25 Tweaks
We talked about how to build your social signals. I believe everyone has an account in the top social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and the list goes on. Today we are going to talk about 25 overlooked tweaks that will help you capture attention in the social networks, a total of 25 of them.
Social networks have already taken over the media we once used to know as the most popular. We live in time where each child is more looking forward to setting up a Facebook account rather than getting a driving license. No matter how absurd this sounds, it is true. Free social networking have crossed normal borders of the term ‘influential’ long ago. They became world-changing to the point where it’s most meaningful measure has become ‘days-spent-in-front-of-PC’.
You only have few seconds to capture their attention before your message gets drowned in the sea of updates. Now, if you know how to capture attention in social networks, you are one step next to the successful marketing campaign. Read on to find out 25 tweaks that you can implement right away, which are often overlooked, to capture attention in the social networks.
1. Exploit Your Profile Photo
Your profile photo is the first thing people will notice about your profile, it’s by far the most frequently appearing piece of content about you. Why not use it to your best benefit? You should optimize your photo according to the actual audience you are targeting for. Determine your audience and research their demographics and figure out which avatar will attract them. Don’t go for blind shots – you will get way more attention of teenagers if you have a photo of a popular game character than if you had an Albert Einstein avatar. A great figure will most probably help you sell more weight loss products. A profile showing off your tattoos will attract the like-minded.
2. Your First Invisible Conversation
Have you revisited your profile recently? It’s surprising to see many people left their profile empty or unrelated to how they want to position themselves in the social networks. People want to know something about you. Targeting audience plays the role again – optimize your profile according to the details of your audience. Give them the answer they are searching for in your profile. Your profile is probably the first invisible conversation your prospect has with you. You want to make sure it’s fruitful and delivers value.
3. Consistent Updates
Nobody wants to see your last update from 5 days ago – rather make it 5 minutes ago. Updating your profile on daily basis is a great way to capture extra attention. People wants to know what you are up to and how much you care about them. There are so many strategies about delivering value via social updates and there is no reason not to carry out this wonderful exercise.
4. Deliver Value In Your Update
Try to spice your updating with as much diversity as possible. Remember the feeling you have when you see the person updating the same thing all over again? Well, don’t let yourself go that way – make your updates differ one from another and maintain the quality of update. Once captured, attention needs to be ‘fed’ with interesting and fresh content on regular basis. Focus on delivering values and ideas, these are usually welcome. Allow them to follow you.
5. Knot Up Different Networks
Most social users have profiles on another network. Make more accounts, link and point from one profile to another. Promote your LinkedIn account on your Facebook, Tweet your Facebook share, share your Linkedin article, let the messages exchange. It’s not only the extra exposure we are going after, but the different ways you can express yourselves. Different networks deliver your message differently.
6. Socialize!
Add friends, subscribe to other people’s channels, follow any relevant individual or company, join relevant groups and like fan pages – all of these actions can bring you extra attention. Socializing also enables you to familiarize yourself with the group or networks you join and grant you a platform to present your values. The more you socialize – the more attention you get.
7. Embrace Viral
Viral is the miracle of social networks. It circulates around social networks unstoppably, regaining its intensity each time it seems to be dead. Meme jokes, for example, are just a drop in the sea of viral trends – join the crowd and see what’s on the menu last days. ‘Serve the meal’ to the crowd and attention is about to boost.
8. Focus on Downstream Activities
From you to your audiences, what have you done this week? I am sure some of them could have asked for something before that you still owe the, why not deliver them now. Your message has to flow downstream and not stuck at your level. Let your values flow downstream.
9. Manage Your Social Mindshare
Your brand name should be at top of the head all the time. Passive approach is not a good approach in social media. You may not be proactive, but you must be responsive. Interact with your followers as much as you can as this is the firmest way to gain a consistency in your campaign. Social media marketing is all about frequency and let them know you are there 24/7. Manage your mindshare.
10. Address In Person
Facebook has a great feature of mentioning somebody in the comment, while the mentioned person gets notified about it. The same goes with Twitter. You are able to message people too. This is the way to get down to the personal level with anybody from your group. Participate in discussions, comment and always be there for your audience. This will keep your herd at one place while spreading the good talk around. There has never been a better platform to carry this out than on a social network.
11. Change Competition
My Grandmom once said “There is no friend-forever, no eternal enemy, only mutual benefit”. Many businesses were able to deliver more values to their customers by partnering with their competitors. Change competition to co-opertition.
12. Play the game of ‘Social Networks’
Social network users are hungry for attention as much as you are. If you are capable of providing them the attention they are looking for – you will get double as much attention yourself. Write a small text about your best customers, followers, subscribers… Make it a little thanksgiving letter and launch it public. Your customers will be more than thankful and many of them will wish to see their names there soon enough. It’s social, therefore socialize. You are in the game.
13. You Are The Source of Information
People love to hear what other people have to say, write, announce… You are there to satisfy their hunger for content. Link out to relevant articles, blogs, videos, websites, etc. on a regular basis. You will act like a filter of information, only recommending the best. This not only covers up when you are lack of ideas but also present yourself as an expert in your niche.
14. Check-in on Webinars
Social network is full of people eager to learn couple of new things. Search for relevant webinars and seminars and let everybody know about it. This is a great professional touch and an effective tool to achieve more exposure in an easy way. Make sure you are in the same webinar and actually talk to the host that you are bringing people to their webinar and ask them to give you some attention. That said, organize some webinars too! It’s a great event that you will notice conversation carries on even after the webinar. It builds up fast!
15. Crowd Loves Winners
Everybody likes to hear about someone being successful, right? This is true, nonetheless and it can help you get more extra attention about launching success stories from time to time. We all love to hear a word or two about someone’s way to the top and how successful they are. This is another great tool to get attention as long as you don’t pour it over the cup. Keep sharing success stories. This also includes testimonials from people successfully achieving results following your product or services.
16. Event Announcements
Happy hours, discounts, get two for the price of one offers… all of them capture attention. In a consumer society everything swirls around paying less or more and great way to capture some more attention is to notify people where and when they can spend a dollar less. This is one of those ingredients used just to spice the meal up – don’t put it too much but make sure it appears from time to time.
17. The Magic Word
This is probably one of the top ways to attract attention in social media. People will get their eyes scratched each time they spot the word ‘FREE’. Offer them relevant stuff they can get for free and you will get more eyes fixed on you for sure. This can be an e-book, a whitepaper or maybe a software – it will serve the purpose as long as it’s free and relevant to your target audience.
18. Piggyback Trending Topics
In the world of social networks, there is plenty of attractive content that already drags attention. If you know where to dig, you can find a gold mine. Find out the trending topics, the hot news and stuffs people are searching right now, link that event with your profession creatively, you are likely to capture some extra attention. There was once Paypal did a change on their policy, I commented that with a comparison to Google Checkout, little did I know so many people are searching for Paypal’s change and mine just got the attention! My server crashed (and then I learned to use Cloud).
19. Share A List
Whatever your niche is and regardless of your target audience, there are tips and tricks to let them know about. Write an article or link to the blog where they can find useful advices and tips on how to get something done, how to achieve particular goal or simply how to behave in certain situations. Find tips and tricks relevant to your marketing campaign and have your audience know about it. Curiosity engaging content never fails when it comes to capturing attention. A list of tips like this always works.
20. Recommend Solutions
Most people will applaud on good recommendation. Recommending anything relevant to your marketing campaign, that could help your target audience in achieving their goals easier or quicker, is a great attention booster. Make sure your recommendations are personally tested, checked, explored and reputable. Bad recommendation is too costly. Since you are going to recommend, why not arrange a deal and earn something out of the recommendation 
21. Crowdsource Groundbreaking Titles
Use a catchy and engaging title for every piece of content you share with your audience. Great title leads you half way of getting attention – content fills up just another half. A rule of thumb, the title should entice people to explore more, usually to click on that link. You just got to be creative. If you can’t, crowdsource. It won’t be hard to spot a winning title from 300 crowdsourced suggestions.
22. Funny, zany and controversial content
A good joke in the office is a great way to boost everyone’s mood and get attention of everybody present. Same stands for the social networks. Even reminding old jokes work. Try repeat a joke you listened some time ago that gathers all laughters, you will be amazed at the result.
23. Survey The Audiences
All businesses exist because of customers. Ask your audience how to adjust your offer, marketing campaign or service. Ask them what they do like and what they don’t like about your company or business you run. Besides being a great way to catch attention and seek feedback from your audience, it also makes them anticipate the value they will get from you.
24. Pieces of private life
Share your story. It is not a secret that social users are interested in other people’s life. Incorporate pieces from your private life in your business talk. Link your life to your profession. This is a great tool to catch attention and on top of that it will make your content sound more friendly and user oriented. The best part of it, your content will sound familiar and more resonating on a personal level.
25. Publish photos of yourself
Apart from optimizing your profile picture, it is smart to post your own photo whenever you have an announcement to make. They can be photos of your private life or professional photos at events, talks or even on your desk. People are always interested to know the how the person on the other side looks like. Well, let them know and capture attention as you publish the fresh post. A video works too!
These are 25 ways on how to capture attention in social networks. However, this is not the end of the list, you can make your own innovative way to capture more attention and drive more traffic. Apply these methods and your attention will certainly boost. Happy rocking the social media!
About Daniel Tan
