10 social media truths I wish I knew years earlier

Social media waits for no one. I learnt that the hard way. Social media has catapulted many into popularity and success and has also been the downfall of many. Would you believe I have been on most social networks like Blogger, Facebook, Twitter since 2009?, I had the advantage of knowing about these networks early but didn’t use them regularly till 2015 when I finally understood how they work.

Almost 6 years waste. I just registered them and left them without taking no action. Infact, am yet to fully comprehend the unlimited possibilities that exist with the proper use of the social media platforms but am learning. Most people think Facebook is just for sharing pictures, finding new relationships and keeping tabs on other people’s lives. But let me tell you, it is the greatest platform where millions of dollars are made every day. Some individuals are multimillionaires just by understanding how Facebook works and putting it to good use.

Though if you belong to the former category, this write up is not for you, just continue with surfing the net, browsing, reading gossip, posting negative comments and anonymously winning the Internet troll of the year award ,while those who understand the principle of time and money making continue to do so at your expense.

So here are ten social media truths I have come to understand which will keep you relevant always.

Follow your instinct:

When I started, there were so many ideas i had to share, but was skeptical about reception and now they are just part of the many posts that will remain unshared. You should not tame your ideas or put a block on your expression. It’s all part of who you are. No one can determine what post will go viral, receive backlash or be totally ignored. It’s good to be sensible, yet many social media users are popular for their controversy, humour, funny quotes, while others just because they share good advice. If you are considering building a long term brand, you will want to choose carefully what you put out there online because once it’s there, you can’t take it back. Even when you delete, someone might have screen shot/munched it. Everything and anything can be shared but make your ideas stand out. If you don’t feel comfortable or want to be associated with any post, video, image, then do not share it.

Engagement is key:

Co-linking, thank you, mentions, co-shares, likes, comments, replies, Proper use of hashtags, participating in discussions is key to successfully engaging an audience. Sometimes I don’t reply to comments which is bad especially if someone expresses a view different form mine, my silence indicates that I agree with whatever he/she has said. I cringed every time I remember how many messages I forgot to reply, people’s emails and numbers I didn’t keep, some of them would have come in handy now. Converse, don’t broadcast. Stop spamming people with BBM broadcasts, automated feeds or malicious comments.

Monitor for feedback:

So many of our posts are out there, but we do not take out time and effort to know our audience (Gender, location, their favorite posts) and how they link back to the posts. This is why the Use of Google analytics, site metrics and pingbacks is necessary to monitor feedback.

Know your network and social influencers:

Even if you decide to follow everyone or like every page, be able to determine those that are great influencers in your network, who share same or similar interests, passion so you can actively discuss and engage with them. They will be the ones to recommend and refer your posts to others who will also share with others. It is best to have few followers who interact with you actively than have thousands of followers who just glance at you post and move on to the next one. Imagine you tweeting, a friend with 20, 000 followers can retweet, and it goes on till your original tweet becomes viral. Just concentrate on having the right people in your network and watch your net worth grow.

Select an active Platform(s) and post consistently with a focus:

At a point, I had people sending me messages on my Facebook page that they look forward to my posts because of its entertainment and educative value. When you allow others take your timeline and you post randomly, no frequency, no order, no focus then you lose rankings. Now it doesn’t matter what platform you use, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Blackberry, YouTube, you can easily cross feed and share content on the various platforms at once. But choose one or two that you can really be active on, each social media platform has its own unique characteristic, so explore your options, know your targeted audience and choose wisely. Be consistent, post at least once a day and give your content a feel unique to you. Always make your audience have something to look forward too.

Invest in a smart phone:

It is worth it. The problem I had initially was that I had to wait till am at a café or lucky enough to have a friend share bandwidth before I can log on to a laptop and connect with my social media. It was few months ago I realised that a smart phone is not a luxury, in fact it’s a necessity no matter what the expense may be. Any kind will do as long it has the basics, camera with quality pixels, video, Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook, PDF reader, word pad and a good browser. The world is going mobile and if you are still relying on a laptop before connecting online. Then you are old skool

Social media is an effective marketing tool:

One can use social media to increase brand visibility, improve market sales, makes people to see you as an authority in a field. This is especially true with Facebook. Images and videos helps in increasing promotion: Though it is not necessary but a good image or video will help get your post noticed more quickly. Create original videos with some humour thrown in to make it relatable.

To share a post doesn’t require much time as I thought:

Procrastination is a bad disease. I have always thought I needed time to do a great post before I share, eventually nothing gets done. Now I have discovered, a post does not have to be long for it to be great. You can use Tumblr, Twitter for microblogging and blogging for longer posts.

Social media requires patience and effort to get the best out of it:

It is like nurturing a baby, you have to give it time to crawl, walk and stand on its own. Get the best apps to make your post sharing easy, get more quality and less time consuming (Photo editor apps, sharing and scheduling apps- hootsuite, buffer).

It aids building quality relationships:

Not everyone who wants to connect with you is a dupe, scammer or internet stalker. I have had the opportunity to meet with my favorite clients, making new friends and connect with positive individuals with like minds and passion. I have collaborated, networked and gone into partnerships with my online friends which have yielded fruitful relationships and I wished I wasn’t so skeptical when I started out. The most important thing is to be cautious and learn ethics of social media networking without compromising your values.

Join the conversation early:

That is why it is social, it makes more sense to Post social content as it is happening, always be informed, be ahead and post on trending topics as it happens , not days or weeks after the event has been forgotten. It gets your posts to rank better, higher and your audience can trust you to always provide insights when it is needed.

Finally, there is no late time to start, but now. If I had known how powerful social media will be years later, I would have join the train of the social media users 6 years ago, but am still glad I joined and participated when I did and gradually I have been improving in my social media reach. Now I do understand a social media network is a living being, it has to be fed and nurtured for it to grow and yield results.

Christina Adegbaju is a lifestyle blogger . She writes about lifestyle choices, food and craft tutorials and improving women finances. (www.typearls.org)

You can connect with her on her social networks Twitter:@typearls, Instagram:@Typearlslifestyle, Facebook:typearls

website: www.typearls.org

Image source: socialmediatoday