Master Social Media Marketing: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & Instagram

“Social media is the bane of our existence!” I agree entirely with this sentiment, but since I’ve run a book-review blog since 2011, perhaps you don’t believe me.

I left Facebook back in 2008 (right when it was becoming cool, maybe?) because of the horribly personal things I was reading from “Friends” who I only sort of knew. Also because I didn’t care that my third-cousin by marriage ate a banana nut muffin for breakfast—and I certainly didn’t care to spend my bandwidth downloading a picture of it. Only this year (as a result of the pandemic) have I risked dipping my toes back into the quagmire that is Facebook. I’ve got a company that needs exposure as well as family and friends who are distant and with whom I’d like to keep in touch, so it just seemed like the right time get back into the groove.

In wanting to use Facebook as a potential form of marketing especially, I thought I’d try reading some books on the subject. This short book by Grant Kennedy was the first I came across. It’s a simple read that has some keen insights to offer, but it really does seem geared towards beginners and the computer illiterate. It also contains some typos, so I’m wondering if it was actually self-published from a series of blogposts or something. I haven’t done the research to find that out.

That being said, I found it as informative as I needed, and the book helped me brain-map a plan for how I’d like to utilize these most popular outlets. In fact, I outlined the entire book and will save it for my own personal use in the future.

Some of the insights that I found helpful for use in my company were the following:

• The company website needs to be viewed as the foundation—and this may include a blog—with all the other social media accounts helping push traffic to the site.
  
• Repurpose content in these sites in new and intriguing ways, but never simply copy-paste.
  
• Evaluate your sites regularly to make sure that your efforts are bearing fruit (using third-party tools can work for this process.)
  
• Interact and engage with followers. Don’t just be a machine.
  
• Don’t keep wasting your time on what doesn’t work—use the 80/20 principle.

I won’t be reading the book again, but I’ll be reviewing my notes from time to time, I’m sure. I’d recommend it for newbies (like me) to the use of social media. If you’ve had an account for a while and have NEVER seen growth, this may be helpful. If you’ve been moderately successful and want to grow even more, then you might require something a bit more in-depth.

©2020 E.T.