18 Social Media Tactics Used by the Silicon Valley Unicorns

I probably don’t need to tell you how important social media is to your business’s success.

It is quite literally the fastest growing trend in all of human history!

Social media has grown even faster than the Internet itself!

A decade after its inception, the Internet had reached 1 billion people (or 1/6th of the population).

Just nine years after social media started, it achieved a nearly 1.5 billion person reach!

Source: onlinemarketing-trends.com

If you did not fully grasp the power of social media, I hope that you do now. But how in the world do you actually use social media to grow your business?

In this article, I am going to delve into some of the most powerful and closely-guarded social media tactics used by the unicorns of Silicon Valley.

Equipped with these tactics, you will have a clear idea of how to grow and expand your business at an astronomical rate by utilizing the power of social networks.

Sound like something you might find useful?

Let’s get started!

I’ve organized the content below with points on each major social network — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

1. Only post outstanding content on Facebook.

Facebook is one of the most saturated online platforms in the world.

Source: wikipedia.com

Every day, hundreds of people post hundreds of crap articles trying to get their audience’s attention.

If you want to stand out on Facebook, then you need to limit how frequently you share content and focus only promoting your absolute best work.

Posting less will actually generate more user engagement and loyalty from your audience.

2. Hide trolls on Facebook. Don’t ban them.

According to Guy Kawasaki, one of the best methods for dealing with trolls on Facebook is simply to click the “Hide” button.

Source: socialmediaexaminer.com

This nifty trick actually accomplishes two goals in one.

First, since the troll can still see their comment, they won’t realize it’s been hidden.

This means that they will not follow up with angry emails, comments, and messages (thinking they have been banned).

Second, it actually adds to your user engagement stats without subjecting your audience to troll nonsense.

Win-win!

3. Automate Facebook moderation to limit rowdy fans.

You likely have lots of opinionated people who love your content.

And this is great.

But when you fill a Facebook post with comments from rowdy fans, things can get out of hand very quickly.

An easy way to fix this is to use the “Moderation” section of Facebook to ban posts that use certain words often associated with rowdy behavior.

Source: socialmediavoice.com

The post will still be visible to the person who published it and their friends, but it will keep your comments section nice and peaceful.

4. Publish Facebook posts later at night.

A recent study by Buzzsumo found that the best time to post on Facebook is between 10 p.m. and midnight.

This is when most people are relaxing and unwinding at the end of their day.

It is also when people have the fewest distractions, which will increase your user engagement.

5. Loophole your way around Twitter’s 140-character limit.

I know that you likely have messages you want to share with your Twitter followers that cannot be limited to 140 characters.

That’s fine, because, luckily for you keyboard happy Tweeters, there is an easy loophole.

Just write your Tweet as you normally would, ending with a cliffhanger…

Then reply to your own Tweet (after removing the @mention of your name) in your stream.

Source: twitter.com

And voila!

Loophole found!

6. Schedule out a series of tweets from one blog post.

This tip comes from Ian Gray, founder of Seriously Social.

An easy way to automate your Twitter marketing and schedule out several Tweets with almost no work is to setup a free account with missinglettr and connect it with your blog’s RSS feed.

Once missinglettr sees that you have created a new blog post, it will schedule out a series of tweets for the coming year based on various sections of your post.

Source: socialmediaexaminer.com

Pretty sweet right?

7. Use gifs on Twitter.

A gif is basically a short video loop that will quickly tell a story and engage your audience.

Twitter has a library packed full of them so that you can add them to posts without having to leave your feed.

Source: socialfresh.com

Gifs will help you engage and connect with your Twitter audience and will add some flair to your feed that most people do not have.

Give them a try!

8. Use a Twitter autoresponder.

Use the website socialoomph.com to send automatic messages to people whenever they follow you on Twitter.

This is a great way to set yourself apart from the competition and engage with the audience straight from the start.

9. Schedule your Instagram posts.

It can be a real pain to schedule out each Instagram post manually.

It can be an equal pain in your wallet if you hire someone to do it for you.

Luckily, there is a solution.

With Hootsuite, you can now semi-automate your Instagram marketing by creating content in batches so that it is ready for scheduling.

Socialchefs.com

10. Direct message CTAs to your Instagram followers.

A great way to engage with your Instagram audience and ensure that they hear about an event, giveaway, or product that you have coming up it to direct message them with a CTA.

Just a simple video or text message with a link to whatever you are offering works wonders.

It ensures that your content will not get lost in their feed and adds a personal touch to your marketing efforts.

11. Use more hashtags on Instagram.

This particular piece of advice cannot be overstated.

Hashtags are one of the most efficient ways to get your Instagram posts in front of thousands of new eyes and will ensure that you are able to reach a wider audience with your posts.

I recommend you stick with about 7 hashtags per post.

Source: rivaliq.com

Any less and you’re not taking full advantage of this marketing technique.

Any more and your content could be perceived as spam.

12. Use geotags on Instagram to build local connections.

Depending on what type of business you are running, geotags can be one of the most important aspects of your Internet marketing.

If you run a brick and mortar business, using geotags on your posts will allow you to connect with local followers who may be interested in your services.

Source: businessnewsdaily.com

It takes almost no effort and is a fantastic way to generate leads and connect with other influencers in your area.

13. Boost your social media growth by using Instagram’s S4S practice.

A tactic used by Nathan Chan, the founder of founrmag.com is to use S4S, or share for share, to rapidly grow your followers on social media.

By using this tactic, Nathan went from 0 to over 400,000 Instagram followers in less than a year.

S4S is basically a mutually beneficial relationship between you and another influencer where you reference each other’s content to help you grow your social media platforms at an astonishing rate.

14. Utilize the power of visual content in your LinkedIn profile.

Humans are incredibly visual creatures.

So much so that we can actually process an image faster than we can blink!

With that in mind, it is extremely important that you add lots of visually rich content to your LinkedIn profile.

Source: socialmediaexaminer.com

Utilize the power of visual content in your professional portfolio and you will be leaps and bounds ahead of your competitors.

15. Bypass LinkedIn’s restricted search.

If you have ever been unable to find information on an individual because of your current membership level, there is an easy hack to get around this problem.

Most of the information on Linked in is stored on Google so you can bypass the LinkedIn restrictions with a simple search.

Just use the following search index and you are off to the races.

Source: socialmediaexaminer.com

16. Repost old content into LinkedIn to grow your follower base.

A quick and (almost) effortless way to grow your LinkedIn following is to repost old content into LinkedIn using keyword optimized titles.

While some of your content will be picked up by LinkedIn and put in front of thousands of new viewers, most of it will not.

And that’s ok.

You will still gain a tremendous number of new followers if you do this consistently over the long run.

17. Use Slideshare clipping on LinkedIn to curate great content.

By using the clipping tool on SlideShare you can quickly save, organize, and curate great SlideShare content for your LinkedIn profile.

Source: blog.slideshare.com

This is a great tool to generate more leads and share your message more effectively across all social channels.

18. Tag important connections in LinkedIn posts.

If you have a piece of content that you are trying to turn viral, then this is a great strategy to ensure that the most important influencers in your circle see your work.

Simply type in “@” followed by the influencers name and they will get an email regarding your recent post.

Conclusion

No matter what business you operate, social media is one of the keys to success.

Luckily, there are plenty of pros who have failed and learned their social media lessons the hard way so that you don’t have to.

So learn from the unicorns and master the 18 tactics I have detailed above.

Doing so will put you head and shoulders above your competition in no time.

What “Silicon Valley Approved” social media strategies have you discovered?

source : crazyegg.com

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