Marketing | Marketing & Social Media

Sometimes the struggle to understand marketing and social media is a majorly tough one for me. I know that in order to expand your reach, tools like social media are a must have and a must do. However, finding balance... Yeah, that's my struggle.

In order to create the perfect storm of marketing and social media, one must first study. So each month I dive in to another platform and devour all the information I can find on that network. Although I am still finding my balance, Here's what I have managed to learn so far.

The 80/20 Rule -

This was actually meant to be on my post list for last week, however I got caught up in the holidays and as a result there was no post. Instead I am going to touch on it here and then use that post at a later date:

The 80/20 rule is a general social sharing rule followed by most bloggers everywhere. It works because sharing others content is one of the best ways to have others see you and see who you are plus what you're all about. And by sharing content from others who are considered to be "bigger" bloggers than yourself, you are also getting their attention and that can possibly help you later (ps, a lot of those so-called "bigger" bloggers are also super nice and almost always willing to help you out!)

So what is the 80/20 rule? Simply put it is when you share 20% of your own products and services or posts and then share 80% of others content. As you would say on your own blog: sharing is caring.

Less Really Is More -

Yes, that sounds so stupid. But for platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook, it is actually true. When you share a Pin or a post every 10 minutes, you are actually clouding other peoples news feeds. It isn't that they don't want to see your posts, it's that no one wants to be completely bombarded with Pins and posts from just one person all day.

Not including retweets and shares or re-pins, the last thing you want to do is share so much stuff that your followers and readers get overwhelmed and annoyed. Think about it, how do YOU feel when you see a hundred Pins or posts from one person you 'like" or follow? Aggravated right? So you don't want to make any one else feel that way yourself.

Share Only What is Meaningful and Relevant -

Seriously, this might be the most important tip on the list here. Sharing for the sake of sharing winds up becoming an embarrassment and you are going to need to do some serious housekeeping to get yourself back on track. Whether you're re-sharing or re-Pinning, you should always make sure that the content you are posting is relevant to your audience but also that it is meaningful and makes YOUR brand look good too.

If you come across a post that you love but that holds no value to your readers, it's best to save it for yourself to refer to. You should never be sharing things you only want to reference or that apply personally if they're not meaningful and relevant to your readers.

The best example I can give is a blogger I follow decided to get personal in a blog post one day. Although I started following her for helpful business tips and often share a LOT of her work on my own social media I could not, in good conscious, share this personal post with my own readers. It wasn't because I did not love her piece. I connected with it and it made me see a different side of this blogger I highly admired. But that personal post was just that: personal. And therefore it would add zero value to my readers who are only there to learn about their business and topics relating to blogging.