Social media tips from the world’s largest webinar

This past Wednesday afternoon, I attended HubSpot’s World’s Largest Webinar from the comfort of our conference room. The webinar was hosted by Dan Zarrella of HubSpot and included executives from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to provide “The Secrets to Success on Social Media.”

It was a great webinar and so fun to follow along with the other attendees on Twitter using the trending hashtag, #WLW14. It’s unclear whether they broke their previous record for hosting the world’s largest webinar in 2011 with 10,899 attendees, but I picked up a lot of great tips and enjoyed geeking out with my fellow social media enthusiasts. Here are some of the best tips from the webinar.

Twitter:

• Twitter is interest-centric, not friend/family/life centric. Speak to your target’s interests
• It’s very important to tweet about relevant industry topics, instead of self-promotion, to build relationships
• Use the 80/20 rule. Tweet 80% non-promotional content that’s informative & helpful, and then tweet 20% promotional content.
• Do NOT include hashtags or @mentions in direct response/call to action tweets — only use hashtags in a tweet when your goal is to add value to a conversation
• Think of hashtags as “structured search” that allows you to join broader conversations
• Tweets with rich media, ex. a photo, get double the engagement of a plain text tweet
• You should tweet with the goal of getting a RT
• Include info to make it easy for people to find your business in your Twitter bio, ex. website, store hours
• Why people follow brands on Twitter, 40% to learn new products, 45% to show support, 36% to get information, says @russlaraway

Facebook:

• Facebook is one of the best targeting platforms today because people use their real identities. For example, did you know that you can upload a list of email contacts and target them on Facebook?
• Facebook advertising targets people, not cookies, so it’s easier to hit them across multiple platforms (anywhere they’re logged in).
• Facebook newsfeed ads are very effective. Use your built-in page insights to manage ROI and test content/ads/audiences to see what performs best and to whom
• Refresh ads every 2-4 weeks with new text, images, and targeting

LinkedIn:

• Recipe to a successful LinkedIn business page: compelling description with keywords & eye-catching image
• Professionally relevant content works best on LinkedIn, such as best practices, tips, and industry updates. Include strong images!
• For LinkedIn sponsored updates, start with engaging organic updates, monitor CTR to measure relevancy, then test the best performing posts with different bids and audiences

General:

• Post content tailored to each social network because what works on Twitter might not work on Facebook.
• Shared content should be “snackable”
• Always be experimenting which types of content have the greatest engagement with your company’s audience
• Marketing on social media without data is like driving with your eyes closed
• Share VALUABLE content on social media platforms regardless if it’s your own/original.
• Add follow me links to your site to build up your social media audience