3 “Extra-Mile” Social Media Marketing Tips to Get Ahead

Roger Staubach used to say, “There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” That adage is certainly applicable to the world of sales and marketing. In today’s world, virtually everyone uses social media as a marketing tool. With such a crowded field, it’s essential that you go the extra mile if you wish to get ahead of the competition, and stay there. Here are 3 social media marketing tips to help you do just that:

Turn Photos into Movies

We all know that images play better on social media than plain textual content, and most marketers use still images to enhance the look of their posts. But, as good a still images are, videos are exponentially better. According to Hyperfine Media, 92% of mobile video consumers share videos with others; and we know that shareability is an essential component of social media marketing. So, by turning your photos into movies and posting them on your social outlets, you’ll boost engagement with those posts.

The good news is, converting a series of photos into a movie is simple and easy. Just use Windows Movie Maker, which is probably already installed on your PC, unless you’re running Windows 10. If that’s the case you can either install it, or use an online video editor like Magistro. Either way, turning a series of photos into a movie is easy to do and a great way to enhance your social media presence.

Design and Post Your Own Custom Memes

In case you haven’t noticed, social media outlets are crawling with memes. The Meriam-Webster dictionary defines a meme as, “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.” Memes are typically humorous and convey a somewhat hidden meaning that speaks about a popular culture reference. They are meant to be satirical and funny. What makes them attractive as a marketing tool is their ability to go viral very quickly. If you can post a meme that goes viral, you can build brand awareness. But it’s important to realize that memes have a very short lifespan. So, if you want to make memes an ongoing part of your overall social media strategy, you’ll need to create new ones all the time. Here are a couple of ideas that can help keep the meme juices flowing:

• Tap your staff for meme ideas. You could even have an ongoing contest where you award a token prize for the best meme idea of the day, week or month.
• Play off of other popular memes by putting a personal twist on an already viral meme. This is called meme-jacking.

Market around unique holidays

In the U.S., we’re currently in the middle of the most popular holiday season of the year for retail marketers – the 4-5 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And, when you add all the after-Christmas sales, the Christmas holiday marketing season is even longer. The good news is, no matter what you sell or where, you can take advantage of the holiday marketing concept and set yourself apart from the competition in the process. Just create social media marketing campaigns around some unique holidays.

For example, we’re all familiar with January 1st as New Years Day, but did you know it’s also National Hangover Day and National Bloody Mary Day? Would either of those days fit as the basis for a marketing campaign for your products or services? Perhaps not. But, if you operate a health club, you could certainly build a social media campaign around National Personal Trainer Awareness Day (January 2nd), couldn’t you? That would set you apart from all the other health clubs in your area who are focusing on the whole New Years resolutions thing in their campaigns.

The year is full of unique, quirky holidays just waiting to be used as the focus of one of your social media marketing campaigns. Pick one out for each month of the year, create a campaign around it, and see how it works. If a particular holiday campaign shows promise, improve on it and make it an annual campaign. If it’s a bit of a clunker, find another unique holiday to replace it with.

With such a crowded field, it’s essential that you go the extra mile with your social media marketing if you wish to get ahead of the competition, and stay there. Contact us today to learn more about how you can improve your social media strategy.