Expanding creativity is a vital component to success in Social Media.
Whether you’re aggregating content, promoting a product or service or simply building an audience for your personal brand being creative it essential to retention and interaction.
Building an audience is the first step in social media relevancy. I’ve always been a proponent of leaving ego at the door with social media. People ask; How Did You Obtain over 80,000 Followers on Twitter?
The truth is, it takes a lot of hard work to not only build this audience, but to retain them. Here are some tips to help you build social media success.
Leave Your Ego at the Door
Don’t be afraid to follow back or initiate a follow. Regardless of follower count, sometimes you can happen upon a great follower.
While the person with 5,000 followers may look great, the person with 147 followers may be a more powerful follower.
Why?
If the follower with 5,000 followers simply follows you that gives you one benefit; an extra follower.
But what if the follower with 147 followers not only follows you but also does one of the following (rules apply to both Facebook and Twitter):
1. Comments on your posts
2. Likes or Favorites your posts
3. RT’s or Shares your posts
Then who provides you the better benefit? Who is the better audience member for you?
The person who has 147 followers is. He is not only following you but increasing your engagement, promoting your posts and showcasing an interest in your conversational posts.
Following him back is a confirmation of sorts that you want his input and validate his endorsement a step further
Don’t be afraid to follow or to follow back, but ensure the people you do follow back offer value and/or a benefit.
Creative Thinking
Ever wonder how the most successful social media campaigns go viral? They all start with an idea or a rehash of an old idea with a new little spin.
Let’s take Thomas the Train for instance and the GoPro camera. Both have been around for some time now and both have been featured in numerous videos on Youtube and have been the topic of numerous social media campaigns. But one doesn’t often associate the two brands together.
That was until 2012 when YouTube user Ron Fugelseth decided to put a GoPro on a Thomas the Train with his son.
The result? Over 4 million views
So you may be thinking; how exactly did it work? Why was it successful?
It’s a mix of a lot of luck and something different. Luck has a lot to do with most successful campaigns. You may think you have a great idea, and you may, but it may not resonate for any number of unknown reasoning. But continuously casting your line will eventually catch you something.
The bait? Being creative and introducing something that is fresh, new or different. Who would associate a camera mounted to a toy train that documents it’s flight?
That is why this campaign worked.
Don’t be afraid to think outside of your brand. Boxing yourself in creatively will limit your possibilities and possibly have you miss on a creative venture that could, with a bit of luck, garner you some social media attention.
