{"id":145814,"date":"2015-09-16T11:00:46","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T15:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/premium.wpmudev.org\/blog\/?p=145814"},"modified":"2015-09-16T04:04:49","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T08:04:49","slug":"manage-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/manage-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips and Tricks to Manage Your WordPress Social Media Campaigns Like a Pro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social media is everywhere. Almost exhaustively, so. It seems everything has a hashtag, and everything is shareable. But even if you resist social marketing, it’s here to stay, which means now’s the time to get your act together.<\/p>\n

There are tons of social “gurus” out there. All of them have opinions and are likely to chat about how their techniques are the best.<\/p>\n

And that got me thinking: when you boil it all down to the basics, what really works the best?<\/p>\n

What social media marketing strategies are really<\/em> the most effective?<\/p>\n

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There are a lot of choices when it comes to social media marketing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Today, I aim to show you precisely what the real social marketing gurus are doing (the ones that walk the walk, not the hype masters with no substance) and how you can use their tested tactics to extend the reach of your blog.<\/p>\n

From sharing your latest blog posts to curating content to analyzing your audience, I’ll cover it here.<\/p>\n

But first, let’s learn by example.<\/p>\n

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Case Study #1: Ann Handley<\/h3>\n

Ann Handley really has this content marketing thing down. She’s a best-selling author and chief content officer at MarketingProfs and has a significant social media following.<\/p>\n

On her personal site,\u00a0AnnHandley.com<\/a>, she offers advice on all topics related to content production, emphasizing creating quality\u00a0<\/i>content.<\/p>\n

\"When
Handley includes images when sharing posts on Twitter to make them stand out.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Twitter<\/a>, she promotes new posts as they’re published and several times thereafter, always including a compelling image to further encourage a click.<\/p>\n

While some marketers use Instagram to directly brand their sites, others, like Handley, take a subtler approach<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rather than posting quotes from her books all the time and watermarking every image with her website’s logo, she posts photos from her life.<\/p>\n

She lets her personality shine through, which is really effective for brand building, especially when your business brand is made up of you!<\/p>\n

\"Handley's
Handley’s Instagram feed offers a behind-the-scenes look at her life.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Case Study #2: Feld Thoughts<\/h3>\n

Let’s momentarily move out of the social media sphere and look at something completely different.<\/p>\n

Feld Thoughts<\/a>\u00a0is the personal blog of Brad Feld, a managing director of Foundry Group and venture capitalist.<\/p>\n

The site is very simple. In it, Feld shares his latest musings on business and life, often rather insightfully. His social media strategy is bare-bones but effective.<\/p>\n

Feld automatically shares new blog posts when they are published on Twitter. He likely uses Publicize since Jetpack is enabled on his site, as revealed by What WordPress Theme is That?<\/a> He also has Easy Social Share Buttons installed, making it simple for people to share his content across multiple social networks.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, however, Feld doesn’t promote his blog posts all that much. Instead, he engages with real people in the discussion. And it’s working. @bfeld\u00a0 currently has over 332k + followers on Twitter<\/a>, so he must be doing something right.<\/p>\n

Case Study #3: Thrifty Nifty Mommy<\/h3>\n

The\u00a0Thrifty Nifty Mommy<\/a> site is built on a custom child theme for the Genesis Framework and\u00a0is a comprehensive review site for everything related to babies, kids, and parenthood. Oh, and there are plenty of giveaways, too.<\/p>\n

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\"Custom
Custom images and text attract attention to her latest blog posts on Twitter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With 43k Twitter<\/a> followers, 73k Facebook followers<\/a>, and 64k Pinterest followers<\/a>, site owner Janessa has a handle on social media, especially integrating it with WordPress. She appears to use Publicize to initially promote her posts but also has Simple Social Icons by StudioPress installed for better social sharing and connecting.<\/p>\n

Though she uses the same photos across all social networks to promote her blog posts, she offers custom text on each and appears to create a custom image for her posts on Pinterest.<\/p>\n

The Future of Social and What’s Trending<\/h3>\n

It seems like a new report or study is being released about social media marketing every month. And while that might seem ridiculous on the surface, it makes sense.<\/p>\n

Social marketing is dynamic. It’s constantly in flux as more people use it and adapt it for different purposes. So new studies and reports can show us where we’re at on the social landscape and how businesses and individuals with websites can adjust their strategies.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at current trends…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though this is constantly evolving and changing, here are some current social media trends that seem to be thriving at the moment.<\/p>\n