234 Finance: 5 Ways to Hack Social Media for 2017

We have seen a lot of tech trends and Internet buzzes in previous years, especially in 2016. From LinkedIn Sales Navigator to Twitter for business, where businesses can advertise on the micro-blogging site, to the rise of social selling. The trends will continue in the coming year, and you can have an ‘unfair advantage’ if you properly learn how to make the best use of it in 2017.

Here are 5 ways to help you plan your social media campaign for the New Year.

1. Determine your prospect’s favorite hang-out spot
Check your prospective customers again in 2017, and see whether they have changed their hangout spots i.e. dominant platforms. Know exactly where you can find your prospect any time you want to reach them so that you won’t miss them when promoting your content and/or products and services. Are they still where they used to be or have they veered somewhere else? It’s your job to figure that out.

2. Decide the best content to share
Do a simple content audit and find out whether the content you’ve shared in the previous year was what your audience really needed. Re-examine that in the upcoming year: Between blog posts, white papers, info graphic content, videos, etc, which one did your audience like the most? You have got to experiment these options to avoid guesswork.

3. Have a budget
While basic social media campaigns are free, a lot of the marketing advertisements on platforms are paid. For example, a Facebook ad comes with a price tag and so is marketing on Twitter and LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Before you start your marketing campaign in the upcoming New Year, set aside a good budget and keep it consistent over a period of time.

4. Start with a network
There’s no doubt, social media tools dominate our world – Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram – to name but a few. It’s impossible to use all these tools for your social media campaign next year. Use only one network instead, the one that your prospects use the most. This will not only keep you focused, it will be good for your budget as well.

5. Incorporate social selling into your campaign
What’s the end result of social media campaign? To increase sales, right? So, why not incorporate social selling – the application of social media in marketing – into your campaign. Many small and mid-sized businesses have benefited tremendously from social selling, using platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn to engage with new prospect, share content easily and close sales on the go.

We’ll definitely see more of these in 2017; you should not miss out.

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