How to Gain Social Media Momentum Now that the Holidays are Over

How to Gain Social Media Momentum Now that the Holidays are Over The holiday hustle is officially over and, along with it, perhaps some of the excitement that was happening on your social media networks. Now it’s time to come back to social media reality and to come up with tactics that will keep your engagement and reach up, well into the new year.

If you’re looking for ideas that will help you gain momentum on your social networks, I've got you covered. Here are four easy things you can do to keep your fans and followers talking:

1. Encourage Fans to Keep New Year’s Resolutions

January is the month for New Year’s resolutions. Most people have committed to do, or stop doing, something. But according to Forbes, only eight percent of people actually achieve their goals. And by the middle of February, most of those commitments are long forgotten. So why not encourage your fans to keep their New Year’s resolutions?

Try hosting a custom app or a Timeline promotion on Facebook where you ask your fans to submit their New Year’s resolutions. If you have some advanced app-building skills you can set up an essay contest where fans can submit their resolutions. When people have an audience they have more accountability, so an essay contest can be a great place to host people’s resolutions.

Whether you use an app or Timeline, asking fans about their New Year’s Resolutions is one way to get some quick engagement. You can even tailor the questions based on the network you’re posting on. For example: “What are your New Year’s resolutions for your Twitter account?” Another way to leverage the idea of a fresh start is to suggest some resolutions for your fans or provide tips on keeping the ones they've chosen. You don’t even have to create them because I found some articles with great tips that you can reference:

2. Provide Resources for Success in 2014

The best way to keep your audience engaged after the holidays is to educate them! After all, a majority of users look to a brand’s social profiles to be further educated about that brand and the relevant industry. The new year is the perfect time to position yourself and your company as experts. Facebook is an ideal platform for sharing content, so take what works for your audience and help them succeed in 2014.

Don’t forget to use the 70/20/10 rule: 70 percent of your Page’s content shared should be information that is valuable and relevant to your fans; 20 percent of your posts should be shared content, i.e. content that comes from other people and the the final ten percent should be promotional posts. The promotional content can be sale announcements, new product alerts, events, etc. Don’t forget to share Facebook content across all of your networks.

3. Talk About Your Success from 2013

There’s no better way to keep the chatter going then to reflect back on the previous year. Offer up annual reports, infographics and success stories from 2013 that will excite your fan base and encourage them to move forward with you into 2014. If you had an awesome year on Twitter, let your fans know and share with them how you’ll meet your goals for 2014. Or maybe you focused a lot on Twitter and are looking to break into Facebook? Now’s the perfect time to transition your fans onto a new network. Graphical data from 2013 can be leveraged not only on social networks but through email marketing as well, which can drive new leads to your social profiles.

Our favorite example of this is MailChimp’s 2012 Annual Report. Or, if you don’t have time to design a fancy annual report, you can do a simple recap.

4. Look Forward to Valentine’s Day

When one holiday ends, there’s always another one in the pipeline. It’s January, which means it’s not too early to start thinking about Valentine’s Day and ways your business can interact with your fans. Valentine’s Day is all about the love, so brainstorm ways to show your fans how much you appreciate them. This could include a variety of photo, essay or video contests or simple “thank you” messages from you to your Fans. Social networks do not need to be all about business, never forget to sit back and simply thank your fans for being your fans. Show them the love!

Hope these ideas get you get off to a productive start. Do you have any plans or resolutions that you’d like to share? I’m all ears!

Title image by Jill Chen (Shutterstock)

Editor's Note: Read more social media tips from Jim in Social Media ROI: It Doesn't Really Matter

About the Author

Jim Belosic is the CEO and co-founder of ShortStack, a Facebook platform-based application helping businesses build custom Facebook Pages that maximize their social media presence and potential. To read the recent eBook by ShortStack and Facebook advertising expert Jon Loomer called How the Pros Use Facebook Advertising; you can find the link here.

Source : cmswire[dot]com

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Jan 8, 2014