25 Social Media Tips Provided By 25 Creative Minds

Using social media in your business, no matter what platform you’re on, is all about making connections and building relationships with your audience. The most important piece of advice I can give you is: be interesting & interact. That should help guide you when deciding what to share and how often to share it. 

Follow him @patflynn

The most important things that brands (or anyone, for that matter) need to consider when exploring a social media marketing initiative is… wait for it… their target audience. It’s simple, but there’s a reason why marketers keep coming back to this – without a clearly defined target audience, you can’t do anything else. This is particularly an issue with businesses jumping on the social media bandwagon because “that’s where everyone is” or “that’s the cool place to promote”, without giving a thought to whether the target audience is even hanging out on that social media, and if they are, whether they are in a frame of mind to pay attention to what the brand is trying to say. So the key thing to consider when going into social media is who your audience is, which social media platform they “hang out” on, and what their frame of mind is when they do.

Follow him @DannyIny

Social media channels are a great way to build relationships, build a community and obtain brand exposure. Remember though that “not everything is about you”, and proactively participating and helping people will take you further. Instead of being all over the place, be active on networks that matter, and enagage with like minded people, that share your interest.

Follow him @ditesco

When it comes to blogging, it’s not my goal to sound cool, or smart, and receive praise. My only goal is the person reading my stuff says when they’re done, “Hmm, that makes total sense. I can do that!”

The bottom line is we’re all communicators and teachers. And he/she that can do this better than anyone else, will likely rise to the top in their field.

Follow him @thesaleslion

The best advice I can offer in using social media for business is to know your audience, that is the only way to deliver what they want. It is step one. You should also know your audience on each platform since the crowd can be completely different from Twitter to LinkedIn to Google+. Not knowing your audience simply means delivering the wrong message.

Follow him @SocialMouths

Getting the best results from Social Media isn’t complicated but it does take a little work and planning.

 You first need to know what your goals are and what you want from your Social Media efforts. Once you know that then it is all about – Connecting, Sharing and Engaging with people on a regular basis.

 The process it takes to build a popular blog is the same for building a great Social following.

Follow him @JohnAguiar

Social media could be a great traffic generator, but also the biggest time waster if you don’t really know how to take advantage of it. My best advice would be to take your time to learn where YOUR target audience hangs out (and it might be very different from mine), and focus on that network exclusively. Be real, accessible, and helpful – give and you shall receive.

Follow her @AnaTrafficCafe

When first starting out, pick one or two networks and stick to them. Master them and once you are almost a power user, pick another one and expand. You can not properly handle 10 different social networks at the same time. Watering down your efforts is the wrong way to start, so focusing on mastering one or two will bring much more to your social media results.

Follow her @BrankicaU

In order to make a connection with your readers it’s important that you answer all comments.  People want to know that they’ve been heard.  This is where the interaction begins with building relationships with your readers so ask more questions in your response to their comments and keep the conversation going.

Follow her @adriennesmith40

Social media is an amazing traffic model but it’s not a business model. Simply having a blog or engaging in social media is not the be-all of a business. Without a solid business model, your hard work will leave you starving. Outline your business model first, and where your revenue will come from and then use social media and blogging to build your reputation, reach and trust factor so that your business makes sales/conversions.

Follow her @AskKim

The number one way to gain influence with social media is to help others.  Help people and let them know that you genuinely care about them.  When you help others and do the things that you’d like to see people do for you, most people don’t have a problem returning the favor.  If you want someone to share your content, share theirs first.  If you want them to comment on a post of yours, comment on theirs first.  You’d be surprised how far you can take this.  Then when you least expect it, people will go above and beyond to help you in ways you never could have expected.  This goes for social media and just about everything else in life.

Follow her @weblogbetter

Social media has gotten very big, and it can have a huge impact on your blog and business. The secret to building a brand in your niche is in the way you build your social tribe. The fastest way to stardom on any social media platform is to get to know it inside and out and build your reputation and credibility faster than you dare to think.

Follow her @MavisNong

The most important factors necessary for using social media successfully are to focus on people who are in your target audience or influence your target audience by interacting with them. Far too many people’s efforts are not targeted and they’re broadcasting instead of remembering that the important half of social media is that it is SOCIAL!

Follow him @GrowMap

Blogging should be like writing, it should be about passion and it should be a good balance between the two. Write about what you truly believe in, about what interests you and what you can actually write about. Once you like what you are writing about, you will be good at it. Stick to what you like and not what others are doing. There isn’t any need to conform, just be you.

Follow her @hajraks

Social media is not for the weak. As a very active small entrepreneur I’ve found success in SM, any time you have success you will be asked about it. No matter what I say or tips I offer, it seems most can’t get by level 1. Stay focused and don’t give up!

Follow him @extremejohn

Don’t rely solely on broadcasting your own content on Social Media, take the time to find trusted sources and other bloggers who you can confidently share and expose your readership to as well.  Spend time just asking and answering questions, participating in trends, polls and getting noticed by joining topics and conversations shared by others in the same niche as yours.  Forge relationships and take the time to recommend and endorse others you believe in and they will appreciate you even if you are just an up and comer.

Follow him @dragonblogger

Secure You Brand: Bloggers have been very quick to embrace social media. New social media networks of every size are launching every day. It’s important to secure your brand (link/URL) on every single network possible; you never know how big it will become. Did you see Pinterest coming?

Follow him @HotBlogTips

Using social media as a tool to reach out to your audience is obviously the right thing to do if you want to engage with them at a personal level. If you truly want to involve them in a conversation, then it’s important to give each ‘channel’ that you use a unique experience. So I’d always make sure that my Twitter followers have a slightly different experience than Facebook fans; makes them feel special.

Follow him @iloveqatar

Social Media as a tool is the best one-on-one medium through which we can directly engage with people. It not only humanizes the interaction, but also shows a level of personal attention and care.

For business whose services/products are for the mainstream consumer market, the one piece of advice I can give is be open and accepting of anything you hear about your product/service. 

Follow him @yasserm86

I believe that social media should be an important part of any business’s marketing strategy. Having a great social media team could be the reason you land that big sale. But if you do not have a social media strategy in place or your social media team doesn’t truly understand how important social media is, it could cost you lot a more then a few sales. They are there to be your brand ambassadors. Their job is to be the face and voice of your business. They are their to help spread the word about your company and help resolve issues that might come up about your business.

Follow him @element321

Social media can be a great way to expand your online business.  But it can also be an incredible waste of time if you don’t have a plan.  My advice is to find out what activities bring the best results and ONLY concentrate on doing those things.  That way you can get results while having time to concentrate on other aspects of your business.

Follow him @stevescott1