In March, I wrote a post about starting an entrepreneurial-themed book club in Des Moines. While we’re still trying to figure out some of the logistics, as of last week we wrapped up Des Moines’ Startup Book Club’s first book: “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” by Gary Vaynerchuk.
I’ve never been a big fan of book reviews, but because the point of our Startup Book Club is to learn something new, I decided to share some of the social media lessons I learned along the way. Think of this as a highlight reel of sorts if you happen to be too busy to pick up Vaynerchuk’s book yourself.
So here’s three helpful social media tips that “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” had to offer:
1. Use Twitter to listen
Obviously you still need to use Twitter to, you know, tweet. But Vaynerchuk also emphasizes the importance of using Twitter to capitalize on trending topics or prominent cultural events.
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Let’s look at an example: Remember two years ago when the lights went out during the Super Bowl? Oreo quickly put together this “You can still dunk in the dark” ad and not only created an effective, cheeky piece of marketing but also garnered more than 15,000 retweets and more than 20,000 likes on Facebook.
2. Act human on Instagram
When I think about it, the brands I choose to follow on Instagram—and there’s not too many of them—do a great job at this. Instead of photos of your product, use this platform to share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your company, announcement sneak peeks or fun moments with your team. Especially since you can’t hyperlink content on Instagram, it’s important to use Instagram to build brand equity and leave an impression instead of berating your followers with asks.
3. Great creative on Facebook
Being a brand on Facebook can be hard, especially now that they’ve restricted brands’ organic reach to their fans even more. Trust me, we feel that pain, too. While the only real way to get around the block is to “boost” (read: pay to promote) your posts—which also seems to be an imperfect science—Vaynerchuk offers a few tips to help improve your post’s chances of being seen.
First, be sure your post includes an engaging image, because as humans, we tend to like those. Also, tag any relevant organizations or other pages—this will help your mutual fans’ chances of seeing the content. And last, get creative—try new things and don’t be afraid to test out new strategies. Maybe a certain phrasing or type of picture is more likely to be shared by your followers, which means—you guessed it—more people will see it.
Stay tuned for updates about the next meeting of Des Moines’ Startup Book and on what we’ll be reading.
