2. Use all Social Media Tools, because they are FREE: On Page 74-75 in the book, Stephanie Agresta talks about how social media is free and we should use it as much as possible. I totally agree with her. YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Vine, and let's not forget Facebook and Twitter. We should connect them all so people can see us through many different angles. I mentioned Twitter by itself above this because in my mind I have gotten more success out of Twitter than any other site. Facebook is a very close second though. Bough and Agresta both mention this on page 89-90. Agresta says, "Absolutely. In addition to understanding the major platforms, marketers must be aware of niche platforms and communities, as well as emerging platforms that have yet to go mainstream."
3. Listen: It is important to know how to take constructive criticism. There could be things that others could help you with to improve. Things like blog design or Twitter profile design can always use improvement to help please customers/fans. When I was creating this blog I made sure to ask everyone around me if they thing it looked good. I also asked them what they thought I could do to make it look better. Another thing social media users need to do is listen to the feedback you get on the web. Whether it is the comments section on your YouTube page or it is straight from your Twitter followers. When there is a majority of complaints, there is usually a good reason for it. Make sure to listen to the people under you to keep your ship afloat.
4. How to Post: From first hand experience, I believe that there are two ways of posting to timelines on social media that can be successful. The first way, if you are going to post often make sure that what you post is important and has meaning behind it. People do not like reading spam messages or messages with no information with them. People will become disinterested in your profile and the upward trend of followers that you were looking for can be gone very quickly. The second way, if you don't post very often make sure that when you post your messages can be powerful and can be remembered in the readers head after they leave the page. Use things like trending/popular hashtags that can help spread your words. I have first hand experience of this, because on my very own personal Twitter page I don't post often. I like to post about sports news. I make sure to post during big sporting events so that sports fans see this and eventually follow me. It really works, because I am gaining followers each and everyday. I am now up to 203 followers and am very proud of that.
5. It is NEVER Too Late: The internet is something that will NEVER die. It is just so powerful in today's world. Everything we do today revolves around the internet. E-mail, texting, social media, and sooooooo much more. The list is never ending. It doesn't matter how old you get, the internet and social media/marketing will always be there right at your finger tips. The best part about it is, that it is all free. I mentioned this above as well. I personally have dreams of one day having a successful YouTube channel. I personally do not have the time to start this dream as school takes up most of my time today. But, I will always know that the internet will always be there for me if I ever wanted to grow. Stephanie Agresta and B. Bonin Bough talk about this on pages 243-244. Bough simply states, "You could even say that there are advantages to entering the game a little later."
6. Connect All of Your Social Media Sites: This is something that I learned first hand from this course and from reading the book. All of the social media sites in the world aren't linked together that well. Even though you can see that certain sites are beginning to work together, people that are trying to promote themselves or promote something else need to be aware that everything isn't integrated yet. This connects back to #2 on this list. For example, if you have a YouTube channel make sure to tell your viewers that you have a Twitter account where they can connect with you as well. Give your fan all of your social media pages so they can follow your journey. Agresta talks about how she thinks that social media will all be integrated in the future. This would take away the need to mention to your viewers/followers where to go to interact with you on other sites. It is a really good thing and can make things very easy. As mentioned above, we can see social media already starting to become socially integrated in todays world. Here is an example below:
We can see all of the available social media share options as well as the ability to embed the video wherever we would like.
7. Follow Back: Besides replying to a fan/customer on Twitter, the best way to make them become an even bigger fan is to follow them back. It will make them feel so important that they will automatically fell good. I can tell you this first hand. I myself am a huge fan of all different types of baseball caps. One of my favorite stores to shop in is LIDS because they sell so many different hats. I tweeted to the company one day and they eventually followed me back. I am a fan for life. They made me so happy and willing to shop there. Following back can clog up your timeline, but it really can help you with gaining fans.
8. Be Fast: As mentioned above, I like to tweet and write on Facebook about big sporting events that just occurred. There is something that I left out that is very key to my success toward gaining popularity. Being fast and one of the first to tweet/post about something really helps gain recognition. For example, if an important basketball game is a couple minutes away from ending, I will type out my tweet with all of the hashtags already integrated in the message. I make sure to time it right so I can be one of the first people to tweet about the result of the game in the whole world.
9. Know Your Audience: Once you become popular enough, figure out the age range of your audience. After looking this up online I found that 18-29 year olds have an 89% usage of social media sites while on the internet. This gives more of a chance for younger viewers to see your stuff if you are trying to grow. I believe that this means that people should shift the way they share things on the web to attract younger viewers. Maybe different color schemes and using the so called Younger generation "lingo" in order to grow your brand.
10. Use the Success of others to Your Benefit: We all know that famous quote, "Good artists copy, great artists steal." I don't necessarily mean steal, I mean follow the path of successful people. Stephania Agresta and B. Bonin Bough shared some social media campaigns that they thought were some of the most successful. On pages 255-257 they talk about this. Agresta talks about how she thinks the Ford Fiesta Social media campaign was very successful. As mentioned above, I wanted to eventually have a successful YouTube channel. I would like it to be a Video Blog channel. I watch video blogs or "vlogs" as they call it everyday and try to take in how these people have become so successful. Whether it is the titles of the videos, the content, or the way they interact with their fans. I take it all in and learn. This is why I agree with Bough when he says it is sometimes better to join social media later rather than sooner. You can rely on the success of others to benefit you in making things easier to grow. Below is a Video Blog YouTube channel that is very successful that I watch every day. I have learned so much from them.
