As I mentioned in my first Lessons from #britmumslive post, I went to BritMums Live this year hoping to gain as much insight and inspiration for taking my blog to the next level as possible. This included learning how to use social media in a much more efficient way, and so I was very excited when the session “Social Media Optimisation – Doing It All, Yes You Must” appeared on the agenda.
The session was led by the amazing Maggy Woodley from Red Ted Art and Ali Clifford from Kids Chaos. Both are seasoned bloggers, with huge followings across various social media platforms, and it was really interesting to hear about their favourite places, how this has changed throughout the years, and how it differed from other bloggers in the audience.
Here’s what they had to say…
Why do you need to do it all?
- Social media is owned by third parties, who are always changing their algorithms. This can massively affect your traffic, so you cannot afford to rely on one platform alone.
- If you want to work with brands, you need to be present on all the major platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, as these are the big traffic drivers
- However, each brand will have individual platforms which they prefer, so it is important to be visible across them all otherwise you could easily miss out on opportunities that focus on one or the other.
- It looks odd if you have a massive following on one platform and hardly any followers on another. It can make people wonder how authentic you are and whether you have “bought” all those likes.
What does social media “optimisation” mean?
- Prioritising one or two accounts whilst still being visible across other platforms
- Having a consistent name and profile across all platforms
- Grabbing your name on all social media platforms (even if you do not intend to use some of them much, you can still passively grow an audience and it also stops people from using your name for their own accounts).
- Connecting all of your accounts for easy posting, but be wary of simply posting everything across all platforms when it may not be relevant to your audience in some places.
Defining Your Social Media Style
- Work our what your focus is and go with it – even if people don’t like it, remember that you need to be happy with it
- Watermark your images if you can so that they are still recognisable as yours even if they are shared elsewhere
- Act like a brand and try to have a consistent image across all platforms
- However, remember that your style may vary slightly across the different platforms – for example you may prefer to use a profile photo on instagram and your logo on Facebook.
Understanding the different platforms
- Join and use blogging groups to keep up with changes in social media
- Pinterest is used more like a search engine than social media platform, with pinners saving links they will come back to at a later time. Be aware that things often get mis-pinned, so it is important to check details when you repin an item.
- Twitter is all about chatting with others. Remember you will need to tweet links to your posts multiple times as they will get lost very quickly on Twitter. However it is important to change the wording rather than simply tweeting the same thing over and over.
- Facebook is much slower, and so you will annoy people if you simply post the same thing multiple times. Try resharing updates from bloggers with a large following.
- Instagram is about connecting with people on a more personal level, and may not lead to visits to your blog. Make sure you interact with people and have conversations on there, rather than simply posting images.
Points to Remember
- People like it when you post other people’s content as well as your own.
- Scheduling via Hootsuite, Buffer etc can help you keep on top of your social media streams, however it is important to check for interaction rather than simply scheduling posts.
- Social Media can take up a lot of time – Maggy shared how she spends more time on social media than she does on her blog!!
- It’s not the number of followers you have that brands look for, but rather the engagement you have with your readers.
- Work out, in a table, which platforms you focus on, which you passively use, and which you simply need to park your name on, and then use this as a guide.
I hope that these notes do the session justice and help those of you who couldn’t make this session.
Remember, I am writing up all the notes I took at BritMums Live this year, and you can find them all below:
Turning Pitches into Profit
Breaking Boundaries with Insight and Passion
Pinning Ideas
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