Getting social media right can be tricky, despite the fact that we all use social media so frequently it can be tough to get any results for your business.
For this reason I’ve put together checklist of essential steps so that you can gain full advantage from your social media efforts.
There are two versions of the list:
- A quick check list if you are more experienced
- List with additional descriptions if you need a little guidance.
Quick check list
For people who want a quick list to check over…
Setting up
- Have you fully completed your Facebook page?
- Have you claimed your Facebook page URL?
- Have you fully completed your Google+ page?
- Have you claimed your Google+ page URL?
- Have you provided links to your website in each of your profiles?
- Have you created a branded cover photo & avatar for each of your social profiles?
- Have you checked your brand name across all social sites using namecheckr?
- Have you created a Hootsuite account and added your social profiles?
- Have you decided on your social media goals?
Your website
- Have you enabled open graph tags on your website?
- Have you included social share buttons on your website?
- Have you included social follow buttons on your website?
- Have you embedded your Facebook/Twitter page into your website?
- Have you added your Twitter page to Twellow
- Have you added your Twitter page to WeFollow?
- Have you followed authority brands in your niche?
- Have you followed back your followers? (P.S. Tweepi makes this easier)
- Have you used Tweepi to find and follow active Twitter users in your Niche?
- Have you unfollowed users that aren’t active (or aren’t following you back)
- Are you using niche hashtags in your Tweets?
- Have you created a call to action for your page?
- Have you started using the Power Editor?
General Social Media Marketing
- Are you posting regularly?
- Are you using images in your posts?
- Are you posting at the right time?
- Have you responded to all of your customers/followers?
- Have you asked your email list to follow your social accounts?
- Have you run a social media giveaway?
- Have you got social analytics in place?
The complete checklist
Setting up
Have you fully completed your Facebook page?
- Have you selected any sub categories for your page?
- Have you entered your company address?
- Have you included a short & long description?
Have you claimed your Facebook page URL?
When first setting up your Facebook page you’ll probably get a URL like: http://www.facebook.com/yourbusiness/9268942345
Instead you want a clean URL like:
http://www.facebook.com/yourbusiness.
Have you fully completed your Google+ page?
- Have you added a tagline?
- Have you added an introduction?
- Have you added all relevant contact information?
Have you claimed your Google+ page URL?
Like Facebook pages Google+ pages can also start life out as a jumbled mess of a URL…
Have you linked your Google+ page with your website?
Linking your Google+ page with your website enables Google to show branded content from your Google+ page in the search results. This might include reviews, contact details, opening hours & your company logo.
Have you provided links to your website in each of your profiles?
It’s important to include a link to your website on each of your social profiles as this helps search engines to identify which social activity is linked to your website & your brand.
Have you created a branded cover photo & avatar for each of your social profiles?
All social sites have options to add branding to your page with cover photos & avatars.
It’s important to note that each site has different requirements in terms of image sizes and for best results you should to fit the social sites size requirements.
Sprout Social has a handy page with all of the size requirements you need: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-image-sizes-guide
Have you checked your brand name across all social sites using namecheckr?
Using Namecheckr is a quick and easy way to see which social sites you have already claimed and those you haven’t. It can also help to identify opportunities for promoting your brand on social sites you hadn’t thought of..
Have you created a Hootsuite account and added your social profiles?
Hootsuite will save you so much time & make managing your social profiles a lot easier..
If you don’t already have an account (It’s free to manage up to 3 social profiles) Sign up and start connect to your social pages to start posting and managing your pages all from one place..
Have you decided on your social media goals?
It is essential to determine what you are trying to achieve with your social media efforts so that you don’t waste time creating posts & content that doesn’t gain anything.
Are you looking to increase brand exposure, generate more traffic to your website or more sales? Whatever it is you’re trying to achieve make a plan & decide how you’re going to make it happen.
Your website
Have you enabled open graph tags on your website?
Open graph tags help social media sites like Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn understand the content on your website. It goes far beyond traditional “meta tags” which cover the title & description of your website allowing website owners to add labels such as “author”, “content type”, “default image to show on social media” & more..
Use the Facebook debugger to see how Facebook see’s your website: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug
It won’t be the same on all other sites but gives you an idea if your site already has open graph tags or if they are labelled correctly.
Read up on Open Graph & how to implement it here:
Have you included social share buttons on your website?
Do you have predominant sharing buttons across your whole website (especially on your blog posts). A good free script to use is www.sharethis.com
Have you included social follow buttons on your website?
Make it easy for your site visitors to become fans on your social pages by embedding social follow buttons. A great script is https://www.addthis.com/get/follow
Have you embedded your Facebook/Twitter page into your website?
Not quite a necessity but definitely a good thing to have. I like to put them in the sidebars of my websites pages.
It’s a good way of getting more of your customers to become fans on social media & helps to add “personality” to your website.
Facebook page embed generator: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/like-button
Twitter timeline embed generator: https://dev.twitter.com/web/embedded-timelines
Pinterest embed generator: https://business.pinterest.com/en/widget-builder#do_pin_it_button
Have you added your Twitter page to Twellow
Twello is a business directory of Twitter followers, adding your profile is free and may get you some more followers!
Have you added your Twitter page to WeFollow?
WeFollow is a business directory of Twitter followers, adding your profile is free and may get you some more followers!
Have you followed authority brands in your niche?
Following authority brands within your niche is a great way to get new ideas, improve your social profile relevancy & increase your authority. (With any luck one or two of them will follow you back).
Have you used Tweepi to find and follow active Twitter users in your Niche?
Tweepi is a powerful free tool to find and filter new active twitter users to follow.
- Find followers of an idol account or competitor
- Find people an idol account follows
- Unfollow people you follow who aren’t active
- Follow people who follow their followers back
- And more…
If you want to increase your Twitter followers naturally I would highly recommend using Tweepi.
Try the free version of Tweepi
Have you unfollowed users that aren’t active (or aren’t following you back)
Use Tweepi or a similar tool to unfollow Twitter users who aren’t active on the site and aren’t following you back.
Are you using niche hashtags in your Tweets?
If you’re not using hashtags in your tweets you’re missing a big opportunity! They don’t cost any money and chances are they’ll get your tweets a whole lot more attention. Look at what hashtags influencers in your market are using and adopt some of those..
Have you created a call to action for your page?
A call to action button on your Facebook page sits at the bottom of your cover photo & directs your fans to whatever URL you like with the button text you like.
Have you started using the Power Editor?
The Facebook power editor is a free to use tool which provides access to unreleased page features & enhancements to get more out of your Facebook marketing. You need a Facebook ads account to get started (although you don’t have to spend any money).
http://www.facebook.com/powereditor
Social Media Marketing
Are you posting regularly?
If you’re going to keep people interested and develop relationships with your social media followers you need to post regularly. More importantly however you need to be consistent, whether that is weekly, daily or twice a week.
Are you using images in your posts?
Social updates which include images are far more likely to be seen than those without. Always try to include one image with every social update to increase your chances of being seen.
(If possible brand your images too, if you can’t do it yourself I highly recommend finding a designer on Fiverr to create something for you.)
Are you posting at the right time?
A lot of people don’t get anything out of social media because they post at the wrong times for their audience.
Take a look at this handy graphic to see the best times to post on the most popular social platforms:
http://www.quicksprout.com/2015/01/02/what-are-the-best-times-to-post-on-social-media/?display=wide
Have you asked your email list to follow your social accounts?
Have you asked your newsletter subscribers to follow you on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest?
Have you run a social media giveaway?
Running a giveaway is an excellent way to drum up a serious amount of attention on social media. Pick a prize & timeframe and tell everyone about it!
I highly recommend using Rafflecopter to run your giveaway and collect Facebook likes, Twitter follows, Tweets & more..
Have you got social analytics in place?
Most people don’t get anything out of social media because they don’t understand what they’re doing wrong, or how to fix it.
It is essential that you regularly analyze your social efforts to determine what’s not working and how you can make improvements.
- Beevole is a powerful tool for measuring your social media ROI by measuring resulting sales & engagement from your social media posts.
- Followerwonk analyzes your Twitter followers, when they’re online most, when you post most etc..
- Keyhole analyzes the success of hashtags in real time.
- ViralWoot offers a free & paid plan to analyze your Pinterest marketing as well as gain new followers, schedule pins & more..
- Klout scores your social media influence from 0-100 and compares it across your social platforms to determine which is working best for you.
- SocialBro analyzes your Twitter profile and works out the best time for you to Tweet based on your audience.
- Facebook Insights – Any page owner should be regularly checking their page insights which has a wealth of valuable information including: Post engagement, Audience demographics & lots more..