Once upon a time, social media management was easy. You could occasionally throw up a link to your blog article and people would comment.

However, the scenario has completely changed now. Websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter are no longer making it easy to get engagement. They want to keep their audience on their own sites. In addition, they are making it harder and harder to get people to see your content without paying.

It takes a lot of effort to create the right social media plan and then to implement your strategy at the best time.

Taking advantage of this fact, many businesses (especially online ones) have taken to social media to advertise and drive more traffic to their websites. Unfortunately, the number of social media websites out there have increased exponentially and every one of them is a potential market that you can exploit.

So, how do companies, large and small, keep up with their regular posts on all these various media you ask? They use programs called Social Media Management tools. Essentially, these are tools that help you manage all your social media content together and plan which post goes online at what time. Thus, you will need to use these to keep up with the competition (or possibly beat ‘em too). Hence, we compiled a list of some of the best social media management tools out there.

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Why can’t I do it myself?

Sitting at home working with a team around the world and running an online business might seem like an amazing idea. Unfortunately, the amount of work that needs to be done is still quite a lot, especially in the social media sphere. It isn’t the kind of work that you can just pass off to your intern either. There are two main reasons why you should use these tools: consistency and time.

I can remember when I was still bootstrapping my business and had more time than money. I felt like I could handle the social media without the added expense of a monthly fee for one of these services.

Unfortunately, the task quickly became a full-time job as more and more sites came out. Each site has different ideal times to post and different ways to post. It was getting to be too much to keep on top of it all.

Social Media Management Tools Help with Consistency

One of the keys to successful social media marketing is to be consistent with your activity. You can’t post every two years and expect your followers to stick around or engage with your content. But more importantly, you can’t post a ton of content on a single day and completely abandon the followers the next day.

This is when things started going downhill for me. I thought I could keep on top of it but it was often the first thing to go when I got busy. Then I’d try to play catch up and everything would come out at once.

Thus, you need to plan out your content and split it over a few days and different social media to attract as much traffic to it as possible. This works especially well if this is one of your cornerstone content driving all the boys to the yard.

Social Media Management Tools Save Time

In order to remain consistent, you would have to post the content regularly throughout the day on different social media sites as needed. However, you may not always be free during these times of peak traffic and that ends up affecting your consistency.

Furthermore, you may have more important aspects of your business to concentrate on at that point. Thus, when you have some free time, social media management tools allow you to schedule all your posts to be posted on different social media. The app takes care of the rest. This will help you save a lot of time in the long run.

Of course, employing a social media management tool also saves you the hassle of using multiple excel spreadsheets and keeping track of which post has been posted where. There are several other benefits depending on the tool as well. So without further ado, here are some of the best social media scheduling tools we have come across.

Smarterqueue

Smarterqueue, true to its name, allows you to select your queueing times much easier than other similar services. Moreover, it will automatically queue posts that are doing well (or if you want) without any effort from your side. It can also automatically set up a schedule for you based on your preferred posting times. Smarterqueue gives you the option to share directly from a website you are viewing using a bookmark which helps you save a ton of time. Great analytical software that comes with this is just an added bonus.

Social Media options

Twitter profiles, Facebook profiles, pages and groups, Pinterest, Instagram profiles (Using push notifications), LinkedIn profiles and pages

Pros  

• Allows you to re-queue good content multiple times automatically using several variations,
• You can post using a bookmarked link from any website,
• Has a Find Content feature that allows you to search social media platforms,
• You can import content from an RSS feeder,
• Excellent stats to review what posts are working,
• Easily reshare your best content.

Cons  

• Inability to reply to comments or messages,
• Post limit on every profile applied every day (but this number is high),
• App functionality is very limited.

Pricing 

Smarterqueue is priced rather reasonably making it our top recommended tool (and the one we personally use). The simplest option can be bought at $18 a month which allows you to control 4 social media profiles. If you want more, you can go for the business plan at $35 with 10 profiles or the Agency plan allowing 25 profiles at $82. A custom option is also available at $18 plus whatever add-ons you feel you need.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the classics when it comes to social media management tools. The UI is extremely simple and rather easy to use. There are multiple pages and you can open multiple columns (RSS feeds)  in each of these pages. Each column can represent a single aspect of some social media app out there, for example - the inbox from one of your Facebook pages. From these RSS feeds, you can schedule new content or manage your account to a certain extent.

Social Media options  

Twitter profiles, Facebook profiles, groups and pages, LinkedIn profiles and companies, Wordpress blogs, Instagram personal and business profiles (Using push notifications), Youtube channels and Pinterest Profiles.  

Pros 

• No need for additional installments - can be accessed from the browser,
• Engagement possible from platform,
• Provides suggestions for sharing content

Cons 

• Adding extra users proves to be quite expensive
• Comes with a tag saying “Posted by HootSuite”  

Pricing  

There are multiple plans available, but the most common ones are professional, team and business. This can cost you about $18, $95 and $652 respectively a month. There is also a customizable option that allows you to tailor the number of social media platforms profiles you want to access. The price would also change depending on the number of users you want to give access to.

Buffer

Buffer is a hot favorite in the industry when it comes to such tools. It has a great UI and frankly just a pleasure to use. This smart software will not only help you schedule your posts, but it will also post your content at the best times possible to get the highest amount of traffic directed to your site. It allows you to choose different preset posting times for all the different profiles you have. Then you can simply drag and drop in the calendar to adjust the times. You can also access the detailed reports to tweak the times your posts go online.

Social Media options  

Twitter profiles, Facebook profiles, and groups, LinkedIn profiles, and pages, Pinterest Boards, Instagram personal and business profiles (Using push notifications)

Pros

• Gives you suggestions on what kind of content to post,
• Chrome extension allows you to quickly share any link to your platforms, essentially allowing you to “collect” content as you go.

Cons

• The social media platforms are quite limited,
• No categories for posting,
• You can’t reply to your messages on the social media profiles

Pricing

While the free version allows you to access 3 social media profiles, the pricing starts with the “Pro plan” allowing you to access 8 profiles. The small business (25 social media profiles), the medium business (50 profiles) and the large business (150 profiles) are priced at $99, $199 and $399 respectively.

Agorapulse

Agorapulse allows you to take care of all your social media needs under one tab. You can reply to comments, inbox, and tweets seamlessly. Alternatively, you can assign it to your team members as well without worrying about two members replying to the same comment. You also have endless scheduling options for your posts allowing you to gain full control of your social media. Like all other tools on this list, Agorapulse also offers its own comprehensive analytics reports.

Social Media options

Instagram profiles (Using push notifications), Facebook profiles, pages and groups, Twitter profiles, LinkedIn profiles, and Youtube channels.

Pros

• Bulk uploading is possible,
• Extremely comprehensive analytics giving you demographics data too,
• Ability to engage with social media directly from the platform,
• It’s more than just scheduling, it’s full management.

Cons

• Pricing is on the higher end but provides a lot more features.

Pricing  

Agorapulse has multiple plans available for purchase. The most basic one - Micro, sells for $15 a month and allows you control over just one profile. The small and medium plans sell for $49 and $99 a month respectively. On the other hand, the large package will end up costing you $199 a month with access to multiple profiles. An enterprise plan can cost you up to $299 a month. However, if you opt-in for the annual subscription you can get hefty discounts on these prices.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is another great social media tool designed like Agorapulse. It allows you to check out various feeds and comment on them as well. Similarly, you can also reply to the inboxes across the different social media. You can set up multiple projects, depending on which blog you are working for or which site you want to promote. You can assign different tasks to your team members and monitor the status quite easily. Moreover, a feed showing you content related to your interests allows you to curate content more easily. Great analytics reports are just the icing on the cake.  

Social Media options

Instagram (Using push notification), Facebook profiles, groups, and pages, Pinterest, LinkedIn profiles and Twitter profiles.

Pros   

• You can create your own chatbots,
• Engagement from platform,
• Bulk uploading is possible.

Cons 

• The pricing is on the upper side,
• Designed more for agencies,
• Low uploading options.

Pricing   

The pricing of sprout social is almost criminal. The basic package starts at $99 a month per user. While the number of social media profiles you can use remain the same in consecutive plans, the analytics power increases. The highest package available is priced at $249 a month per user. However, there is an intermediate option at $149 too. Businesses can also choose to opt for the Enterprise bundle which allows you to customize your requirements and pay accordingly.

Tailwind

Tailwind is an amazing scheduler focusing on Instagram and Pinterest. With a browser extension, it allows you to post to multiple boards at the same time reducing your work tenfold. It also has a feature that automatically selects the best times for uploads and schedules your posts accordingly. Tailwind’s analytics sends you a detailed report weekly with traffic details and how your posts performed. It also introduces a feature called “Tribes” which is essentially a group on Tailwind full of people sharing content on a particular topic. These are great for curating content to your social media and having more of your content shared. The analytics also look into how you are performing in these tribes.

Social Media options

Instagram and Pinterest

Pros

• Browser extension available for sharing on Pinterest
• Ability to post to multiple boards together
• Posting to Instagram does not require a manual step

Cons  

• The number of social media options is extremely limited.

Pricing 

The price of this tool is rather average considering that you have to pay $10 for a month for just one profile - this can either be Instagram or Pinterest. So, if you want both Pinterest and Instagram, you’ll have to pay double. You upgrade for more tribes or SmartPins. Alternatively, you have a free trial which lets you pin up 100 posts with no time limit.

Coschedule

Coschedule is another favorite of social media marketers around the globe. It has a well-designed calendar which allows you to schedule posts with ease and assign tasks to your team members before the post is due to be shared. Coschedule integrates well with most other marketing software like google analytics making it an even powerful tool. It also has the option to re-queue posts which are doing well in getting the attention of your audience.

Social Media options  

Tumblr blogs, Facebook profiles, pages and groups, Twitter profiles, LinkedIn accounts, Google+ pages and profiles, Pinterest accounts, Instagram accounts (Using push notifications)

Pros  

• Amazing analytics that even checks the header of your social media post and suggests changes
• Wordpress plugin available allowing you to schedule posts directly from Wordpress

Cons

• Lacks the ability for bulk upload
• Extremely expensive for beginners to use  

Pricing

Coschedule offers a 14-day free trial (no credit card details required) for all its plans. Otherwise, it has 3 main plans with a range of choices within them. The individual plan can cost anywhere from $0-$49 a month. The business plan can cost anywhere from $60 to $1200 a month while the Agency plans can cost anywhere from $60 to $300 a month. Each of them supports different numbers of social media profiles and additional features.

Conclusion

When you are trying to choose social media management tool, there are a lot of factors like cost, features, a number of users allowed and even the social media platforms supported to consider. You need to decide which of these factors you care more about and accordingly make the right call for your business.

If you want, you can even use some of these tools together. One of my favorite combinations is to use Tailwind for Instagram and Pinterest and Smarterque for everything else. You can come up with a combination that suits you best.

So, get rid of all the excel sheets you had while queueing your posts. Just get one (or more) of these tools and let your life become infinitely easier. This way, you can focus on what really matters - growing your business.

“The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” - Chicken Little

This has been a rough year for doing business on Facebook. The changes early this year, to the algorithm have made it harder and harder to reach our audience. However, with every challenge, there is an opportunity. Instead of focusing on what doesn’t work anymore, let’s look at what does.

There was a time when Facebook was all about pokes and connecting with old high school friends (I’ll refrain from sharing my high school photo, again). While it’s still a great place to reconnect, Facebook has slowly grown to become one of the leading business platforms on the internet competing even with the likes of LinkedIn. Solopreneurs and other businesses have used this to gain an edge by polishing their marketing tactics.

If you really want to get the most out of growing your business on Facebook, it’s important to know what works and what doesn’t. That way you can maximize the time you spend more effectively.

Why choose Facebook?

If you don’t already know now, networking is the art of creating connections with people who may be able to help you out later in different aspects of your business. I once was able to use my networking contacts to get box seats at a Nickelback concert! But we will be concentrating on the business gain for now.

The fundamentals of networking on Facebook and Instagram are very similar. However, Facebook comes with a distinct set of advantages.

Groups

Facebook has a feature called groups where all the like-minded people can come together and discuss their interests. Not only can one chat in these groups but they start to become a part of the community. The number of such groups is hard to count as there are new ones created every day. We will look more into these later, but each one of these groups is a possible treasure trove of solid leads.

Users

Instagram boasts a total number of active users of over a billion. It would be extremely hard to top that number until you try and compete with a whale like Facebook. This social media giant has over 2.25 billion active users. That is about a third of the whole word. This means your potential market is already double the size of Instagram.

Post Options

While Instagram is coming up with a lot of features like Facebook (and vice versa), Facebook still clearly has more options that can help you network better and get popular. For example, you can start polls and interact with people. You can also go with text or multimedia posts. Recently you can also ask people for advice about anything you want. Sure, listening to strange people on the internet is something your parents have strongly advised you against since you started using a computer. But, let’s hope that they aren’t reading this with you.

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Perfect mix of Professional and Social Cultures

Instagram is as casual as a social networking site gets. Well maybe not as much as tinder, but you get my point. Facebook on the other hand, due to its arsenal of features can be used effectively for both professional and social purposes. This is extremely important as it will help you maintain the right kind of relations with your connections. You wouldn’t want them to see how drunk you got during the family reunion and horrendously failed at performing a backflip in the pool. So you can control exactly who is viewing certain parts of your life.

That being said since Facebook took over Instagram, the way the two of them linked themselves together is truly remarkable. So, while it is true that Facebook is preferable over Instagram in terms of networking, true magic is created when you use both of them in sync. However, for the purpose of this article, we will focus on how to create a connection on Facebook. If you are interested in learning how to network on Instagram, do go through our post about the same.

Create Friend Lists

The first thing you need to do before you start networking on Facebook is to segregate your professional and your personal contacts. This will help you keep these lives separate online as well. Sure, a professional contact may get close enough to you later to become a personal one. But let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.

Facebook allows you to do this easily with something called lists. Simply go to your friend list to find all your good looking friends. When you hover over the ‘Friends’ tag, you should be able to see a number of lists already made available to you. You can choose them to add them to those lists or select “Add to another list”. Here you can create a new list and add all your professional contacts to it.

Unfortunately, you will have to go to each friend and use this procedure to add them to this new list. Alternatively, you can add a bunch of them together via the friend lists option under Explore on the left side of your Home Page.

Once you are done creating your list it is important to keep updating them as soon as you add new contacts. Now, everytime you post, you should see an option to change who all can view it. Simply go there and change the setting to your professional list when you are posting work-related. Alternatively while posting personal stuff you can just block this list from viewing these new posts.

Use Facebook Groups

One of the biggest reasons to prefer Facebook over Instagram is the presence of ‘Groups’ on facebook. Essentially, it is a collection of people with the same interest. Now, Imagine, your target audience is travel bloggers from Indiana. To network on Instagram, you will have to go through several tags and posts to search for these people. On the other hand, Facebook will (might) directly have a group called “Indiana Travel Bloggers”. All you have to do is join these groups and start talking to people, making your job infinitely easier.

Some of these groups might be private (requiring a member’s permission for you to join in) while the others are open allowing you to join whenever you want. Once you are in, you can use the following steps to network like a pro.

Become an active participant

The first thing you need to do is to be active in the group. You can do this in several ways. Start off by leaving meaningful comments on others’ posts or start a discussion about it. Once you are comfortable, you can post links, media, or even relevant jokes on the group to engage everyone. Eventually, when they are comfortable with you, you can try to share a relevant link from your business to this particular group.

Add friends

Once you have started becoming active in the group, you will notice that there are others who are just as active as you are. You might even find some regulars who discuss your viewpoints in the comments section. In such a case, feel free to add them as a friend so you can move on to the next step of networking. Ensure you add them to your professional friend list directly so you do not end up sharing an inappropriate post with them.

Send them a message

There are extremely high chances that your request gets accept. If it doesn’t, then respect their privacy and don’t badger the comments section calling them out like a drunken ex.

Once you have added them as your friend, you would want to start conversations with topics relating to the group you met in. Later, you can delve into other topics and such. It is important to remember that this is a professional contact and not a social one, so you should know your boundaries.

You could use groups to do more than just networking. To find out how you can make the most of them, check out our article on how to use Facebook groups to grow your business.

Make the most of post options  

Facebook has developed a lot since its inception. What earlier had just a text posting and comment options now has options to ask people for opinions and recommendations. You can make the most of these additional post options to create a bigger network for yourself.

Polls

A feature of Facebook allows you to take polls asking people their opinion on various topics. This feature is great since it gives the users a chance to interact with you.  So if you come with an interesting enough question where everyone wants to give their opinion then you might get a great response. To top it off, it’s a great way to do a market survey in groups or amongst your friend circle - at absolutely no cost 😉

You can also see which users selected which option in this poll. Using their answers can be a great conversation starter with someone who you had otherwise known as an acquaintance. But be careful while doing this as not everyone will be open to the idea of being approached like that.

Live video

Just like Instagram, Facebook also has an option to live stream various events. This is a great place to meet people. You can choose to view someone else's live stream and share your thoughts with like-minded people. This is a lot like attending some concert and discussing how beautiful the music is with the person in the next seat.

You could also try live streaming other things yourself to get your dormant users to be more interactive. For example, if you are a baseball coach, you can live stream a prodigious talent learning at your academy. This is sure to get the attention of others and a great way to market your services at the same time.

Stories

Stories are something that was popularized by Snapchat but eventually, everyone wanted a piece of the cake so they all started “getting inspired” by it. Though not as popular as its counterparts, some people still use Facebook stories to document various things.

Just like streaming something live, this gives people a chance to start a conversation with you or share their opinion. If you uploaded a story about a product that you strongly believe in related to your friend, then others might ask you for reviews as they might be looking for a similar product.

You could also use other types of posts like starting an event page to publicize a seminar you are planning to organize. Alternatively, you should implement various types of media as well to try and engage your connections. Nowadays, you will find memes are the best icebreakers. They have probably even replaced pick up lines in online dating. So, go post something funny (not necessarily related to your field)  and make the most Facebook post options to expand your network.

Create a Facebook page

Another way to start networking is to make use of the facebook pages option. This is the best way to have a professional presence on Facebook. As a Facebook user, you can create a page on facebook about absolutely anything you want. No, seriously, it can even be about how you should put cereal before the milk for your breakfast and not vice versa. As long as Facebook doesn’t deem the content of the page to be harmful to anyone, you can have whatever you want.

Of course, you don’t want to have a page about cereal eating techniques (or do you?), but you should start a page about your own business and the services you offer.

“But WHY should I have a page if Facebook doesn’t show it to anyone?”

Let me digress a bit here.

Once upon a time, marketing was hard. You had to spend lots of money on big campaigns and do a lot of challenging things.

And then Facebook came along.

Marketing became relatively cheap and easy (I’ll refrain from the comparison here). Facebook made it simple to put out content and get new audiences.

Then Facebook decided to start making money and they made everything hard again.

But hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Frankly, there are still people who are going to research your company using Facebook as one point of reference. If you don’t have a moderately active page, they will think twice about doing business with you.

Shift your perspective. Instead of your page as being a solid lead generator, consider it a branding and reputation building tool.

Invite friends to like

This might make you seem as desperate as a teenage boy. Unfortunately, it is one of the most effective techniques to get people to recognize your services and start a dialog. Remember the friends you gathered from various groups and the ones you already had, they will be useful here. Request them to like your page.

I’ve actually had this work for me. I’ve gotten a few new clients from inviting contacts I’ve made to like my page. They knew me from groups or local events and reached out when they received the invitation to like my page.

Once your friends like and follow your page, two things will happen. Firstly, your page will gain popularity. Secondly, their friends will get to see that they have liked your page and they might wonder what is it all about. If you are lucky they might turn into potential leads as well.

Just remember, only invite friends that you think are in your target audience. Facebook is more likely to show your posts to people it thinks will be interested and engage. Your uncle Jack might like your page to support you, but, if he never engages, that “like” actually hurts you.

Also, if you ever consider advertising using Facebook, it will be to your benefit to have a narrower, targeted audience.

Be active on the page

The previous technique is only bound to work if your page is regularly updated with new content. The posts don’t have to be related to your field, but can sometimes be a bit personal as well. If you want, you can even lighten the mood with a few memes here and there. At the same time, you must ensure that you aren’t repeating your posts too regularly. Once every 3 to 6 months is fine if you have a lot of content going up. Less often if you only post once a week.

This also means that you will have to be quite active while replying to the messages asked by people online. This will help you project a positive image and develop newer connections.

Use the page to comment on groups

Finally, you can now use your page identity almost as a separate entity on Facebook. So once you get into a particular group, you can start posting on that group using your page id. Similarly, you could also use this to comment or reply to comments on other posts on various groups. This helps you establish yourself in the group as your professional self rather than just another individual. Furthermore, it will open you up to queries from others increasing your opportunities to network.

Use a balance here. People like to do business with people first. While interacting as your page can help people see what you do, it doesn’t always help people get to know the person behind the business.

Stay in Touch

Now that you have created a network of people, it is extremely important to maintain it as well. Without this, it would be hard or you to ever ask them for a favor if it ever comes to it. Imagine if an acquaintance from middle school suddenly came up to you 20 years later and asked for help in a business venture, you wouldn't be inclined to help, would you? Here are a few simple ways you can stay in touch.

Comment on their posts

Whether someone is a part of your professional network or your personal one, it is important to show an interest in their lives. You can simply do this by commenting on the things that they post on Facebook. For example, if they post a picture of themselves, you can compliment them or if they post an update about getting a new job, you can congratulate them. Just remember not to sound too mechanical with your comments or they might perceive it as an insincere comment.

Share their posts

Another great idea to stay in touch is to share their posts whenever you feel they are something you relate with as well. Alternatively, you might feel that you have an opposing opinion and you can share the post with your opinion. Remember, the objective is not to attack the person with your opinion but rather to have a constructive discussion on the topic.

Birthday wishes

Let’s be honest, if it wasn’t for Facebook, we probably wouldn’t remember our best friend’s birthday or maybe even our own anniversary. This is possibly one of the reasons that I still have the Facebook app on my phone. All you need to do is send out a thoughtful message to that person on their birthday. Otherwise, you could even post on his/her wall. It is just so easy. If its a professional contact don’t post anything embarrassing on their wall though - that privilege is reserved for your best friends 😉  

Want to truly uplevel your birthday wishes? Find or create a unique image to share your birthday message. This can either be slightly (but not overly) branded to your business or something specific to that person. Just remember, if it’s business branded, it should still be more about the other person than your business. No one likes a Happy Birthday from the Team at XYZ Insurance Brokers, Keeping Your Insurance costs low…

Conclusion

Networking on Facebook has always been a very easy thing to do. One might say, that is the very essence of Facebook with all the friend suggestions that it dishes out on a constant basis. However, it is important to keep the personal and professional apart. Just remember the following tips -

• Keep your professional connections separate using lists
• Maximize the use of groups to add new connections
• Use the various posting formats to interact with your existing contacts
• Make a professional page about your service for any online inquiries
• Stay in touch with them by interacting with their posts and wishing them on their birthdays

Doing all this on your own might seem like a daunting task. However, if you had some help from our Virtual A-Team, all this might seem like a walk in the park. So, don’t waste your time. Contact us and let’s get cracking on making you a Facebook sensation and building that network up!

If you haven’t been under a rock lately, someone has probably told you that you should network on Instagram. The digital world is bigger and badder than ever! That means it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with all the competition. There are so many solopreneurs fighting for business that we feel we have to be everywhere at all times. While this isn’t actually true, tools like Instagram help us to look like we are.

But it’s not enough to just post on a social media platform and hope that turns into results. You have to go the extra mile and actually NETWORK with your contacts.

What is networking?

A network is an arrangement of lines that interconnect. Networking is creating these interconnections. When we apply this to the business world, the lines become relationships. Networking is arranging connections into relationships for the greater good.

Social media has a way of being very one sided. You post content like it’s a billboard or TV commercial. Unfortunately, that’s just not effective. To get the most out of your social media marketing, you have to network.

Why network on Instagram?

First, let me say, Instagram isn’t right for every business owner. It’s the most visual of all the platforms. An effective Instagram strategy means you are willing and able to create a very visual story of your services.

Another thing to keep in mind is whether or not your target audience is hanging out on Instagram. If you work with female millennials, you are in. Old tech guys? Not so much.

We’ve written about some additional tips on how to find the best social media for your business.

But why is Instagram so great?

It’s free

There are several ways to network offline. You could choose to go to a networking event or a seminar. However, these events are seldom free to attend. Even if they are free, you will have to pay for your transport there.

Most social media sites are free to use and even free, to an extent, to market your business. Of course, being free means there’s more competition but we’ll get to that later.

Great way to get referrals

One of the greatest ways of boosting your businesses is to get more referrals. Instagram can help you do just that. Imagine you are a life coach and someone puts up an Instagram story about something depressing. You can approach this person tactfully and help them improve their mood. Once they find out you are a life coach, you already have a potential advertiser.

About a billion users!!

Yes, that’s 1 followed by nine 0s. About 15 percent of the world population is on Instagram. This means that people from your target audience most likely have Instagram. Thus, it will be easy to connect with them and have them on as clients.

Of course, not the whole billion will fit into your target audience. But, even in the worst case scenario, about 0.0001% would still fit into that category. That is still close to 1000 clients that you could approach if you put in the effort.

Everything is online

If you try any of the offline business mixers, you will have to do the tedious tasks of putting on pants and shaking hands. Instagram makes this pain go away. All you need is your smartphone and you can start networking from the comfort of your couch and boxers.

It is also great for people who have major anxiety issues, especially when it comes to dealing with people in person. On the internet, these people can put their best foot forward and help their business grow.

Finally, doing everything online means you will be saving a lot of time. I mean you wouldn’t have to wait for long speeches, deal with traffic or pretend to laugh at that one guy’s horrible puns.

You can get straight to the point.

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Lower restrictions

My favorite thing about Instagram is that there are fewer restrictions on who can contact you. In other social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, the user you are trying to connect with will have to approve your request before you can do anything.

On the other hand, most of the accounts on Instagram are public. You can even message them without following. There are a few private accounts where you need their approvals first. However, people hardly ever reject a follow request unless they have a personal vendetta against you. Exes probably aren’t getting approved any time soon.

Facebook monitors your friend request activities and suspends your activity if it sees too many friend requests being sent out. On the other hand, LinkedIn allows other viewers to see who viewed their profiles. So, if you do try and analyze a potential client’s profile, you might get called a creep or a stalker.

There is no such problem on Instagram, you can freely browse other profiles. The only thing you need to be worried about is accidentally liking your crush’s photo from one year ago.

I could go on and on about why you should network on Instagram. However, let’s get to the crux of the article - how to do it.

How to Network on Instagram

Add people to your “following” list

Are you ready to learn how to network on Instagram? The first step is to build a network in which you can socialize with people. Think about it, you can’t network during a seminar where you are the only attendee. In Instagram, there are two kinds of people associated with you. The people you follow or “following” and the people who follow you or “followers”.

Odds are, you aren’t an Instagram influencer (or you probably wouldn’t be reading this right now) so we won’t focus on getting more “followers”.

So let’s figure out who the heck we need to follow. Start with the basics, feel free to follow your friends and family. If you connect your account to Facebook or your email, Instagram will also make recommendations for other people to follow.

Analyze accounts

Once you start on square one, you will see that your feed starts filling up with posts from the people you follow. Every now and then you will come across a post that relates to the kind of business you run.

For example, if I’m looking to connect with other women business owners, I will look for posts that connect with that audience. It might be something like this one from my friend and client, @DebbiekPage:

View this post on Instagram

You didn't start your business because you knew how to be a CEO. You started your business because you are good at what you do and have a passion. Dedicate time each week to learn how to be a CEO. How do you build your CEO muscle.

A post shared by Debbie Page (@debbiekpage) on Oct 26, 2018 at 9:43am PDT

This is when you start analyzing the people who have liked and commented on the post.

A person takes more effort while commenting on a post than when liking one. Thus, commenters are more active on Instagram. They also probably care more about that niche. That makes these individuals great people to follow and connect with.

With any luck, their profile will be public or you will have enough mutual connections for the person to accept your request. Either way, you need to focus on the three things beside the profile picture - number of posts, followers, and following.

Firstly, the number of posts needs to be high - this means they are relatively active on Instagram. Then you also need to see that the number of followers and following are roughly the same. This kind of translates into that person interacting with their followers. If their followers are significantly higher than their following, they are generally going to be less engaged with you and your content.

If all these things are good to go, add the person and move on to the next profile.

Search Hashtags

Another great way to search for relevant people would be searching for posts with relevant hashtags. Fortunately, only a very small fraction of the Instagram users don’t use hashtags.

You can use this feature in a very simple way. Imagine you run a travel agency which also sells adventure goods. Searching for the hashtag “#wanderlust” will give you millions of results. Then all you need to do is analyze the results and voila! You have officially increased the list of people you follow.

Instagram has a new feature that allows you to follow hashtags. Thus, your feed will have posts from new people of interest as well. You can then proceed to add them as well.

Use Explore

Instagram has a cool feature in the search section called “Explore”. Essentially it is a collection of posts that you might be interested in. So, Imagine you follow accounts usually under the auto industry category or the adventure sports category. You will get a series of similar posts. They are super easy to browse through too!

As you start exploring, you can find out which profiles are the most active and then start following them.

These tips should help you increase your following list quite a bit. You now have a network to finally start socializing in and soon get more connections. Let’s get down to it.

Start with comments

There are several accounts on Instagram with over a thousand followers. Accounts like these usually tend to get a lot of likes - more than they can be bothered to look at. However, only a fraction of these people who like a post, take the effort to comment on it. Thus, if you are ever trying to get someone’s attention, comments are usually the best way to go.

But remember, only the correct kind of comments is going to get you the attention you need. One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make while commenting on others’ posts is that they start marketing in the comments section.

This will most likely get you flagged for spam. Thus, please try and avoid it. You are only using the comments section to start a dialog with the person. Networking and marketing can come later.

Thus, you can comment something relevant to the post. For example, if it is a post about dogs, you could compliment them. Or, if the post is something about being stressed, you could try and empathize with the person.

When in doubt, throw in a meme reference. You will be surprised how far humorous comments can get you as long as they are relevant to the post.

Use Instagram stories

Instagram stories are a kind of temporary post that stays up for 24 hours after it has been posted. I prefer networking through Instagram stories because they offer more interaction with people when compared to normal posts.

There are features that allow people to play games, take polls, do ratings and even ask questions. Such things can help you network even more as they provide more topics of conversation.

There are two primary ways of using Instagram stories for networking. One is to reply to others’ Instagram stories. The other is to put up Instagram stories of your own. Let’s look a bit more into these.

Be creative with your replies

When you reply to a story, your reply is sent to the user in the form of a direct message. As DMs are a bit more personal than comments on the photo, I suggest you start with comments first - just so they know you exist.

Again, you need to use a similar strategy to the one you used for commenting. Come up with creative replies to their stories. Try and notice things others aren’t so they notice you. Of course, you would also like to put the marketing on hold while replying to these stories.

When someone puts up a story that allows you to ask a question, try and ask something insightful. Something to make the other person think a lot before they reply. Or if you have analyzed their photos and profile well enough, you should be able to ask them something specific about their interests. For example, if a person is interested in classical music, you can ask their preference in artists.

Put up your own stories

The second way to network stories would be to put up your own stories. You should know that stories are only visible to your followers. Thus it is important to have a lot of followers which increases your chances of interaction.

The content you put up on stories will differ depending on the type of business you run. However, a good practice would be to put up an attractive background and maybe a call to action. Ask their opinion on something in a picture or comment on something you witnessed today.

My suggestion would be to use the interactive features as much as possible. Starts polls or ask people questions and make them use the slider rating to choose an option. It’s not always important to get them to reply to your stories. Just getting them to engage with you is good enough for a start.

Slide into their DMs

You can use posts or stories as great excuses to start a conversation with someone. Sometimes, you don’t need an excuse, you can directly start talking to them. Sometimes, you just need to walk up to the girl and start talking to her without using an excuse to do so. However, this works best if that person is an acquaintance and not a complete stranger.

But, you need to remember to be courteous and follow all the guidelines discussed in the article thus far. An important tip here is to be a good conversationalist. There is no point of getting into someone’s DMs only for it to end up as awkward as middle school prom.

Sometimes, you need a little something to grease the wheels of conversation. Just send them a meme or a hilarious post to get the conversation going again. Just be careful not to offend them with the joke. I know that is super hard in this day and age, but you have to try your best.  

If that doesn’t work, as a last resort you can always bring up the topic of your business and how someone could benefit a lot from your services 😉

Go Live

Instagram has a new feature that lets its users perform a live webcast to connect with their followers. Of course, going live yourself is a great idea to engage with your followers. But it is an even better idea to join someone live on Instagram.

There are tons of people who join the live streams of popular accounts. You can comment while you are streaming. The trick here is not to connect with the person doing the live stream but to connect with the hundreds of people who are watching the live stream along with you.

I know tons of people who have met each other on Instagram live and are close friends now. So, remember to socialize and try to connect with the people watching with you. With any luck, you will generate a rapport with the people there and probably even slide into their DMs soon after.

Conclusion

Networking on social media can be a tough task. You might be reaching out to a thousand people a day but only a few people might be responsive. Even fewer would generate actual leads. With practice, you will gain an understanding of which people are more likely to respond. Just remember to hang in there and keep trying.

If you ever get tired, there are thousands of memes on Insta to brighten up your day. There is no reason you cannot mix a bit of business and pleasure. To summarise, remember to follow the tips below.

• Don’t start off by marketing yourself
• Do not send out general and cliched messages.
• Keep it platonic - You are on Instagram, not Tinder.
• Use hashtags, posts, stories and live streaming to your advantage
• Keep increasing your following count so you can network with more people

There are several things to consider while you are networking on Instagram. You would need your own virtual A team to make the most out of it. But, the most important thing to remember is to follow up after networking. Don’t be that boyfriend who suddenly ghosts the girlfriend for no reason.

Well, don’t wait any longer. If this article gave you any new insights, then go open Instagram now and give us a follow @virtualateam! Oh, and start networking for yourself too, that is important as well 😉

Need some help to pick the best social media for business?

We’ve mentioned marketing strategy before and I’m sure we’ll mention it again. There are a million things to consider when putting together a marketing plan (like stock photo sourcing). One of the first and most overwhelming for many solopreneurs like you is picking the right social media platform. There are many options, from generalist giants like Facebook to more niche networks like Goodreads. How do you know where to find your audience, how to most effectively present your products or services, and what site is the best fit for you and your business? Unfortunately, that’s not always an easy question. Picking the best social media for business doesn’t always follow a “check the boxes” formula. However, here’s a game plan to help you figure out where to go.

Define Your Target Audience

First, you need to know who you’re trying to reach. Using tools like Google Analytics, Survey Monkey and Google Survey you can figure out what demographics describe your audience. The characteristics that you can discover with these tools include things like age and gender. These characteristics will help you figure out which social media networks to focus on. You should also take some time to visualize an ideal client. Who are they, what is their income, what are their pain points, and what are they looking for?

If you aren’t sure how to go about defining your target audience, this is a great time to step back and bring in a professional. This first part of your marketing plan is foundational and will make all other forms of marketing easier. Everything is built on the combination of who your target market is with what you’re marketing to them. If you don’t know either of these, we can help you get a clearer perspective before moving forward.

Discover Where They Are

Picking the best social media for business starts with finding where your audience is hanging out. Now that you know who your target audience is, how do you find them online? You may get some hints from the survey methods mentioned above. There are also numerous tools to help you figure out where your fans hang out. Tools like Social Mention and Sprout Social allow you to see where and how your brand is already being talked about. Once you know where your clients are talking about you, you can go there to nurture your brand presence.

Pew Research Center is another great resource. They report on social media use with some regularity. Their stats can give you insight into where your audience might be more likely to see your posts. If you aren’t already being talked about, you can start with research like that provided by Pew. Then you can use tools like Social Mention to gauge response when you start sharing.

Determine Where Your Products And Services Sell Best

See where your competitors are marketing their products through tools like SimilarWeb, What Runs Where, and Simply Measured. Different tools give you different data, but any of these can show you where your competitors are active and which of their ads have been most effective. Once you know, for example, that their Twitter posts bring more visitors to their website than their Pinterest posts, then you know that your audience will likely behave a similar way. This sort of insight can show you exactly where to invest your time and effort.

You can use these and similar tools to also discover where your target audience is shopping for products or services like yours. This is a strong vote for the best social media for business. Engaging on social media can put you on the right track. For example, you can ask open questions about where people would go to find a specific product or service. Quora and industry-specific forums are a great place to ask questions like this. If you keep track of the answers you get, you’ll start to get a clear image of the clients that need your services and where they shop.

Each social media site also tends to attract buyers and sellers of particular products and services. Facebook is an excellent place to start since your business’s Facebook profile can be used as an indicator for SEO ranking. No matter what you’re selling, investing your time in a business page on Facebook is a safe bet. If you do create a Facebook business page, be sure to link it to your website and other social media accounts to make sure that clients who find you there can find you elsewhere as well.

As far as other networks are concerned, B2B products and services do best on Linkedin. Travel, fashion, and health and beauty products, on the other hand, are popular on Pinterest and Instagram. Twitter is a powerful customer service platform and is a growing consumer hub. These are just some of the largest names, but there are more targeted platforms like Goodreads for books, and Care2 for social and environmental movements. Pew and other research centers can provide more in depth demographics, and the social media sites themselves often provide demographic reports to business interested in using them. Do your research, or get help from one of our experts.

Decide What Network Works Best For You

Finally, it’s important to consider what social media platform will work best for you. For some formats, it might be worthwhile to create a test or personal account before you commit. You might discover that you don’t like the character limit of tweets, or that the organization of Pinterest boards is overwhelming. On the other hand, you may learn from client interactions that you would benefit from a YouTube channel, or that your target audience is more active on Dogster than Instagram. You have time to test a few different platforms before throwing everything into a few select networks. Your favorite places lend some weight to the best social media for business because you’re much more likely to spend time there.

You should also keep in mind how many platforms you can manage. Using a tool like SmarterQueue to schedule and manage your social media presence can help stretch your time and effort. It would also be smart to consult with an expert who can help. A virtual assistant can help you pick 2-3 social media platforms and strategize your posts and marketing techniques.

If any part of this seems overwhelming, don’t worry. Virtual A Team has your back. From developing an initial plan to creating and posting the actual marketing content, we can help you make the impact you want on the best social media networks for you and your business.