Managing social media interactions more cost-effectively

Although interacting through social media can be time-consuming, stressful even, many aspects can be automated or you can rely on organic sharing. In other words, with just a little bit of setup work and steady management from a company you can reap the rewards without so much effort. Businesses often get caught up in the hype of scheduling tools, analytics, and the numbers game, and while this is important, there are other techniques.

Now don’t get me wrong—scheduling tools and careful Social Media analysis is great, and in many cases necessary. You want to make things easier, and these tools really are helpful. However, there are also ways that you can get your friends and followers to do a little bit of promotion and work for you. All it takes it a little bit of preparation.

How to make sure you’re using the built-in advantages of Social Media?

If you want to stop chasing followers and chasing Facebook likes, you have to cut down on certain things just as much as you need to improve. In other words, it will take a bit of control on your part to really find a good rhythm.  A few ways to make this happen is include:

• Focus on quality. Although it might sound obvious, many companies are still buying followers on Social Media. This is not recommended, even if the followers are supposed to be relevant. If you put more effort into quality content and quality interaction and really engage with your audience on other mediums, the followers will come and the un-follows will decrease.
• Find new networks.  Your audience simply might not be on Facebook and Twitter. Explore networks like StumpleUpon and Reddit to see if this is where you can thrive with the help of real followers who are interested in your content.
• Emphasize engagement in your posts. You always want to post content where you will get real engagement, not a larger number of followers.For example, posting something controversial or mentioning a pop star might get you some followers, but are these really the followers you want?
  

  It’s OK to post things that catch a reader’s attention, but make sure it’s related to your niche and will bring about real engagement.

• Put your social sharing links next to your content. Many websites want to put the “Follow us” or “Like Us” button right in your face when you visit the website.
  

  While it’s a good idea to make sure that people know where these buttons are, you’re going to get the followers after they read a piece of your content—so make sure they’re near each article your company writes.

Social Media is all about engagement, and engagement means quality!

Although you may think it looks impressive if your company has 50,000 Twitter followers, those who are really serious about your company probably won’t care.

They will want to see that you are actively posting quality content, but the numbers don’t always matter. In fact, some people are turned off by businesses with so many followers because it seems so fake.

How do you balance quantity against quality?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.