Trying to figure out where to start can be daunting. I would recommend Googling "Social Media Guide" and saving whichever tips feel right for your comfort level. Remember, your goal is to get an overview of what this tool is about and to begin using it. You do not want or need to become a social media expert, just start by learning enough to help you get over feeling intimidated by it and to begin feeling more comfortable promoting yourself and your business.
Follow these ten simple steps and you will be well on your way to being more connected, more plugged in, and more efficient this year with social media marketing for beginners.
10 Tips For Social Media Marketing Beginners
#1 – Connect
Add 2-5 contacts per week on either LinkedIn or Facebook. It is a great way to connect with people and get opportunities flowing. If you simply add 2 people per week, that will be 100+ new people per year that are in your network and who you can possibly work with, even on new platforms like Threads and TikTok in 2023 or 2024.
Time Spent: 1 hour per week.
#2 – Master A Forum
Find one active forum (check to see how often people are posting) like on Reddit or Quora in your niche and create a real profile there. Introduce yourself and get involved – use the private messaging features to introduce yourself to other influential members (DON’T sell). Once you have made contributions, then feel free to share your products or services with the other members of the forum.
Time Spent: 2 hours per week.
#3 – Cut Down And Move Up
Get rid of most of the blogs in your feed reader. Unless you are running a site that relies on that latest news, you probably don’t need to read hundreds of blogs each day. Instead, focus on a handful in your industry that are viewed as highly influential. Comment at least once per week on each of those. After a month, email the author to let them know how much you enjoy their blog. When you have something good that you are looking to build links to, email them. It’s no longer a “cold-call” now.
Time Spent: 5 hours per month.
Time Saved: 10 hours per month not reading everything.
#4 – Meet A TikToker Or Tweeter A Day
Spend 15 minutes per day (during the week) contacting a new person from TikTok or Twitter via instant message and forging a bond. You can usually locate this information right on their profile page and add them to your contact program. This simple task will do more for your chances of success at Reddit than anything else you can ever do. Trust me. Most of the active users also have profiles on a lot of the other social networks, so you are killing many birds with one stone with this newbie social media marketing tactic.
Time spent: 15 minutes per day.
#5 – Get Universal
Take advantage of Google Universal with video optimization. Create 1 video for your business and put it on YouTube. Build backlinks to it. Hey, if an 8 year old kid can do it and make millions of dollars annually, you can build a following on YouTube.
Time Spent: 5 hours to create the video and 5 hours to get links to it.
#6 – Think Globally
For each submission that you make to Quora or Reddit – use the same exact title and description and translate it to another language, then submit on those sites or threads. You’ll be surprised at how much traffic and links they can generate (and you don’t even have to translate your content). Use a quick translator to make this super easy.
Time Spent: 10 Minutes Per Submission.
#7 – Focus
Stay away from the over-hyped, all-purpose social networks that don’t drive traffic or influence people. They are out there and they want to suck your time up. Don’t let them. If they can’t get you decent traffic or links, don’t waste your time. This is why it’s so important to track your work closely and make sure you see where results are coming from.
Time Saved: Countless Hours.
#8 – Answer
Answer 5 questions per day in your niche on Quora, Reddit, or another answers site / forum to become an authoritative source. Link drop to one of your sites every 4th or 5th answer.
Time Spent: 15 Minutes per day.
#9 – Join The Conversation
Once per day, use a tool such as Google Search, Yahoo, or Bing to search for your name and your company. See where people are talking about you and join in on the conversation.
Time Spent: Varies on your company, but should be less than 20 minutes.
#10 – Year In Reviews
If you own a business or work for a client that does, there’s a good shot that user generated reviews can play a big part in your life. Find out all of the places that are featuring your company and create a review there. Whether it’s Amazon, Facebook, Yelp, Bing or Google My Business, they should all have reviews of your company from the people who know it best.
Time Spent: 15 minutes per review + 5 minutes per day asking customers and contacts for reviews.
By embracing this holistic approach to social media marketing, you can accomplish so much for your business and spend less than five hours per week doing it. There will be other factors that come into play (creating linkbait, writing blog posts, etc), but by sticking to core basics like this you will have a strong blueprint for social media success.
Start Smarter Social Selling Even As A Newbie
We hope you enjoyed us passing these newbie social media marketing strategies along to you since I either know you personally and deeply believe in your work or because I have worked with you in the past and I feel this is a helpful, step-by-step strategy to get you a bit more streamlined and focused. With a commitment of five hours a week you can create some very powerful results that will end up opening the gates of the cosmos up in miraculous, synchronistic ways! Hope you can get some use out of it.
I don't even personally do all of the things on this list but I found it a very helpful overview/jumping off point. Even if you can start incorporating two or three of these ideas then you will be amazed at how good you begin to feel about your business/message and positive, uplifting ways to get your voice, heart, light, products and services into the world. This article is by a well respected social media expert and my comments are in italics. Last night was a profoundly powerful learning experience. Lots of mixed energy out there and acceptance and resistance based on people's own spiritual development and readiness to move to the next level of the ascension spiral. Some people seemed to get really excited and some still felt frustrated or overwhelmed.
Start Small With Social Media Marketing
It's all ok if you aren't an SMM expert. It's where we are at as a collective. Trying to both harness the energies out there and channel them in productive ways is an ongoing, evolving process. Just as we are responsible for our own soul growth, we are also fully responsible for the different aspects of our businesses. You can delegate some of these tasks to someone to help you but I really recommend getting as hands-on at first as possible in order to gain more comfort and confidence in this arena.
You didn't learn to drive overnight. it took patience, practice and guidance. Social Media is the same way. We had quite an interesting mix last night of newbie technophobes and people who are more savvy and mostly everyone agreed that they want to understand better how to empower themselves further to use this incredible, FREE tool for the highest and best good/growth of all. And how to efficiently and effectively manage their time and energy in the process. I will be creating a web series based on some of the ideas mentioned and the overall tone and theme will be claiming your place in cyberspace and getting ready for the big changes that are pending.
It will be less of a nuts and bolts how to manual---as that is more something that needs to be done one-on-one, but more of a support forum for dealing with the stumbling blocks and self-sabotage programs that arise as we answer the call to bring light further and wider and make ourselves available to larger groups and networks both as participants and leaders. We need to help each other now more than ever. It is time for strong social media marketing campaigns. We are preparing for what is unfolding all around us in SMM. We will be needed and appreciated in ways that we have never imagined before in social selling. And most importantly---we must embrace and embody a vibe of playfulness and a spirit of trust, flow and light around this arena.
Walk Before You Run On Social
If we are seeing it as something that requires 'work', 'effort', 'struggle' etc. then we are completely missing the point in my opinion. It is about alignment, making time for ourselves to hear our spirits and learning how to be the magnet, the flame and the mountain allowing life to come to us. Tell your business story on social media today!
