10 Social Media Marketing "Hacks"

Social media marketing is constantly changing. Keeping up with how each social network works can be overwhelming and keeping up with managing them can be just as challenging. Learning new ways to streamline your social media marketing activities and to enhance how you post can increase the effectiveness of your efforts.

What is a social media marketing "hack?" It can be an unexpected tactic you can use or a social network feature you may not know about or are not leveraging that can help you in some way such as improving the power of your posts, attracting more attention, increasing brand awareness, and growing your following.

Here are some social media marketing hacks you can try.

1. Check out what’s trending. Where do you find out what is trending on social media? Google has a trend search engine to rapidly identify the topics people are posting about and sharing. Twitter also displays trends called What’s Happening based on your location or who you follow. Twitter lets you change your location to see what is trending in other parts of the country or world. Other places to find trending images and videos include Instagram’s Explore page, Pinterest’s Today page, and TikTok’s Discover page.
2. Use trending hashtags. Trending hashtags can increase the visibility of your post but make sure your hashtags match your message. Be careful when incorporating what seems like a popular hashtag into your social media caption. If you’ve never used a hashtag before and see it is trending, click first and explore how that hashtag is being used by others. Get inspiration from other people’s hashtags, especially influencers.
3. Connect your Facebook and Instagram accounts. If you haven’t already, linking your Facebook and Instagram accounts will provide you with time-saving conveniences like being able to plan and schedule custom posts tailored to each at the same time. You can also use the same Meta Business Suite tools to set up paid ads for both channels.
4. Invite a "co-host." There are two co-host features that you can use to increase the visibility of your brand on Facebook and Instagram. The first is co-hosting Facebook Events. You can either invite a co-host on the Event page or be invited as a co-host. This means that the event that is being promoted with appear on both parties’ Event tab on their respective Facebook Pages. It also gives both parties full control of editing the Event and the opportunity to boost the Event to reach a wider audience.

The second co-host feature is on Instagram and is an invitation to "co-host" a post. Co-hosting a post does more than tagging a post with someone’s Instagram handle. Both parties can edit the post, boost the post, and it will appear on their respective Instagram feeds and post archives. Appearing on two feeds increases the potential reach.

1. Share your posts to your Stories. On Instagram and Facebook, after posting to your news feed, you can then share your post or Reel to your Stories. If you’ve connected your Instagram and Facebook accounts, you could share to your Instagram Stories and configure settings to automatically post from Instagram to your Facebook Stories for quick and easy amplification.
2. Facebook only: The Invite button. You may not have noticed this one and it is an easy way to encourage people to follow your Facebook Page. If someone likes one of your posts but is not following your page, an Invite button will appear next to their name when you click to see who has liked that particular post. Inviting someone who has already interacted with your content to follow your Page can be an effective way of building your following.
3. Integrate social media into your email marketing tool. Whether you’re using Mailchimp, Emma, Constant Contact, or another email software, chances are there are ways you can integrate social media into your email templates. Make sure you add in the URLs to your social media accounts and that the social network icons appear in the footer of your marketing messages. Some email tools, like Mailchimp, let you turn on a feature to post a link to your emails on a web page to garner additional views.
4. Double check the social media icons on your website. It is easy to forget to add your social network URLs to the social media icons featured on your website, particularly if you use a design template. Also remembering to update the icons if you add or change your social network addresses in any way.
5. Remember your email signature. Most email clients let you customize the lower portion of your emails. You can use both text and graphics to enhance that often-neglected space, including mini social media icons.
6. Learn the art of emoticons. Emoticons in a social media caption attract the eye and can enhance your message. See how influencers are using emoji as a form of expression and to accentuate parts of post captions. Choose emoticons that are compatible with your brand image and the messages you want to convey. Watch out for emoticons with double meanings that may not be the message you want to convey.

As you can see, there are many "hacks" that can impact how you conduct your social media marketing and the effectiveness of your efforts. Explore the social networks you are currently using and examine the features you may not be using. Pay attention to how others are using social media and explore new ways to hone your technique.