gurus of Social
Media Marketing

5. Write blog content for your target audience, which is not necessarily yourself.
This happens with startups a lot. They blog about being entrepreneurs, which is
great – if your target audience is entrepreneurs. Blog about the things that your
community wants to know about.
If you’re going to use social media for customer service, mirror your hours of
operation on Twitter to the hours of operation you have for your support team.
Measure social media ROI by analyzing how it performs compared to more
established channels or advertising methods. It’s not comparing apples-to-apples
when it comes to cost, but you can compare the quality of traffic they drive to
your website.
Mobile check-in deals aren’t just for restaurants and bars. See how one medical
practice creatively offered a special to his tech-savvy patients for checking in.
It’s something any small business marketer can learn from.

6. Hashtag-stuffing tweets doesn’t work. A study from Argyle Social shows that
(in their sample) tweets with hashtags got 5% fewer click-throughs than those
without hashtags.
If you follow more people than are following you, you could harm your
Twitter account’s SEO potential. Search engines “trust” those with more
Twitter influence, and following many more people than follow you isn’t
always an indicator of that.
Building an online community? Show your power users that you appreciate
their contributions. Do this by asking them for feedback, offering prizes and
giveaways, and actually saying "thank you" for their interactions, mentions,
and good content.

7. Think of marketing as storytelling, and think of your customers as the
characters. Think about what motivates them. Measure what patterns the
display. Let their actions, wants, and needs drive the story.
Depressing tweets, vague tweets, tweets about your weight loss – and of
course, our favorite, the humblebrag - these are all messages that are
better kept to yourself. A little personality is fun. But for the most part, stay
professional and positive.
What does your social media strategy really need? It needs to answer
simple questions. Who am I speaking to? What do they want from me online?
How will this strategy evolve? It’s not tools or tactics or having the perfect
definition for either one. It comes down to these basic ideas that are all about
tying social media to your businesses needs.

8. Stop talking about yourself if you want more retweets. Want to get more
RTs? Of course you do. They drive traffic to your blog posts, can boost SEO,
and connect you with with more followers. According to Social Media Scientist
Dan Zarrella’s latest research, tweets with self-reference get fewer retweets
than those with other information. So be relevant, share good information, and
don’t make it about yourself.
The medium isn’t the message. Remember that Twitter, Facebook, or
whatever platform you’re using isn’t the strategy; it’s a tool to distribute your
message.
Choose to measure social media metrics that tell you how you’re doing
based on why you’re doing social media in the first place. This will require
you to step back and think about why you are tweeting, or why you have a
Facebook Page. Is it because you want sales? Then measure conversion rates. Is
it for market research? Then monitor trending topics.

9. Use geo-location Twitter searches to identify local prospects to connect
with. In Twitter’s advanced search, you can refine your search by keyword
and location.
Use social media data to find your key influencers, outline your media
plan, and develop your messaging. By listening to customer conversations
on social media, companies can learn a lot of information about their
competitors and industries that will help them better craft their marketing
programs.
Blog about the problems your product or service solves – not about the product
or service. No one cares about you (yet.) Everyone cares about their own
problems and if your product or service can help.

10. Create a Facebook group to stay connected with those you meet at
conferences months after the last panel. The new Facebook groups aren’t
the old “I lost my cell phone number” most people have been invited to at
some point. New groups allow you to email content, use collaborative group
docs similar to Google Docs (perfect for sharing Twitter usernames or other
contact information), and message the whole group at the same time.
Consider the timing of your social media posts – time of day, time of week,
and time of year. If you're posting to your Facebook Page in the mornings but
your audience isn’t looking until after office hours, your updates are lost in the
mix. If you work for a seasonal brand (think snowboards), how do you need to
better tailor your content during the summer vs. the “on-season?”

11. You don’t need the voice of influencers – you need your brand advocates.
Engaging with influencers just for the sake of having someone with 100,000
Twitter followers talk or blog about your product isn’t useful because they
aren’t invested in your product. Your brand’s existing advocates are. An
influencer might get you quick buzz, but your brand advocates offer longevity.
Have a common name? Use checkusernames.com to test personal brand
monikers that will work for your social media handles and domain. It’s
likely that DanTaylor.com is already taken, but you can check to see what
variations are available so you can create a cohesive personal brand across all
social networks.

12. Plan your editorial calendar for what ebooks can result from your blog
posts. Cranking out content for a company blog each day isn’t easy, but if you
approach your content creation strategically, you can do it in a way that scales
for your business.
If you’re going to tell people to “like” your company on Facebook, have
something of value waiting there for them. Give them a reason why they
should “like” you.
If your company makes a mistake on social media – think rogue tweets –
step out and own up to the mistake. Don’t pull any tricks and pretend you
were hacked.
Use social media contests as an opportunity to learn more about your
customers. Ask them how they heard about your promotion to get a sense of
what channels people use to learn more about your brand.

13. Leverage social search and boost your rankings for target keywords by
offering content (ebooks, webinars, etc.) and having community members
pay with a tweet. Use hashtags.org to find hashtags that matter to your
audience and work them into your pay with a tweet offering to tap into
prospective community members on the web.
Include social sharing and follow buttons on your site, your blog, and in
your emails. Use this how-to guide to learn how you can create them for all
the major social media networks.
It seems obvious, but an often disregarded quality of great community
and social media managers is great social skills. Tact and discernment go a
long way.

14. Publishing a blog post on your company blog? Post several tweets of that post
and track the success of different times and keywords for your followers.
Here are three universal content blueprints to include in your company’s blogs:
offer a new opinion, create a killer list, or teach your customers how to do
something.
How frequently you blog does count. Businesses that blog daily generate 5
times more traffic than those that post only weekly or daily.

15. http://hammadsiddiquiblog.com
http://twitter.com/hammads
Credits for this compilation go to
Hubspot