How to Start Real Conversations Using Social Media Communities

Social media conversations are just like real conversations.

The key to a great conversation is to start by listening. What are other people talking about in your industry? Does it differ from social network to social network? Spend a few minutes searching around to get a scope of the landscape.

You probably wouldn’t have the same conversation in the library as you would in a bar, right? Even if you end up talking about the same topic, you’re likely to abide by different social norms (whispering versus yelling) and have something different in your hand (a book versus a beer).

Consider social networks in the same light.

The nature and style of your conversations are going to depend on 1) the specifics of your online brand and 2) the social norms of the social network.

→ See if you can start a few relevant conversation on each of your social networks. I’ll explain some of my favorite ways to do this to help you spark some of your own ideas.

Twitter

Conversations are happening on Twitter all the time. Find some active businesses or people in your industry and see what they’re saying. Search for relevant hashtags and see what questions people are asking. Is there an obvious knowledge gap where you can be most helpful?

Here are a few specific ways to take advantage of Twitter conversations.

1. Alert someone to your article.

This is particularly useful if you actually wrote about them, but it can also be great if they fit into your target audience. When I wrote 12 Twitter Tools to Improve Your Online Reputation, I spent time personally tweeting each of the businesses I wrote about, letting them know I had shouted them out.     

It took maybe 10-15 minutes, but I couldn’t believe the engagement I received. Nearly all of the businesses retweeted me, and some of my tweets really blew up. Just for letting them know!

When I tweeted @Canva, I got favorited 7 times, and probably earned some new Canva-lover readers in the process.

2. Ask a question.

Twitter is a great place to ask questions. If you trust a particular thought leader in your industry, consider targeting them. Otherwise, just ask the general public what they think about a particular topic or article. It won’t always blow up like Buffer’s tweets do, but you may spark some fun conversations along the way.

3. Start a conversation.

Did you read an interesting article recently? Chances are you’re not the only one. Try searching the title of the article on Twitter and seeing who else shared it recently. Tweet at them and tell them what you think. You never know what kind of conversation your tweet may spark.

You can also tell your audience a fun fact, a useful tip or an industry-specific anecdote.

When I tweeted @Crowdfire back in August, I received the most engagement I’ve ever received on a tweet in my life. 128 favorites! I hadn’t even written my 12 Twitter Tools article yet, but it made me realize the potential for articles like that.

4. Engage your active audience.

Sometimes you might tweet something and find that someone else tweeted back at you. That’s terrific! Take advantage of that low-hanging fruit and keep the conversation going!

Or, if someone has shared your content, take a second to thank them for the support. You’d be surprised how much a heartfelt thank-you can mean for long-term engagement.

NOTE: You can also get involved in Twitter Chats, where a group of Twitter users meet at a pre-determined time to discuss a certain topic. I don’t have too much experience there yet, but Buffer has an incredibly in-depth article about Twitter Chats if you want to learn more.

LinkedIn

Here are four ways to spark conversations on the professional networking giant:

1. Comment on status updates

This is pretty self-explanatory. If someone shares an article related to your industry, make a relevant comment and try to start a conversation. Ask what they thought about a particular point or provide them with another article that gives a different view.

2. LinkedIn Communities

LinkedIn Communities are a fun way to have discussions with groups of like-minded peers. Find some communities that make sense for you and start by weighing in on popular discussions. Respond to existing comments, provide an insight or opinion, or even ask a thought-provoking question.

See what topics and discussions are resonating with members the most, and start asking similar questions to encourage engagement. Be wary about including links to your sites, especially at the start. You want to be seen as a valuable part of the community, not a self-promotional salesperson. If you’re diligent, you’ll eventually be recognized as a top influencer, which allows your posts to be seen by more people in the group.

3. Use status updates for engagement

You can obviously use status updates as a self-promotional tool. But a great way to get engagement is to share OTHER people’s articles, especially when you can tag them in your post. Use the @ sign just like you would to tag someone on Twitter.

4. Messages

Private messages on LinkedIn have a connotation of being spammy, but your efforts may be worthwhile if you can personalize your message for a few specific people. Consider asking for some folks’ opinions on an article, their thoughts on an industry topic, or feedback on your latest post.

Quora  

There are three primary ways to engage in meaningful conversations on Quora:

1. Ask a question related to your industry.

Quora is a terrific place to get answers or start conversations among industry experts. Remember to first check whether or not someone has already asked your question!

2. Answer someone else’s question.

Quora is a great place to share some of your industry-specific knowledge and link back to an article if it’s appropriate. If you have a terrific answer on a popular question, you’re likely to get hundreds or thousands of views on your content. That’s a huge opportunity!

3. Ask someone specific to answer a question, either yours or someone else’s.

Quora’s ‘Ask to Answer’ feature is pretty neat. It lets you target specific people in your industry to get the quality answers you seek. You can ask 15 people per question, so make your choices mindfully.

Closing Note:

There are countless ways to engage people on social media. You can find Google+ communities that match your niche, comment on Slideshare accounts that fit your brand, and ask questions about a particular Instagram post. These are just a few of my favorite ways on some classic social networks, but I encourage you to explore your own.

How to Grow Your Instagram Following, Quickly and Organically

I'm going to show you an easy process for growing your Instagram following. 

I’ve used it to grow my following from just a couple hundred to a couple thousand in a few weeks’ time.

And it’s not just the amount of people following me. Look, my likes have skyrocketed over the same time period:

Not bad, right?

So let’s get started. For this process, you only need Instagram and Crowdfire on your phone.

Open the Crowdfire app, connect your Instagram account, and then click Copy Followers.

Enter the name of someone relatively big in your niche on Instagram. The goal here is to find someone whose followers are likely to want to follow you too.

I picked mealsandreels (they are DevourPower now if you want to check them out.) I love their food content and their followers will hopefully like mine too!

Then go to town clicking the + button. You’ll be quickly following the most engaged followers of the account you chose.

Do it until Crowdfire tells you to chill out. Why the limit? Well, Instagram puts in follow limits to stop spammy behavior so we’ll have to wait another hour before doing this again.

Rinse and repeat as you desire. Then, go back a few days later and open up Crowdfire’s Non Followers section.

Now go through and mass unfollow everyone who’s not following you back until you can’t anymore. Obviously, feel free to continue following accounts that don’t follow you back. But this is how you keep your ratio of followers to following nice and tight.

The last step is to dive back into Instagram and check out who you’re following.

I review each account for a second to see if they have a feed that interests me. If they do, great -- I’ll keep them. If not, then I’ll unfollow them.

I’ve had people tell me “but that’s so mean! You follow them just to unfollow them?!”

Look at it this way...if your feed looks anything like this, there’s just no reason for me to be following you.

And that’s all there is to it! Continue using the combination of 1) mass copy followers 2) unfollow non followers 3) unfollow uninteresting accounts individually.

How to Make Custom Pinterest Pins on Canva

Canva allows you to make killer slideshows and infographics, but that’s not all it’s good for. You can also craft your own made-to-order Pinterest pins.

Now why would you want to do this?

Well, let's say you just finished writing an article. You’ve shared it on Twitter and LinkedIn and now you’re ready to expand your audience to Pinterest users.

You could just pin it from your blog, but then you only get a simple image. 

Not bad, but when people are scrolling through hundreds of pins, your image gives people little indication of what you’re actually sharing.

See how my article gets lost in all the noise? It's colorful but the other pins are longer and have great-looking text right on the image. Makes them awfully clickable, doesn’t it?

So let’s do the same thing to our pin.

Open up Canva and get started on a Pinterest Graphic.

Throw in the image you want to use. I like to enlarge it and see if there is a good spot to put the title.

Obviously, this one worked out well because of the convenient speech bubble. But you don’t need that to make this work.

Here’s another I made -- I just found some empty space on the bottom and threw the title in there.

Check it out -- my pin is much more obvious now thanks to the title and vertical layout.

Next time you finish an article, try this strategy out and see if you can get a bit more engagement on Pinterest and drive more traffic back to your blog.

Reach out on Twitter to show me what you came up with!

How to Organically Grow Your Twitter Following

Growing your Twitter following can be invaluable.

A larger following increases the authority of your Twitter profile and broadens the reach of your own content marketing efforts. It opens up lines of communication in your industry, helps build upon your positive online presence, and offers you a pool of potential leads for your business. You’d be hard-pressed to find a downside to growing your followers.

Today I'm going to share with you a cool trick to growing your following with users in your industry. It’s a scalable process, so use it as much or as little as you’d like.

Let’s take a look:

The Tools You’ll Need

We’ll be using 2 tools for this process: Tweepi and RightRelevance.

1. First, connect your Twitter account to Tweepi. You’ll be using this tool to trim the fat -- that is, get rid of folks who don’t follow you back. Tweepi is an easy way to keep track of that and much more.

2. Then, connect your Twitter account to RightRelevance. We’ll use RightRelevance to easily find the users you want to follow.

 

The Strategy

Once you’re logged into RightRelevance, type in a category that’s related to your industry or niche. For me, I’ll try 'personal branding.'

Add it as a saved channel so you can refer back to it later.

Then click the influencers tab and decide whether you want to filter by people or organizations. I want to target individuals, so I’ve clicked the “Person” option.

Finally, decide if you want to tailor it even further by location. I want to filter my followers based on New York City, so I’ll click that option.

Now all that’s left to do is scroll down and follow the people that interest you. I’m not going to be too picky because I’ve already let the filters do that tailoring for me. I know that the accounts I follow are going to be people who fit squarely in my industry and live in my city. Perfect!

You can use this method to follow 20, 200, or 2000 people, depending on your goals and time limit. Don’t forget to switch to a new category and do the same thing all over again. I’ve already used “personal branding,” but I could also try “reputation management” and “content marketing."

 

The Clean-Up

Once you’ve followed a batch of users, give them a few days or a week to follow you back.

Then log into Tweepi and click on the category of users called “Not following back.”

The “not following you back” section is pretty self-explanatory. It shows you all the users who, well, haven’t followed you back. You can also see some interesting stats about when they last tweeted, where they’re located, their follower count and follower ratio.

Go down the list and “unfollow” anyone who you’re ready to cast aside. There are bound to be some people or organizations you want to still follow despite their unreturned thanks, so just keep your eyes peeled for that as you fly down the list.

 

That’s it!

Now that you’ve got the hang of it, try it out using other categories and other filter settings to see if you get different results. And let me know how it goes in the comments section below! 

How to Breeze Through Your Social Media Activity, Effectively and Efficiently

Breezing through your social media activity is all about strategic time management.

What does this mean for you?

It means staying focused and setting a time limit for each profile. Now is not the time to fall down the rabbit hole of addictive Youtube videos. These profiles can be fun, but we’re on a mission.

Remember, the point is to keep these profiles consistently active for branding purposes and, eventually, for ranking in search results.

Today I’m going to give tips on how to efficiently engage on Crunchbase, Google+, Youtube, About.me, and Instagram. If you're interested, I also have tips for Twitter as well as for LinkedIn and Pinterest.

Crunchbase

Crunchbase is one of the easiest profiles to keep active once you understand what’s going on. All you do is update sections on your profile with relevant content about yourself -- images, news, previous jobs, organizations, etc.

In my experience, people find one aspect of Crunchbase confusing -- the distinction between a user and a profile.

Here’s the deal.

Crunchbase is a database of startups, people, and organizations. When you sign up with crunchbase, you sign up as a user. Users don’t exist in Crunchbase’s database -- they merely exist to create and edit the pages that do exist there. When you first sign up, you have a user but no profile.

So the first thing you need to do as a user is build yourself a profile page. You’ll effectively be putting yourself in Crunchbase’s database. (There's a chance you might already exist in the database because anyone can contribute to anyone's profile. If that's the case, then just contribute to your already-existing page).

Let’s get started.

If you haven’t done so already, hit the + symbol at the top. Select Person and fill in the appropriate sections with your name and info.

Once you’re done, click the Update section in the first box and connect your LinkedIn and Twitter.

Now update your Personal Details with your bio and any relevant aliases.

If you still have time, go fill out some of the other sections -- Education, Jobs, Images, etc.

For the Jobs section, you may need to first add your company if it doesn’t already exist in Crunchbase’s database. For the News section, even if you don’t have any legit news about you, you can still add your most recent blog post there.

Get as much done as you can but remember to leave some tasks for you to do over the next few weeks. Consistent activity is key to good rankings!

Youtube

By now, you should have already filled out your Youtube profile. You can check this by going to My Channel in the dropdown menu. Fill out the description and add a link if you haven’t done so already.

If you have video content, you should spend this time uploading 1 or 2 of the videos and filling them out with descriptions and titles that include your main keyword.

Otherwise, playlists are the way to go. In the dropdown, click Playlists and create a new one.

In my experience, these playlists can actually rank well for your name, so include your main keyword in the title. For example I might name one Ryan Erskine | Personal Branding. Then add an engaging description.

Finally, search for some videos that fall in line with your brand and your new playlist. Hit the thumbs up to like them, Subscribe if you want, comment when appropriate, and hit the “+ Add To” to add them to your playlist.

Google+

You have three tasks today for Google+.

First, search for folks to add to your “Circles” as you would for LinkedIn connections.

Second, find the About tab and fill out as much as you can. The more the better, but it’s especially important to tackle your image, name, bio, location, and add your website as a link.

Third, go to Posts and share your most recent article as well as a couple of other interesting articles in your industry.

About.me

By now, you should have already filled out your About.me profile. If not, take the time to do so now. Fill out as much as you can, including Name, Image, Subtitle, Bio, Current Role, Education, Location, and Links to My Work.

Make sure you click Publish Backstory or else all that info won’t show up.

Now go to Edit → Info and fill in those sections.

Want a quick trick to make your profile even more SEO-friendly? Simply highlight over your name and click the link symbol to type in your website. A nice “dofollow” link for Google.

I would recommend clicking Unpublish Collections at the bottom of your page. It’s just a popularity contest that shows who complimented you and who you complimented.

Finally, let’s get some views on your profile! When you compliment other folks’ pages, they’ll receive a notification and will be more likely to check you out.

There are two efficient ways to go about doing this.

1. You can type an industry in the search field and see loads of people related to your field. Skim through their pages briefly and compliment the best ones.

2. Alternatively, you can click the Discover button up top and quickly scroll through loads of Staff Picks, Featured, and Popular profiles, complimenting them in the process.

Try out a mix of the two and let me know if you find any other best practices.

Instagram

Hopefully you’ve already filled in your profile with an image, SEO-friendly username, quick description and your website. If not, do that now.

Today we’re going to start posting and really focus on building your following.

First, figure out the first image you’d like to post. Perhaps you took one recently or have some saved in your digital library.

Do a little hashtag research. I like to take note of what others in the industry are using to index their posts and supplement that with what I find on Hashtagify.me.

Post your image. Use a filter if you want. Add an engaging description. Then, add a comment to include your hashtags. Doing this in the comments section means you won’t be clogging up your description with them.

Now let’s tackle your followers.

First I’d advise connecting to Facebook if you have one. This will allow you to quickly follow all your friends and will encourage them to follow you back.

Then search for one of the hashtags you used. Find a beautiful photo, click the user and quickly double-tap a bunch of your favorites before following him or her. This will get you more prominently on their radar. Do this as much as you can within your time limit.

Finally, download Followers+. It’s a great tool to track who’s not following you back. This allows you to follow folks in the industry freely and check back later to see who you can trim.

NOTE ABOUT POSTING: It’s much more important to keep your image quality high than it is to post frequently. Aim to post once every few days or, if you get really into it, try to limit yourself to 2-3 times a day. Anything more tends to be seen as spammy.

An Expert Starter Guide to LinkedIn and Pinterest

Do you have a LinkedIn profile?

Chances are it could use some help.

Today, I'm going to show you how to really take advantage of that social network -- how to set up a custom URL, make your profile completely public, and much more.

I'll also show you some neat Pinterest tricks while we're at it.

Want to set up analytics? How about a tool to grow your audience and schedule out pins at the best times?

Let's get right to it...

 

7 LinkedIn Steps

You probably already optimized your LinkedIn profile back on Day 6 but here are some important things to double-check an go through now:

1. Create a custom LinkedIn URL using only your name (see below)

2. Try to get your main keyword (your name) as close to the beginning of your summary section as possible. 

3. Use your name naturally throughout your summary section a few times.

4. Fill out your job experience section and write a few sentences about your experience at each position. Remember to write in the third person.

5. Fill out as many sections as makes sense for you. Consider honors and awards, education, certifications, projects, and publications.

6. Connect with as many people as you can -- peers, classmates, people from a previous job, etc.

7. Make sure your profile is set to public to increase chances of ranking (see below)

Creating Your Custom LinkedIn URL

1. Look toward the bottom of the first box -- the one with your name and photo in it.

2. Find your LinkedIn URL to the left of “Contact Info”

3. Hover over it, and click the gear to the right of the URL

Then…

1. Look toward the top right, where it says “Your Public Profile URL”

2. Click the pencil to the right of your URL

3. Type in your main keyword and hit Save

Making Your Profile Public

1. Look toward the bottom of the first box -- the one with your name and photo in it.

2. Find your LinkedIn URL to the left of “Contact Info”

3. Hover over it, and click the gear to the right of the URL

Then...

1. Find the section under “Your Public Profile URL” that says "Customize Your Public Profile."

2. Check "make my profile visible to everyone" and check off as many items as you are comfortable with. The more you have public, the more items Google can crawl, and the better your profile will be for ranking purposes.

5 Pinterest Steps

By now, you should already have filled out your Pinterest settings -- custom URL, Bio, Location, and Website. If you haven’t, do that first. Then follow these steps:

1. Set up Pinterest Analytics (see below).
2. Verify your URL on the backend (see below).
3. Create at least 3 boards (see below).
4. Set up Viralwoot to grow your Pinterest following and reach (see below).
5. Set up Tailwind and schedule out pins for the week (see below).

1. Setting up Pinterest Analytics

For some reason, Pinterest only allows you to track analytics if you are set up as a business account. Why? Who knows.

1. Visit the Pinterest for Business page and click Convert now to convert your account

2. Use your main keyword (i.e. your name) for the Business Name

3. Pick a business type (Professional, perhaps?) and fill in your website

 

2. Verifying your URL on the backend

1. Use this guide to verify your URL if you have a Squarespace website.

2. Use this guide if you have a Wordpress website.

 

3. Creating Some Boards

Like Instagram, Pinterest is a fun, visual network. It’s all about getting creative and finding a more whimsical side to your professional brand.

Look at the top categories and brainstorm how your brand can fit in with those categories. Then create at least 3 boards with engaging names, descriptions, and relevant categories.

4. Setting up Viralwoot

Viralwoot is a tool that allows you to quickly grow your Pinterest following and reach. This is especially helpful when starting a new account. Just follow these steps:

1. Go to viralwoot.com and sign up for free

2. Log in and connect your Pinterest account

3. Go to Your Interests (under your name at the top) and fill it out

4. Go to Account Settings (same place) and change Seeds/New Follower to 10

5. Click Earn Seeds on the left and click Follow Pinners

6. Change the Category to something that interests you and follow 10 new users. That’s the limit, so try to follow users that give you the most “seeds.” Seeds are a form of currency, and you’ll want to rack up as much as you can here so you can pay others for following you! See how that works?

5. Setting Up Tailwind & Scheduling Out Pins

Tailwind is an amazing scheduling tool. It lets you pin at different times throughout the day and night -- especially optimal times -- to give your pins the best chance for engagement. This is key for great search results. You only get 100 free scheduled pins in the trial, but that’s good enough for us during this 28 day challenge.

1. Go to tailwindapp.com and log in with Pinterest

2. Google “Tailwind Publisher” and download the Chrome extension

3. Then open up your Tailwind account, click Publish → Schedule Pins to see how many slots you have in your schedule for the upcoming week. That’s how many pins you’re going to pin right now for your 3 boards.

There is only one rule. Instead of pinning a pin by hitting the Pin it button, you need to schedule it by hitting the Tailwind sail. That’s it -- have fun! You can always check back in Tailwind’s Schedule Pins section to see how many more you need, change time slots, or shuffle your queue.