16 Expert-Backed Social Media Hacks For Better Engagement

If you're not careful, social media marketing can consume your entire day.

You might find yourself endlessly browsing through posts from your preferred brands, hopping from one site to another, and switching between various platforms.

Before you realize it, two hours have passed without any productive outcome.

It also takes a considerable amount of time to engage with your audience. Responding to each interaction on your posts is challenging, and it requires effort to interact authentically.

Additionally, let's be honest: Often, sifting through the never-ending stream of posts and interactions on social media is the last thing we want to spend our time on.

Yet, social media remains a vital asset for expanding your business and personal brand.

It serves as an excellent medium for showcasing your content, and actively engaging with your followers can rapidly boost your online traffic.

Fortunately, there are several shortcuts in social media marketing that can prevent you from getting lost in the overwhelming flood of online conversation.

Here's a method to master your social media strategy in just 10 minutes each day.

The number of social media users worldwide is staggering, with the latest figures nearing 5 billion.

A graph depicting the global number of social media users from 2017 to 2027.

This sounds like a positive aspect, doesn't it?

Well, not always.

Indeed, social media is a powerful tool for reaching new customers.

But, committing to too many platforms can lead to diluting your efforts.

Balancing business operations and maintaining a constant presence on all social media platforms daily is almost unfeasible.

This is why it's crucial to focus on the most frequented social networks:

Direct your energies towards Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and maybe YouTube and TikTok.

However, even this selection may be overwhelming.

Choose networks that align with your company and brand.

If your brand isn't heavily reliant on visuals, you might want to focus mainly on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Despite contrary opinions from some social media influencers, Facebook remains the dominant force in social media.

While it may not be the favorite among the younger crowd (ages 18-29), it still ranks in the top three for this demographic.

One of the key reasons to prioritize Facebook is the substantial amount of time users spend on it.

Remarkably, two-thirds of Facebook users visit the site daily.

What does this imply for you?

There's no need to constantly monitor LinkedIn or Twitter.

While you should schedule posts on these platforms, they don't require as frequent checking as Facebook.

Focus your social media efforts strategically.

If your task list resembles mine, you likely have many other things to concentrate on.

By narrowing down your social media platforms and objectives to those most effective for your brand, you can significantly cut down the time spent on social media each day.

What tops your daily social media checklist?

For most, it's a daily, immediate check of their accounts.

You look out for new mentions of your brand, incoming direct messages, or questions that need responses.

Covering several platforms can be a lengthy process.

Consider this.

Spending ten minutes on one network to answer queries might not seem much. But multiply that across several platforms, and it easily turns into an hour.

And let's face it, we often check our accounts more than once a day.

Thankfully, using platforms like Hootsuite as a social media shortcut lets you oversee all your accounts in one spot.

This approach saves you from checking each platform separately, allowing you to receive all updates via Hootsuite.

If you haven't yet, integrate all your social networks into Hootsuite:

Now, you can avoid opening numerous browser tabs for interacting with customers or posting updates on each platform.

Efficiently oversee aspects like brand mentions, interactions, or direct messages for all your profiles:

You're able to manage key actions like welcoming new followers and engaging with recent sign-ups.

Hootsuite even displays posts from new followers, helping you interact with their content and foster positive relationships:

Additionally, you can delegate specific messages or queries to team members who are better equipped to respond.

The platform allows you to create various feeds and columns based on locations or keywords.

For instance, if hosting an event, you can set a stream for location-based keywords to monitor tweets about your event.

Hootsuite provides numerous features tailored to your unique social media needs, all in one place.

This tool helps you optimize your time and enhance your social media strategy.

Once you've mastered the basics of your accounts, it’s time to curate and share content.

This often involves promoting content that isn’t yours.

Don't misunderstand; sharing your own content is valuable.

Your followers are there for a reason.

However, exclusively sharing your own material can become monotonous. Curating and sharing diverse content demonstrates your thought leadership.

Consider this: some of the largest brands post on Twitter up to 10 times daily, totaling about 300 tweets a month on Twitter alone.

You likely don’t have that volume of original content. Incorporating others' content keeps your feeds engaging and varied.

Feedly is one of my preferred tools for sourcing top content.

For example, if you want to share top marketing news, simply search for a brand or website:

Take HubSpot as an example. They publish extensively, making it challenging to stay updated by manually checking their site.

Most major publishers and brands have a Feedly feed available.

Select “Follow” to start a new collection:

Name your collection for easy identification among others:

Once you've set up a list, Feedly offers suggestions on related blogs and websites.

This feature saves you the hassle of manually gathering them or searching for other leading blogs in your field.

Just add top blogs to your list to receive the latest content directly:

After setting up, simply check your email or Feedly dashboard for updates:

Instead of scouring multiple industry blogs to find a few articles for curation and scheduling, Feedly delivers the most popular content straight to you.

Now that you've gathered articles to share (beyond your own), the next social media marketing step is pre-scheduling your posts.

Are you familiar with the concept of task batching?

It works as follows.

Choose a day each week to dedicate some time to scheduling and curating a large amount of content. This allows you to spend just five to 10 minutes daily for check-ins.

Batching time-intensive tasks, like handling emails, can save you a lot of time.

If you're scheduling and sharing content sporadically, it might take about 20 minutes a day.

However, by dedicating a longer period once a week or month, you can plan your entire schedule in advance.

This reduces your daily 20-minute commitment to possibly just five minutes, as the bulk of the work is already done.

You don't have to be among the marketers spending over six hours weekly on social media.

Your schedule likely includes generating reports, tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), and attending meetings.

Spending six hours a week on social media might not be the best use of your time.

This is why I find task batching an excellent way to reduce my daily social media workload.

In addition to batching, I also reschedule content.

A two-week-old blog post isn't necessarily outdated, nor has everyone seen it when first posted.

Consider the volume of tweets - about 6,000 every second.

Most people miss the initial tweet due to the sheer volume of content.

Here's a useful strategy I use for content sharing, aiming to maximize post frequency while minimizing time spent:

By batching and rescheduling, you can create all your posts in one go and reuse older content, reducing the need for constantly creating new material.

Not utilizing tools like Buffer for social media scheduling likely means you're spending too much time on social networks daily.

Buffer streamlines the content-sharing process, helping you establish yourself as an industry leader.

It allows for easy scheduling of content across multiple social platforms simultaneously and suggests the best times for posting:

Posting at optimal times is key for engagement.

Publishing during inactive periods results in lower engagement.

You can set up the best posting times for each platform in the scheduling section:

After determining your schedule, begin scheduling your content.

The process is simplified further with Buffer’s Chrome extension.

This extension lets you share content directly from the webpage

Go to your latest blog post, click the extension icon, and share the post across all your social accounts:

It's that simple!

Add the post to your queue, share immediately, or schedule it for a specific time.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the chaos of Twitter?

I certainly do.

It's a whirlwind of trending topics, moments, mentions, and direct messages.

Twitter lists, fortunately, help in managing these conversations.

For instance, you can create lists focused on specific subjects like "SEO," or lists of certain groups like "SEO experts."

This allows you to bypass the overwhelming timeline and dive straight into focused lists. It's a smart way to navigate social media.

You can also manage these lists via your Hootsuite account.

To start with Twitter lists, select the three dots on the left navigation, above the posting tool:

Next, set up a new list:

Initiating a new list on Twitter.

Base your lists on themes relevant to your field, like marketing updates or top influencers.

I recommend creating different lists for various content types, enabling you to easily differentiate between them.

Now, add members to this list:

You can include anyone from major industry figures like HubSpot to smaller, more niche accounts.

If creating a list seems daunting, you can leverage existing ones from popular accounts.

Visit a relevant industry account, click on their profile, and then check their “lists” section for subscriptions and memberships:

This also provides great ideas for your own lists:

Use Twitter lists as a clever way to curate content and quickly engage with larger brands.

It's well-known that people spend less time on LinkedIn compared to Facebook:

Source: Pew Research Center

In reality, LinkedIn sees the least user time, with an average of only 17 minutes per month.

So, what's the implication for marketers?

Reducing your own time on LinkedIn is an option, but make the time you do spend count significantly more.

LinkedIn's main advantage is the caliber of professionals on the platform. Hence, constant content updates aren't as critical.

Rather, aim to connect with a few high-quality contacts each week.

LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator is an ideal tool for making even a few minutes highly productive.

It consolidates updates from all the companies or targets you follow, enhancing your ability to engage and interact effectively.

Here’s how it looks:

Sales Navigator keeps you informed about each company you're interested in or targeting.

You can have their updates, including news mentions, delivered straight to your inbox. You can also get alerts for brand mentions.

Maximize the tool's customizable features to stay informed about top companies.

This info enables you to interact with their latest content.

The goal is to become a familiar name to each brand, influencer, or prospect, which means following up regularly to build rapport and recognition.

LinkedIn is unparalleled for lead generation, yet it doesn’t require extensive time investment.

The key social media marketing strategy here is to maximize the effectiveness of your LinkedIn time.

User-generated content (UGC) is just as it sounds: content produced by your brand's users. This includes images, reviews or testimonials, and frequently asked questions.

UGC not only lightens your daily content creation load but is also a crucial driver for social media growth. User-generated content, boosted by word-of-mouth marketing, is 42 percent more effective in generating traffic, leads, and sales compared to self-produced posts.

To effectively utilize your user-generated content, consider these strategies:

1. Use Cohley. Cohley is a platform for creating and testing content that allows for easy planning, sourcing, and distribution of UGC.

2. Leverage reviews. Since reviews influence 93 percent of online purchases, it's crucial to encourage customer feedback on your products. This includes collecting reviews on third-party sites like Yelp, Google, and TripAdvisor. Both on-site and off-site reviews are crucial for credibility and consumer engagement, and they generate excellent content.

3. Initiate a hashtag contest. Motivate your audience to share content through a hashtag contest. Participants can post photos or videos associated with the hashtag. Ideally, this boosts your hashtag's visibility, increasing engagement and brand awareness.

Consider this campaign from the Denver Art Museum:

Visitors to the museum shared their experiences on social media using the hashtag #DenverArtMuseum, which the museum then featured as UGC on their official channels.

On average, consumers globally watch 100 minutes of digital video daily.

That's a significant figure.

How can your brand tap into this vast digital viewership?

The answer is live streaming. It's an incredibly effective social media marketing tool.

Platforms like Zoom, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok offer simple live video features.

Live videos, beyond being excellent content assets, allow real-time interaction with your audience.

Like any marketing effort, your live video strategy needs careful planning.

Consider these tips for your next live session:

1. Promote your live event beforehand. Share details like date, time, platform, and the value your live session will provide.

2. Plan for engagement. Allocate time for Q&A and prepare for potential audience queries. Greet participants by name as they join – don't just focus on your presentation.

3. Include a call to action (CTA). Conduct your live stream with a specific audience action in mind, be it a purchase or a subscription, and mention your CTA throughout.

4. Choose the right platform. With options like Facebook Live, Instagram Live, Twitch, YouTube Live, TikTok Live, and Periscope, select the one that best suits you and your audience.

As you become more adept at live streaming, consider incorporating additional tools.

For instance, vMix, a live video production software, allows integration of music, presentations, videos, and more. Other useful tools include Facebook Live Media and ManyCam.

Your target audience might have common needs, but they're composed of individuals with diverse learning preferences.

By varying the types of content you offer, you're more likely to connect with a broader section of your audience.

To achieve this, consider building a collection of different content types, like infographics, success stories, blog posts, whitepapers, videos, and other formats suitable for social media.

Creating a variety of content assets can be time-intensive, especially for small marketing teams, from brainstorming to actual production.

To manage this effectively without feeling overwhelmed, here are some strategies:

1. Leverage helpful tools. Choose tools that give you control, particularly those that allow setting budget limits for creators. Ensure your creative briefs are detailed and informative.

2. Recycle your content. Have a comprehensive guide on your website? Break it down into smaller pieces like quotes, checklists, or infographics.

3. Explore new formats. If you're used to a limited range of content types, try introducing new ones. Experiment with polls, infographics, videos, vlogs, and other mediums.

Your audience might be eagerly awaiting different content from your brand. Now's the time to discover what works best.

While it would be ideal if the same content performed equally well on all social channels, that's rarely the case. Each platform has its own audience and set of norms.

When creating cross-platform campaigns, aim for a cohesive story that remains engaging across different networks. The content should be thematically similar but tailored to each platform's unique style.

Navigating a multi-platform narrative can be challenging, but these tips can help:

1. Utilize helpful tools. Tools like Canva for graphics, Buffer for scheduling, and Meet Edgar for content ideas can help maintain a consistent presence across your channels.

2. Identify relevant metrics. Each channel has unique performance indicators. Determine the right metrics for each platform to gauge the success of your campaign.

3. Conduct A/B testing. Experiment with different content on various platforms and use the insights to refine your approach.

The financial aspect of creating social media content is as important as the time investment. Creating new assets can strain your budget, but there are ways to manage this.

First, collaborate with services like Cohley for asset production.

Cohley's testing features allow you to allocate your budget more effectively, maximizing ROI. For instance, T3 significantly reduced content costs by using Cohley’s UGC platform instead of organizing its own photo shoots.

Second, utilize your team's expertise. Engage with your subject matter experts on key community issues and solutions. Transform these discussions into blogs or FAQs, creating new content assets without hiring additional writers.

If you haven't ventured into influencer marketing yet, you're among the few. Approximately 93% of digital marketers have tried influencer marketing at least once.

The attraction is clear: the average ROI on influencer marketing is an impressive 520 percent!

For those new to influencer marketing or looking to enhance their strategies, various platforms are available to assist:

1. Influence

2. Intellifluence

3. AspireIQ

4. Webfluential

5. Famebit

6. Influencity

These platforms, known as influencer engagement marketplaces, facilitate connections with influencers that match your target audience. They can manage the entire relationship, from contract to content approval and payment, or simply provide a platform for you to do so.

Regardless of your goals in social media marketing, one thing is certain: higher engagement leads to better outcomes.

So, why not integrate video into your social media strategies?

Currently, 66 percent of consumers find short-form videos to be the most engaging content on social media, up from 50 percent in 2020.

Getting started with video:

Begin modestly. If video is new to your strategy, start with one or two videos in the first month and gradually increase based on audience response.

Observe your competitors. Analyze their video content for inspiration, treating it as market research.

Experiment and enjoy. Try different styles, timings, and lengths for your videos. Experimentation is key to discovering what resonates with your audience.

Consider Wendy's as an example:

Enjoy the process and continuously test various approaches to find what best suits your audience.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prevalent in digital marketing, concerns arise about its impact and role. A primary worry for marketers is AI potentially replacing human roles.

Fortunately, human involvement remains essential in digital marketing. Yet, this doesn't exclude the beneficial use of AI in various aspects of your business.

One effective way to integrate AI while preserving your brand's human touch is through chatbots.

Chatbots are automated programs designed to handle diverse customer inquiries. They can be deployed on websites, through text messages, or on social media messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger:

The focus should be on implementing chatbots that are human-like. These chatbots employ AI to learn and adapt, developing their own personality.

Such human-like chatbots can enhance customer experience, leading to better engagement and increased conversions.

Determining the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns requires more than guesswork. Without A/B testing, you can't truly know if you're using the best version of your campaign.

A/B testing, or split testing, compares two versions of a campaign, usually changing one or two elements at a time. This approach helps identify which elements contribute most to the campaign's success.

For instance, you might test different CTAs in a Facebook ad campaign.

One might say “Learn more,” while another says “Click here.”

Campaign elements ripe for A/B testing include:

1. Time and date of posting

2. Content length

3. Short-form vs. long-form video

4. Text-only, image, or video formats

5. Images of people vs. product photos

6. Various calls to action

7. Images vs. animations

As you gather data from A/B tests, you'll gain insights into your audience's preferences, shaping more successful future campaigns.

Do you have more questions about social media strategies? Here are answers to some common queries.

Q.1 What are some effective social media strategies?

To maximize your social media reach and engagement, consider leveraging trending topics, sharing content across all platforms, and focusing on the platforms where your audience is most active.

Q.2 How to navigate social media algorithms?

Social media algorithms are often opaque, but you can optimize your content by posting when your audience is most active, avoiding outbound links in posts (instead, place them in comments or bios), and regularly posting video content, as it tends to be highly engaging.

Q.3 How to maximize engagement on Instagram?

To boost your Instagram reach, focus on creating engaging Reels, using interactive elements in Stories (like stickers and quizzes), and crafting thought-provoking captions while actively engaging with comments on your posts.

Social media marketing presents both opportunities and challenges.

It's a powerful tool to connect with millions of potential customers who are actively seeking new brands and information.

However, it can be time-consuming and overwhelming, especially when managing multiple platforms.

The secret to efficiently managing your social media presence is to focus on platforms and strategies that align with your brand.

Utilize tools like Hootsuite for platform management, Feedly for content curation, and Buffer for content sharing.

By strategically using these tools and focusing on key aspects of your strategy, you can streamline your social media efforts to just 10 minutes a day. These 16 tips are designed to help you achieve this efficient balance.