I attended my first #SEMRushchat a couple of weeks ago, and I learned loads.
What are SEMRush chats? They are Twitter chats hosted by SEMRush, on a variety of subjects surrounding digital marketing. SEMRush asks questions, Twitter users give answers and comment on each other's tweets. I know they have them every week, I know they’re very informative and very good for networking, but I always seem to find an excuse not to attend. I would just feel too guilty sitting about on Twitter for a full, uninterrupted 45 minutes, chatting to folk I don’t know.
This week was different – I think I felt like I HAD to take part because a member of staff from SEMRush personally tweeted me and asked me to attend. Probably a result of me spending a lot of mornings talking to SEO pros around the world, and pretending I am some sort of knowledgeable SEO person. That was a rather clever ploy from SEMRush to make their followers feel like they matter. It also proves that social media marketing totally works, because there I was.
Oh yeah, and the theme was social media. I just couldn’t sit it out.
Everyone there was a good sport -- so keen to impart us with their social media knowledge that I couldn't refresh my Twitter feed fast enough. I was glad to see that a lot of people didn't even bat an eyelid when asked to reveal exactly what tricks made them good at what they do.
At the end of the chat, when looking at my notes, it turned out that I was left with a basic guide to being great at social media, made up of very real and insightful tips from people who are putting them into action on a daily basis. I thought it would be cool to share it.
Anyway, without further ado, here’s a summary of the discussion that took place on Wednesday 4th February.
Q1. What steps should a company take before starting their daily activities on social media?
A1 - Just take a moment listen to the conversations that are taking place with regard to brand/industry #semrushchat
— Matthew Young (@MatthewAYoung) February 4, 2015It seems like there’s a general consensus that, before starting any daily activities, a company should do a spot of “social zen”. Listening to your social environment (i.e. relevant news and conversations), check your analytics and see your performance, know what you’re up against and what you have to work on. More specifically, you’ll have to look for trending conversations in your industry, important news, and find something in all that that you can use to bring value to the audience. Have a game plan before attacking. Provide something unique, and stand out from the crowd:
A1: Unanimous monitoring industry news is the thing to do. How do you stand out? Publish your own and share something better! #semrushchat
— Jack Cooper (@Vertical_Coop) February 4, 2015Q2. A day in the life of a social media marketer: what daily tasks are absolutely essential?
A2: social listening, content curation, analytics, competitor research (thanks to @RivalIQ) and constant chatting! #semrushchat
— Olga Andrienko (@OlgaSEMrush) February 4, 2015You have to be engaging with your audience every day. Speak to them, as you would speak to anyone else in real life (brand tone of voice in mind, of course -- don’t be THAT person who puts x’s at the end of tweets when speaking to customers). That is the key to getting people to interact with you regularly. And avoid selling all the time – your followers will tire of it very quickly, and it will annoy them.
@itsdansmith So true, it's so annoying when brands try and sell all the time. SM=not ad space you morons #semrushchat
— Devin (@DevDawg) February 4, 2015Q3. What’s the anatomy of a perfect post?
A3 Anatomy of a perfect post: killer headline, useful/funny content, short conclusion (opt) invitation to the dialog #semrushchat
— Elena Terentyeva (@LenaTerentyeva) February 4, 2015In summary, the recipe for a perfect post contains the following ingredients:
- A good headline
- Good content to support it
- A call-to-action, inviting the users to start a conversation
Other ingredients include:
- A nice, vibrant image
- Mentions to direct post to relevant users
Your Chemical X will be one simple ingredient: authenticity.
@semrush A3 the most important piece to your content should be
Authenticity
Be authentic and people will engage #semrushchat
— Bryant Garvin (@BryantGarvin) February 4, 2015Q4. What are some quick and easy ways to find good content to share?
There are no quick and easy ways when it comes to sharing your own content, I’m afraid. But when you are limited in terms of time and resources, curating content is your best bet. Providing a platform where people can find everything they need from your company means making value accessible to your audience, and that means high engagement rates on your platform. Here are some really good places to get that kind of content:
A4: sites like alltop, tools like @buzzsumo, following other people who know what they're talking about! #semrushchat
— Anthony Randall (@tonyxrandall) February 4, 2015A4: I'm a big fan of Twitter lists. Group all your favourite people together, continually grow them and boom, instant content #semrushchat
— Dan Smith (@itsdansmith) February 4, 2015Q5. What are some great ways to grow your fanbase easily?
I was very eager to see the answers to this question. Could these seasoned social media gurus have finally unearthed the ultimate answer?
A5) There's no easy way! It's taken a lot of time and investment in our community @sproutsocial. It's definitely worth it! #semrushchat
— Sarah Nagel (@sprout_sarah) February 4, 2015Guess not. There are no shortcuts to growing your follower base, unfortunately. I did find some great tips, though.
A5: Engage with your audience. Reach out to others. Ask questions, be real, be human, don't think like a salesman #semrushchat
— Devin (@DevDawg) February 4, 2015Giving the audience the opportunity to participate in games is also a great way to boost follower volume – but it’s a very thin line between using it from time to time to gain followers and visibility, and relying on it constantly as a main part of the strategy. Competitions are always the go-to tactic to expand follower base, and I can say from experience that there are many companies who rely solely on competitions and sweepstakes to gain followers and keep them interested. But is that kind of engagement really valuable? If you think about it, it isn’t much better than buying followers, and isn’t sustainable in the long run.
A5. Gamification is an easy way to grow following, but make sure you have the resources to keep them around afterwards. #semrushchat
— Darryl Villacorta (@TheMiddle) February 4, 2015Growing your audience is one thing, but being able to keep them engaged with your brand is another. An audience solely interested in winning prizes won’t engage with your brand’s messages, so you need to make sure that you are sending the right signals, from the get-go.
Q6. What social media tools do you use for social listening, posting, and analytics?
At Queryclick, we use Buzzsumo, Tweetdeck and Topsy for social listening, Buffer for posting, and True Social Metrics and bits of Google Analytics for analytics. Those are the indispensable tools in the toolkit, but other tools like Open Site Explorer and SearchLens also make frequent appearances.
This was an opportunity for different brands of social media tools to shamelessly plug themselves, but also one for me to snoop around and see what experienced professionals like to use:
A6: Headphones #semrushchat
— Shap Cooper (@Vertical_Coop) February 4, 2015A.6: 1) @BuzzSumo
2) @hootsuite
3) @semrush and @googleanalytics#semrushchat
— Himanshu Suri (@DM_Suri) February 4, 2015A6 1. Mention for listening (who would have thought) 2. Buffer for posting 2. Twitter, FB insights, our stats, followerwonk #semrushchat
— Mention (@Mention) February 4, 2015Q7. What social platform works the best for you?
Every company has a platform that works best, and ours is Twitter. Without a doubt. There is no other platform that allows us to engage with influencers and brand advocates so easily. And really, there’s no secret to acquiring engagement on Twitter, apart from being present, posting good content, and engaging with other people!
Let’s see what works best for other social media marketers:
A7: Definitely Twitter. #semrushchat
— ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) February 4, 2015q7 it all depends on your goals on what platform works best. I find twitter the best #semrushchat
— Ned James (@NedFL) February 4, 2015A7: Twitter for amplification, G+ communities for responses, Facebook if I want my content to be ignored by everyone. #semrushchat
— Luke Jordan (@LJordanOnline) February 4, 2015A7) A good portion of our community prefers Twitter to chat w/ us @sproutsocial. We see a lot of engagement there too. #semrushchat
— Sarah Nagel (@sprout_sarah) February 4, 2015Interesting, and it does make sense. While Facebook has the largest share of users, Twitter still works best for businesses – Facebook is a place for leisure, and Twitter is a pleasant mix of both. People won’t let you send brand messages into their personal lives on Facebook, but will be a lot readier to engage with you as a company on Twitter.
So that was my first SEMRush chat, and it was awesome. Because there is no official social media manifesto, and because it’s still quite new and never ceases to evolve, knowing what’s right can be tricky, and the learning process never stops. It was reassuring speaking directly to social media marketers and even SEOs who dabble in social media, and seeing that we strive towards the same goals and sometimes even use the same tools.
I would highly recommend SEMRush chats to anyone who wants to learn more about the industry and read useful advice from professionals. A great excuse to sit on Twitter for 45 minutes.