Learn to Love Your Social Media

*Ways to Love and Let Social Media Love You*

We must learn how to love and embrace social media into our daily lives. It is a relationship that needs attention and understanding. Social media gives us a way to shine through the world, be authentic and give meaning to what we do. Three great ways to catapult our business's success is by taking advantage of social media platforms such as Flickr, Facebook, and YouTube:


Flickr:
Flickr allows you to publish and create your own photo albums. You can share your pictures through the Flickr system and onto your social networking sites, websites, blogs and emails.

• Post Relevant Photos: Upload photos and create albums that are consistent with your overall brand and message. Post pictures of some of your products, customers, staff, performances and events. This puts a face behind your business.
• Insert Tags: Tag your pictures with a few keywords and phrases related to your business. Also include your username, location and industry. This allows users to find you through your pictures. 
• Photostream: Stream your photos onto your website and social networking sites because your fans and visitors will most likely want to see your pictures. This will also enable them to connect with you if they also have Flickr accounts.

Facebook:
Facebook has revolutionized the way that we connect with one another. Even my grandmother has a Facebook account! It is very easy to use this website for fun, but it is just as easy to use this website to your advantage:

• Invest in Facebook Ads: Take advantage of the affordability and flexibility of Facebook's advertising tools. Users voluntarily disclose information on what they like, which makes targeting your consumers a very easy thing to do. Your potential fans are out there, waiting for you to find them and they are just a click away!
• Use Links: Link your Facebook account to all of your other websites, as well as link other websites onto your own Facebook page. The more you share other websites, the more votes your page gets in popularity. A mutually beneficial relationship begins to grow between websites and pages that link to each other. 
• Open the Right Account: Are you a page, profile or group? If you are a business, you should open up a page. Groups are for common interests and profiles have a friend limit of up to 5000. Opening up a page gives you more flexibility. 

YouTube: 
As the largest video-sharing community in the world, youtube has replaced many distribution channels by giving everyone the power to publicly post their own content. You can find just about anything on youtube--commercials, educational material, music performances, TV shows--you name it. Posting your own videos is an easy way to promote your message throughout the world... Here are some tips:

• Put your business in action - Posting videos of my performances, events, concerts, voice classes, interviews, tutorials and even day-to-day activities enables me to promote myself in real time. A picture is supposedly worth a thousand words, a video should leave the viewer with a thousand impressions. Post videos that showcase your talents for the world to see:
• Strive for "Free"Advertising - Nothing is free, but effectively posting a video requires a little bit of effort. Make sure to include your contact information and social media links at some point in your video and/or description. Also, optimize your search by utilizing appropriate and specific keywords/tags.
• Be Consistent - Be consistent with your brand and your purpose. Establish a style for your channel that keeps people coming for more. There are many celebrities/businesses that have launched from youtube and have generated huge amounts of attention (as well as huge amounts of money). Videos can be posted by people just like me and you, and we all have the potential to go viral and become rich and famous, too:

Greyson Chance's extremely impressive rendition of Lady Gaga rose him to stardom and landed him with a record deal and television appearances on the The Ellen Degeneres Show.

*Conclusion*

Learn to love your social media. Learn to love it as if it were a pet. Provide a home for it, nurture it, and watch it grow... And watch it love you back.


For more information, you can check out 10 Cures for Your Social Media Pains to address any issues you may have navigating through this wealth of information and possibilities...


Hope this helps!


*Katrina*