Although people are spending more time than ever on social media, that doesn’t mean reaching potential customers through social media marketing is easy. The reason it’s actually quite challenging for a business to stand out on any social platform is there’s a lot of noise and competition. Since publishers and businesses across countless industries have realized the opportunity that social media presents, simply posting a few links every now and then on a profile isn’t going to generate meaningful traction.

If you want to get real results from social media marketing, it’s important to take a strategic approach. That’s why we want to share four tips that can help you maximize the effectiveness of the time you put into social media:

1. Less is More

While you want to grab people’s attention on social media, what you don’t want to do is overwhelm them with a post that resembles a wall of text. People like social media posts that are short and sweet, which is why research has found that shorter posts can increase engagement by up to 86%. Although fitting everything you want to communicate into fewer words can be a challenge, making this a priority is a proven way to improve your social media marketing efforts.

2. Curate Content

It’s always helpful to think of social media as a cocktail party. When you’re in this kind of setting, you generally don’t want to be around someone who only talks about themselves. Instead, you want to be around someone who has a lot of interesting things to say and is also happy to listen. You can give your business this kind of personality on social by curating. While it’s fine to periodically promote your business, focusing on sharing content that will provide value to the types of people you want to reach will help draw them to you.

3. Use Images and Videos

Images provide a great way to grab people’s attention without typing a single word. And because all of the major social media platforms have made significant investments in video, it’s definitely worth trying to incorporate video into your overall social media marketing strategy.

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Share More Than Once

When a business begins getting active on social media for the first time, it’s generally not hard for them to come up with interesting content to share. But as time goes on, it’s normal to hit points where you feel like you’re out of fresh ideas. The good news is there’s nothing wrong with sharing great posts more than once. The life of a Facebook post is 4-6 hours and a Tweet only 1 so it’s common for only a small percentage of followers to see your posts, sharing more than once will ensure you get the most value out of your best posts.

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Michelle Hummel is CEO of Web Strategy Plus a full-service digital marketing agency focused on Franchise Marketing. She was recently nominated for the Woman-Owned Business of the Year! She’s a passionate Social Media Trainer with 15+ years of successful online business development, sales, and marketing experience. She also holds a valuable Internet Marketing Degree however with the ever-changing world of web marketing she strives to learn something new every day. 

She travels Nationwide visiting her 22 Social Media Enthusiasts Chapters she developed Nationwide delivering in-depth social media training. She also provides Social Media Certifications through founding Web Media University. A current contributing editor to The Franchise Dictionary Magazine and she has written 3 books in her series called, “The Social Media Magnet: Everything You Need to Know to Attract Customers with Social Media”, where she shares her best-kept secrets to success. She also specializes in helping Franchisors and Franchisees develop an integrated web marketing program to drive leads. She’s available for interviews via email, telephone, Skype video, news segments on location and more. Just let her know how she can help!