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Melodie Tao is a keynote speaker, thought leader, and social media marketing expert. She began using social media in 2008, later launching MarketingMelodie.com to share her insights into social media and marketing. Her expertise has attracted clients from diverse industries—technology, media, real estate, and education— who she advises on how to leverage social media to market their products and services.

By Melodie Tao, Social Media Marketing Expert 

Social media isn’t an overnight success tool. It’s one of the most powerful sales tools if you make the commitment that requires patience and persistence. It will bring you success in the long term if you are consistent.

Your job on social media is to stay top of mind until your prospect turns into a customer. This is much easier said than done—so there are five ways you can use social media to stay top of mind, every time. See if you can incorporate at least one of these methods into your sales strategy.

1) Publish consistently.

Being consistent is the most important element for your success on social media. You need to show up constantly to be memorable, rather than posting once and then stopping for a few weeks.

If posting consistently is a challenge, start by choosing one day each week where you post something directly related to your business. For example, one of my real estate clients posts a “Wow Wednesday” update every single week. Every Wednesday, they consistently share a luxury real estate listing. Her followers now expect and look forward to this weekly share.

Don’t get overwhelmed with committing to too many days of posting. Start with one day and then add on from there.

2) Share educational content.

The first thing many people do when they want to learn something new is search online for articles or videos related to what they want to learn.  When you share something related to your business or expertise that teaches a skill someone can put into action, they will think of you when taking that action. They will also likely share what they learned with others and let people know where they learned it from; therefore, keeping you top of mind.

3) Be social on social media.

Staying top of mind on social media doesn’t just mean posting on your own accounts. It also means showing up and participating in conversations that are already happening.

You can do this strategically by researching where your potential customers are hanging out online and interacting with them there. This may mean you join industry-related Facebook Groups, comment on blog articles or Instagram posts.

Your social activity will be different depending on your target audience. If you aren’t taking time to socialize on social media, start by taking just five minutes each day and dedicate that time to commenting and interacting with others. This not only helps boost someone else’s activity, which is just good karma, it also reminds people you are available and active online.

4) Create opportunities to interact.

Now we know the value of interacting with others on social media, it’s time to create opportunities for people to interact with your own content. The more you can keep people engaged on your pages, the more likely you will stay top of mind.

A few ways to create interactive opportunities include asking questions, asking people to share their own experiences and also prompting user-generated content. User-generated content is where your audience creates their own posts based on something related to your brand. An example of this includes asking people to use a hashtag to share photos when using your product.

5) Make social videos.

Watching video continues to dominate online activity. Oftentimes, the top Google results for how to do something are YouTube videos that answer the question. Facebook video (especially live video) gets more visibility in newsfeeds than any other type of content, more so than photos and links.

Making videos for your social media creates a personal connection with your audience. Many people are camera shy when it comes to social video because they are afraid they won’t look perfect and polished. The benefit of social video is that it’s ok to post impromptu videos that aren’t rehearsed. These videos humanize your brand and attract more people to connect with you.

If you don’t have a video strategy yet, start by posting just one video. After the first one, creating more videos become easier.

There you have it. Five ways you can use social media to stay top of mind to generate more sales and leads.