In this blog, I’m going to share with you five things to make you a better marketer in 2020. Now let’s roll right into it; social media marketing in 2020 is going to be different from 2018 in all of the years before because let’s face it, social media my friends is no longer new. And here are 05 tips to make you a better marketer, a better entrepreneur and create more engaging content with your audience, and if you read until the very end, you will find a bonus sixth tip.
1. Pay to play
So let’s get right into it. First, pay to play is here to stay and it’s not going away. You read me right. Facebook ads are perhaps the best form of online advertising around today. Why is that? Facebook has over 2 billion users around the world and because Facebook collects so much data from these users including you and I, you can leverage that data to your advantage to reach potential customers and clients of your business. However, the key is to run targeted ads on Facebook and you can do that by building what are known as custom audiences through the Facebook ads manager platform. So there are a couple of things that you can do here. If you have a CRM of any kind or if you have an email list of any kind, you can import that data right into Facebook. And any time you run ads, even if your ad budget is as little as 02 or 10 dollars, you can ensure that those ads that you run are seen by the right audience. The biggest mistake that marketers make is they just throw money out at Facebook and are not running targeted ads, whatsoever. So if you’re a real estate agent, think about running those ads to target first-time homebuyers or people that might potentially be looking to buy a house, you have the power of that data right at your fingertips. The other thing that you want to know when running Facebook ads is ‘what is your objective?’ Is it to buy clicks? Is it to buy engagement? Is it to buy views? Is it to buy leads? Make sure that your audience. So once again if you’re spending money on Facebook on ads, you shouldn’t just throw your money away because you want to get more views on a video or you want to get necessarily more comments to that video, what you want to get is buyers. So make sure that your objective is tailored to what your end-game is. In this case, it would be to get more leads or to get more conversions.
2. Use Instagram and Twitter as search engines
The next tip is to use Instagram and Twitter as search engines. Let’s face it, these social networks nowadays provide end-users with a lot of data and easy access to reach people. You can go on Twitter right now and you can type into any search phrase, you can type into any business, really virtually any executive and a company that you want to work with or that you want to get their attention. So case in point, if you are a creator or an influencer and you want to work with say, Nike, you could go on Twitter right now, you can type in Nike, you can click people and now you can see a search of anyone that has at Nike in their profile on Twitter. The same thing applies for Instagram or you can use hashtags to run searches for people that are speaking about specific topics. So you are let’s say, an SEO expert, you can type in SEO help on Twitter and you can see anyone talking about this particular topic, swoop in and offer to help them out. That’s the power of using Twitter and even Instagram for search going forward in 2020. Make sure that as you’re creating content and building relationships on these platforms that you are also using them as search engines.
3. Use third party platforms
Next, make sure then in 2020, you’re putting emphasis into contributing content on third-party platforms versus your own native website or your own native channels. Now hear me out, there’s going to be a lot of people out there that say well isn’t the game to drive people back to your website, the answer is yes and no. If you’re trying to grow your personal brand as a thought leader in your industry, If you’re trying to get more views on your content, yes you can drive people to your website and now you’re fighting an uphill battle of sending people to a channel that you are responsible for driving traffic to or what you can do is create content on established social networks and platforms like saying medium, you can write for LinkedIn, you can apply to be a contributor on different blogs that are relevant to your industry that you work in and by creating content on these third-party platforms. Now you’re tapping into the benefit of the traffic that visits those websites. What I’m trying to say here is, as a thought leader in my marketing and social media industry, I can either try to drive people to say Instagram over to my own website or instead I can contribute content. So my advice to all of you out there regardless of what industry you are in is start focusing on creating content on third-party platforms which are established and give you access and reach.
4. Starting your own private mastermind group
Next, if you’re struggling with getting organic engagement on any social network, think about starting your own private mastermind group. Whether it’s a Facebook group that’s private like social mastermind, whether it’s a Whatsapp chat, whether it’s a private group on say Twitter which allows you to create private DM groups with up to 50 people, whether it’s a private LinkedIn messenger group, start a private group where you can bring like-minded professionals and colleagues just like you into your own space by creating your own mastermind group. You now are able to control the conversation and steer it in a way where if you have content that’s fresh and relevant for that audience, you can share it directly with those others say, group members without coming across as being self-promotional. You can also look at content that other people are posting without having to sift through hundreds, if not thousands of accounts as well. Private mastermind groups are going forward because let’s face it, as marketers are losing reach and having to spend money on social media with their mind is racing too is, how can I defeat and outwit the system. Guess what, you can’t. However, you can still play within the rules of the system, which is why I recommend that you’re struggling with getting reach. Really analyze who are super fans, who are the people that are most interested in your content and guess what. Invite them into a private group; most recently I did this on Twitter as an experiment. I went through and just started adding into a group the top 50 people that often engage with my content. These are people that like my content, these are people that share it, these are people who comment on it and it was magic. Recently I was at a conference where the boat sales professional came to my keynote, he walked away and said you know what, I’m going to run over to Facebook, I’m going to create a Facebook group for marine enthusiasts because if I get all these marine enthusiasts into a group. Now guess what, I can sell them without having to run ads, so that’s my recommendation to you. Start creating small privatized communities.
5. Stay informed
Next, this is really important friends. Stay informed of what’s happening on other social networks. But don’t go chasing new shiny objects, meaning don’t go chase the trends, just because you hear that there’s a new social network and trust me you will. You shouldn’t just rush to go jump on it. I know what every thought leader and guru out there says. Go land grab, go get as many people as you possibly can on these social networks. Guess what happens when you rush to go to a new social network as we saw in 2018, you’re engaging with probably the same people in your space, that are already on Instagram, that is already on snapchat, that are already on Facebook with you. These are people that are doing the same thing that you’re trying to do. So my recommendation is instead of going to chase that new shiny object, work within the existing infrastructure what exists. You have access over 2 billion Facebook users, over 1 billion active Instagram users, Twitter, LinkedIn, these are social networks which I can almost assure you will give you more value and more immediate reach than any new social network that you can jump on.
6. Places
Next is a bonus. If you’ve read along this long, I’m going to give you a bonus 6th social media tip for you to follow in 2020 and that my friends are places. Make sure that as you are going to different places on Instagram, specifically as you’re sharing your content, you want to tag where you’re at. The reason why is because as you’re going to these places and sharing content, there are other people that are doing the same or they’re looking for content in these venues. So, if you go to, let’s say a sporting event at Los Angeles and I want my content to be indexed within staples center because it’s all about discoverability! I have about 25,000 followers right now on Instagram, so how am I going to grow my followers is by posting content consistently on a daily basis, making sure of hashtags, making sure my content is also easily discoverable with where I visit. So once again, throughout 2020 make sure that not only are you paying to optimize your content and get additional reach, but you can also do a couple easy tips and tricks to get more organic reach and it starts with tagging the places of where you visit and post content on Instagram. That’s a wrap, Thank you.
