I have recently taken on board a number of new recruits into the world of social media marketing and SEO. It has prompted me to offer a little career advice for those aspiring marketers.
As a someone entering into the online world as a social media marketer, there is a lot to learn and a lot to do. You probably already have a daily to-do list full of different tasks that need to be done as soon as possible.
Some of them are pretty big and require you to dedicate a lot of time and effort in order to develop your skill set in digital marketing. Others are medium-sized and may be completed quicker. Then there are small tasks.
They are often called quick wins.
The reason why marketers refer to them this way is explained by the fact that they can be done fairly quickly. Most of them are completed within a matter of minutes.
As someone training for or entering into SEO and social media marketing, it may be tempting to forget the power of quick wins because they are small.
We all want to enter the big time and chase the big dragons. Learn to kill little dragons first.
Don’t neglect the starting gates if you want to succeed in a career in digital marketing. Many of those quick wins are also super effective and super fast fixes that can provide many big benefits in both short- and long-term.
Take a minute and have a look at the top quick wins that can boost your digital media strategy right away. These are standard tactics that even the mightiest of SEO Gurus still uses as part of their daily marketing work.
1. Use hashtags where possible
If you’re using Twitter in your social media strategy, it is of vital importance to use hashtags whenever it makes sense to do so.
It is a well established that Tweets with hashtags receive two times more engagement if compared with those without, so taking advantage of this knowledge is totally reasonable.
Also, use the right number of hashtags.
For example, it is recommended to avoid using more than two: they produce a significant drop in the engagement (sound strange, but it’s true).
2. Register your brand across all major social media platforms
Internet users generally have a profile on all popular social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.).
Although you might have an idea of which one is the most frequently used by your target audience, it is still necessary to build a strong social media presence.
Some industries have neglected social media channels thinking there were no wins to be had. The Legal profession, for example, have competed mostly in LinkedIn but have neglected the growing marketing and SEO opportunities for lawyers on Facebook
For businesses such as professional writing services that use only social media for communication with clients, this quick win is essential.
So consider creating official pages on all social media sites, even those who you haven’t considered yet.
3. Favor everyone who takes an interest in your content
The people you like, comment, and re-share the content you put out there are awesome, and you should make friends with them. The first reason is they increase the popularity of your content on the Internet, thus helping you to get higher in Google search results.
The second reason is that you can build your audience by favoring them.
It could be done by following them, returning the favor by re-sharing their content and saying a simple “thank you.”
4. Opportunistic SEO
SEO is still important in marketing. Not only is it important, but it is actually growing. Niche SEO and Digital Marketing industries are popping up all over and you should take advantage of the benefits it provides.
Especially when these benefits are great for improving the content popularity. For example, by using tools like Google Keyword Planner (though there are arguably even be some better ones out there these days), you can identify the most popular keywords as well as the least popular ones.
The tool provides you with a report that contains search trends that you can use to guide the content production effort.
As a result, the popularity of your content will also increase.
5. Include a call to action in your email signature
Even simple things as email signature could be used in social media marketing.
For example, you can make a simple change by adding your profiles on social media and writing a line that encourages to connect with you there (something like Follow me on Twitter or add me on Facebook).
As a result, the person who receives the email has the opportunity to connect with you in a matter of seconds.
6. Add Google Tag Manager
Digital marketing develops at a fast pace and failing to adjust is not an option. One of the ways to quickly manage tags without making serious changes to the existing systems is Google Tag Manager.
It performs a wide range of functions, such as update of tags for site analytics, conversion tracking, and remarketing, determination of the status of tags, management of tags, and collaboration for teams.
In other words, a lot of critical functions on our website will be automated so you could focus on something else.
7. Add images to your posts
According to Hubspot, images in tweets play a critical role in user engagement as they receive up to 150% more retweets than those without pictures.
Therefore, visual content such as images, videos, and especially infographics should be an important part of your digital marketing.
8. Social Listening
Sprout Social gave a good definition of this term: “the process of tracking conversations around specific phrases, brands, or words, and leveraging them to discover opportunities or create content.”
It is a key to keeping a pulse on the customers’ voice because it allows you to eavesdrop on what people are saying about your brand online.
As a result, you could identify the topics that generate both negative and positive buzz.
The most popular tools for social listening are Hootsuite, TweetReach, and Social Mention.
Nearly Done!
Translate these quick wins into improvements to your digital marketing strategy. Go and include them into you daily to do list right now!
Acknowledgement: Tom Jager is a professional blogger. He works at Awriter and has a degree in Law and English Literature. Tom has written numerous articles/online journals.