How to Use Hashtags on Instagram

An Instagram hashtag ties the conversations of different users into one stream, just like on Twitter and Facebook. If Instagram users who aren't otherwise connected to one another talk about the same topic using a specific hashtag, their posts will appear in the same stream.

Here's what a hashtag stream on Instagram looks like -- again, using #MotivationMonday as an example:

Notice the user interface on Instagram's hashtag stream is much simpler than those on Twitter and Facebook. There are three things you can do from this page: Scroll through related hashtags, look at the Top Posts, and browse Recent Posts.

• Related Hashtags: All related hashtags (like #dontquit, #getmotivated, etc. in this case), which users can scroll through sideways.
• Top Posts: The nine posts using that hashtag that have seen the most engagement -- which usually means tweets from influential people or brands that have a lot of followers. This is limited to nine posts.
• Most Recent: A live stream of Instagram posts from everyone posting that hashtag.

How to Use Hashtags on Instagram

Want to get involved in the conversation, or even start your own? Using a hashtag on Instagram is as simple as publishing an Instagram post from a public account that includes the hashtag, like this:

As long as your account is public, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your Instagram post.

When you write a new post and start typing in a hashtag using the # symbol, Instagram will actually suggest hashtags to you based on their popularity. Check out the suggestions I got when I typed in the incomplete hashtag, #Motivation:

How to Find Hashtags on Instagram

If you already know the hashtag you want to search for, the only way to search for a hashtag on Instagram on your mobile device is through a simple search. You can do a simple search by clicking the magnifying glass at the bottom of your screen, which brings you to the "Explore" tab. From there, type the hashtag name into the search box at the top of your screen, and toggle your results by "Tags":

If you're searching for popular hashtags from scratch, the best place to look is in Instagram's "Explore" tab. Here, you'll find popular posts liked by people whose posts you've Liked, or posts that are Liked by a large number of people in the Instagram community.

Go to the "Explore" tab by clicking that magnifying glass at the bottom of your screen. Check out posts there to browse trending hashtags by scrolling down.

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/hashtags-twitter-facebook-instagram#sm.0001h6xjpv19nnfqpuu7wsajzliyb 

How Hashtags Work on Facebook

Like on Twitter, a Facebook hashtag ties the conversations of different users into one stream. But unlike Twitter and Instagram, where many people have public accounts and their posts can be seen by anyone, most people's Facebook posts and accounts are private. This means that even if individuals are using hashtags, they aren't searchable. The result? The hashtags you can search for on Facebook tend to be published by influencers, brands, and publishers, rather than by individuals.

Here's what a hashtag stream on Facebook looks like, using #MotivationMonday as an example:

 

Most of the good stuff takes place in the center of this page. For the hashtag #MotivationMonday, you'll see there are a whole bunch of ways to toggle the hashtag stream -- even more than we have on Twitter: Top (the default), Latest, People, Photos, Videos, Shop, Pages, Places, Groups, Apps, and Events.

• Top: A stream of Facebook posts using that hashtag that have seen the most engagement -- which usually means posts from influential people or brands that have a lot of followers -- and your Facebook friends posting using the hashtag.
• Latest: A stream of public Facebook posts using the hashtag, usually by influencers, brands, or publishers -- like a fitness guru posting an instructional workout video.
• People: People on Facebook with a name officially associated with the hashtag. For a hashtag like #MotivationMonday, there are no results here.
• Photos: A stream of public Facebook posts using the hashtag that have photos in them.
• Videos: A stream of public Facebook posts using the hashtag that have videos in them.

• Shop: Pages can now sell their products directly to Facebook users using this feature. For a hashtag like #MotivationMonday, there are no results here.
• Pages: This tab shows Facebook Pages associated with or posting about the hashtag you've searched for.
• Places: Places in the world with a name officially associated with the hashtag. For a hashtag like #MotivationMonday, there are no results here.
• Groups: Groups with a name officially associated with the hashtag.
• Apps: Facebook apps with a name officially associated with the hashtag.
• Events: Facebook events with a name officially associated with the hashtag.

 

How to Use Hashtags on Facebook

To use a hashtag on Facebook, all you have to do is publish a Facebook post to your Page or timeline that includes the hashtag.
Be sure your post is public if you want people other than your Facebook friends to be able to find it. To make a Facebook post public, click on the button to the right of "Post" and choose "Public" from the dropdown menu.

Once you publish the post to your Page or timeline, the hashtag becomes a clickable link, which takes folks to the hashtag page. Here's what a Facebook post with a hashtag looks like:

 

How to Find Hashtags on Facebook

If you already know the hashtag you want to search for, there are two main ways to search for it: a simple search or by typing it directly into the URL.
You can do a simple search using the search box in the top left-hand corner of your screen:

You can also search for a hashtag by typing it directly into a URL like so: facebook.com/hashtag/InsertHashtagHere. So #MotivationMonday can be found at www.facebook.com/hashtag/MotivationMonday.

If you're searching for popular hashtags from scratch, the best place to look is the trending topics bar on the left-hand side of your homescreen. (Note: This is currently only available in English in select countries.) The articles and hashtags Facebook shows you are based on a number of different factors, including engagement, timeliness, pages you've Liked, and your location.

While most trending topics on Twitter are mostly hashtags, this is not usually the case on Facebook. You'll see that none of the trending topics below are hashtags:

 

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/hashtags-twitter-facebook-instagram#sm.0001h6xjpv19nnfqpuu7wsajzliyb 

How Hashtags Work on Twitter

A Twitter hashtag ties the conversations of different users into one stream. If Twitter users who aren't otherwise connected to one another talk about the same topic using a specific hashtag, their tweets will appear in the same stream.
  

Most of the good stuff takes place in the center of this page. For the hashtag #MotivationMonday, you'll see there are a few ways to toggle the hashtag stream: Top (the default), Latest, People, Photos, Videos, and More.

• Top: A stream of tweets using that hashtag that have seen the most engagement -- which usually means tweets from influential people or brands that have a lot of followers. (Download our guide on how to get 1,000+ Twitter followers here.)
• Latest: A live stream of the latest tweets from everyone tweeting out that hashtag.
• People: A list of top Twitter accounts to follow related to the hashtag.
• Photos: A collage of photos included in tweets that use the hashtag. When you hover your mouse over a photo, you can reply, retweet, or Like the tweet with just one click. You can open the tweet by clicking on the photo.

• Videos: A stream of tweets using the hashtag that have videos in them.
• More: A dropdown menu that has a few great options to pick from, including "From people you follow" and "Near you." You can also save your search here by clicking "Save this search." To access it later, simply click into the search box on the top right of your Twitter home screen and it'll appear as a saved search.

On the left-hand side of the screen on the #MotivationMonday stream, you'll find "Related searches." This is especially useful if you're looking for unofficial hashtags for your own events and campaigns and others'.

 

How to Use Hashtags on Twitter

Want to get involved in the conversation, or even start your own? Using a hashtag on Twitter is as simple as publishing a tweet from a public account that includes the hashtag, like this:

As long as your account is public, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your tweet.

 

How to Find Hashtags on Twitter

There are a few ways to find hashtags on Twitter. If you already know the hashtag you want to search for, there are four main ways to search for it: a simple search, an advanced search, monitoring using a third-party tool, or typing it directly into the URL.

You can do a simple search using the search box in the top right-hand corner of your screen:



If you're searching for a hashtag but want to include more details in your search, try Twitter's Advanced Search. Here, you can search for tweets with specific words and phrases, written in a certain language, from certain accounts, near certain locations, published on certain dates, and even containing smiley :) or frowny :( faces.
For example, if I wanted to search for the sad #MotivationMonday tweets, I might search for the MotivationMonday hashtag with a frowny face, like so:

The results show up in a stream with different toggle options, just like our original hashtag search.

If you're searching for popular hashtags from scratch, the best place to look is the trending topics bar on the left-hand side of your homescreen. Popular hashtagged words often become trending topics -- which are topics so many people are talking about that they are a "trend." The topics bar will also show you if accounts you follow are tweeting about the trending topics.

By default, Twitter tailors these trending topics to you based on your location and whom you follow. If you want to change the location Twitter uses to tailor your trends, you can do so by clicking "Change" to the right of "Trends." In the window that appears, click "Change" again, and then enter in the location information you'd like Twitter to use instead.

Twitter's native "trending topics" is limited to only a few hashtags, so if you want to find more outside of trending topics and you don't know what to search for, consider using Advanced Search to browse tweets, or a third-party application like Trendsmap.

 

Twitter Chat Hashtags

Along with hashtags for events, campaigns, and promotions, there are these unique things on Twitter called Twitter Chats. Twitter Chats are live Q&A sessions organized around a hashtag -- either on the fly, or at a pre-arranged time.

I like how Buffer explains them: "Imagine a business networking event -- but without a dress code and with a keyboard instead of a bar. The same social customs apply -- courtesy and respect -- and it’s a great way to meet new people with similar interests."

There are Twitter Chats about pretty much everything, from marketing to personal finance to affinities for cats.

If you're looking for Twitter chats to engage in, check out TweetReports' Twitter Chat Schedule, which you can toggle by date, hashtag, and topics like writing, social media, and so on. You can also submit your own Twitter chats to be considered.  

Written by Lindsay Kolowich | @lkolow

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/hashtags-twitter-facebook-instagram#sm.0001h6xjpv19nnfqpuu7wsajzliyb 

 

What are Hashtags and Why are they so Great!

A lot of words have been added to the dictionary over the past few decades thanks to social media, but few have become so widely used and accepted as "hashtag."

For a long time, the hashtag symbol (#) was known simply as the "pound" symbol. Now, I could swear that the only time I hear it referred to as a pound symbol is when I enter my PIN number to pay my cell phone bill.  
 
While hashtags were originally made famous by Twitter, they're now used on many major social networks, including Facebook and Instagram. Let's explore what a hashtag is, why they're so great, and how they work on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

What Does 'Hashtag' Mean?

A hashtag is simply a keyword phrase, spelled out without spaces, with a pound sign (#) in front of it. For example, #InboundHour and #ChocolateLovers are both hashtags.

You can put these hashtags anywhere in your social media posts: in the beginning, at the end, or anywhere in between. (Read this blog post for more instructions on using hashtags.)

These hashtags tie public conversations from all different users into a single stream, which you can find by searching for a hashtag, clicking on one, or using a third-party monitoring tool like HubSpot's Social Inbox. Note that, in order for a post with a hashtag to appear in anyone's search, the post must be public.

What Makes Hashtags So Great?

Back in 2007 when hashtags were a brand new concept, Google's Chris Messina realized the value of hashtags right away. He wrote that the "channel" concept of hashtags satisfies many of the things group discussions do, but without inheriting the "unnecessary management cruft" that most group systems suffer from.

In addition, Messina wrote that they're easily accessible with the syntax on Twitter (and now on other social media networks), easy to learn, flexible, and works with current user behavior instead of forcing anyone to learn anything radically new. It also works consistently on cell phones -- whereas, for example, the star key doesn't.

A decade later, the hashtag continues to thrive. When used properly, hashtags are a great way for individuals and brands to make their social posts more visible and increase engagement. They can give people useful context and cues for recall, aggregate posts and images together, and update a group of like-minded individuals on certain a topic in real time.

Hashtags are often used to unite conversations around things like ...

• Events or conferences, like #INBOUND17 or #Rio2016
• Disasters or emergencies, like #Aleppo or #PrayForNice
• Holidays or celebrations, like #WorldNutellaDay or #NationalCatDay
• Popular culture topics, like #GameofThrones or #PokemonGO
• General interest topics, like #WinterWonderland or #ChocolateLovers
• Popular hashtags, like #tbt or #MotivationMonday

The key is to use hashtags sparingly and only when they add value. Use them too much, and they can be confusing, frustrating, and just plain annoying.

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/hashtags-twitter-facebook-instagram#sm.0001h6xjpv19nnfqpuu7wsajzliyb 

3 Tips to Get Your Facebook Post Shared!!

1  The Challenge 

The first example was shared with me by one of my subscribers, Peter from The Classroom Professor.  His site has a great mission:  to inspire primary and elementary students to LOVE mathematics.  The Classroom Professor produces quality worksheets and software to support K-6 Teachers of Mathematics.

Peter started adopting some of my simple strategies for using images on his Facebook Page. He started to replace his text/number-based posts with images that showcased some challenging math problems. The results were astounding:

Peter sent me a message about how by using some of my simple image strategies, he had been able to achieve thousands of likes, shares and comments on his posts:

“I stumbled across your email list about a month ago, and read your ideas for encouraging your followers to share posts by posting engaging graphics. Two weeks ago, I decided to give it a try with my maths teacher followers. I created a couple of graphics posing maths questions that were a little tricky, and sent one out to see how it would go. Wow! I had a sudden spike in likes, people talking about my site, sharing the post, the whole bit. The post went viral, and currently has had over 3000 comments.”

Well, as you can see, the post has now zoomed past 3,000 comments (to over 13,000) and is going strong.

Why did this post do so well?

Peter didn’t create the post to make it go “viral” – he posted it to challenge his community – a community that he knew would appreciate a thought-provoking math problem.  The success of the post was not about intending to make it viral but rather thinking about what would inspire or challenge his readers/likers.
Here another post he was referring to in his message:

By presenting the math problem in an image format, he was able to catch the attention of fans and also provide the information so that it was easily digested.  Also, the simple act of asking a question encouraged his fans to answer it – which resulted in more comments and more engagement on the page.

2  The Message

In this second example, I worked with my client Know Your Midwife to create a simple but powerful message for International Midwives’ Day.  The purpose? None other than to share the message about birth being inherently safe, and celebrating the importance of midwives for birthing mothers.  There was no intention to create a “viral sensation”, but the end result was the image being shared almost 1500 times.  Not bad for a smaller page with less than 1000 fans at the time:

 

This message was not only celebratory but also emotional.  Women who had been touched by the skills and support of a midwife were empowered to share the message.  If your image can elicit emotion, you are more likely to entice people to take action.
There are also other benefits to “Shares” on Facebook – not only is the personal sharing exposing your content to all of their friends and followers, but then those friends and followers are encouraged to do the same.  A post can get shared exponentially very quickly with the right message.
This message was shared in Australia during International Midwives’ Day and then spread to the US for their Day, increasing the life of the post over two days as it travelled around to different countries.
That’s the power of sharing a message and not a “viral” post.  The side benefit for this growing Facebook community was that by having so many people engage with the content, Facebook will now more readily send future content out into the newsfeed of fans.  And in this case, dozens of new likers were also drawn to the page.

3  The Heartwarming Story

The third example I have is from my gorgeous friend and client Monique, who owns a fabulous Ground Raw Organic Cafe in our local area on the Sunshine Coast.   Not only am I super impressed with the food, smoothies and raw, organic treats at Ground, but they consistently provide great content, tips, information, humour, fun and all sorts of great posts about food, life and living on social media. Their mantra:

We are here to inspire, educate, motivate and support you on your journey of everlasting health and wellness.

Monique has really taken some of my visual marketing and image strategies and put them on rocket fuel to get some major reach and engagement on her page (you can check it out here).  But it was this post that got some of their best engagement yet:

By showcasing a heartwarming story from the main street of our town, people were inspired to share, because it stirred emotions.
It was not Ground’s intention to create a viral post – again, their intention on Facebook is to share heartwarming stories, inspiring posts and foodie goodness. When you focus on the message first, and the message is important to your audience, it gets shared.

You don’t decide, your audience does
A post going viral is not really due to anything you “do” to it. In fact, you have nothing to do with whether your post goes viral.  Scott Stratten, author of Unmarketing, said it well when he said:
“You can’t make something go viral. You don’t decide, I don’t decide, the audience does”

You can read more about it in this post.  Scott’s advice?  Evoke Strong Emotion.  Emotion that moves us to take action because it is so intense – whether it upsets us, makes us belly laugh till it hurts, inspires us to act or stirs our passion.

So the next time you post on Facebook, remember that it is about the message. If your message is valuable and helps solve the problem of the person viewing the post, then you are off to a great start.

And maybe, just maybe, your message might get shared with another person. And another. And another.  And so it goes.

Have you tried any of these tips before, how did it go? 

http://sociallysorted.com.au/how-to-get-viral-facebook-shares-and-why-this-is-the-wrong-question-to-ask/d

How to get Viral Facebook Shares – and Why This is the Wrong Question to Ask

I often get asked “How can I get more viral Facebook Shares?”. Everyone wants an image or post to go crazy, do the rounds on Facebook, get Pinned to Pinterest, and shared on other blogs, right?  

In this post, I share 3 examples of posts that have fared really well or gone “viral” on Facebook for my clients and subscribers.  I am also going to reveal why focusing on “going viral” is just not smart – and why you need to ask another question other than “How can I get more Viral Facebook Shares?”.  If you get that part right first, the results might surprise you!

A post going viral is definitely a good thing.  Don’t get me wrong.  More shares equate to more reach and more eyes on your content, potentially more fans, and Facebook is then more likely to send your content out into the newsfeed of your fans more often.  It’s a whole Edgerank/algorithm thing, and I won’t go into it here. Most of you know that the more likes, comments, shares you get, the more likely your content is going to be seen by your fans/likers in future.

What I do want to look at is how you can ensure that your content gets noticed in the first place, liked, commented on, and shared by your fans. And the first place to start is not by thinking “Let’s make a viral post”.

It’s about having a message that resonates with your community. It’s about asking:   

• How Can I add Value to my Readers?
• How can I solve their problems?
• How can I answer their questions?
• How can I inspire them?
• How can I stir strong emotion?
• How can I challenge them?
• How can I help them to do something?

If you ask these questions (rather than “How can I make my post go viral?”) then you are more likely to get your content seen (and shared).

So, let’s take a look at some examples from some of my clients/subscribers and why each post was so successful.  

3 strategies tomorrow...

What strategies have you used? 
http://sociallysorted.com.au/how-to-get-viral-facebook-shares-and-why-this-is-the-wrong-question-to-ask/

Optimize Your Content for Each Network

We all know that each social network handles images and text differently, but how much do you take that into account when you are creating social messages? One way to add some variety and value to your posts is to take advantage of the strengths of each network.

A good example of this is the way Google+ allows for longer copy and basic markdown text in each post. As you can see from the example above, we regularly add bulleted lists and bold text to our posts to make certain items stand out and provide additional value to our readers.

Another great example is how Twitter displays images, as shown below. Posts that include images are much more noticeable than posts that do not. This is a simple way to get noticed more, and squeeze out a few extra clicks.

Step 4 – Monitor Your Results

As always, it is important to monitor your results to make sure the changes you make to your social publishing schedule actually work. Here are a few of the things you want to watch out for:

• A decrease or an increase in post activity. As you adjust your schedule, notice if there is an increase or decrease in post activity? More clicks? More retweets? More shares? Sometimes, this is a gut-level check, and other times you might want to dip into your Bit.ly stats or utilize custom Google Analytics tags to make sure you are right.
• Negative feedback from your audience. Although it is rare, some users may notice your increased activity and comment on it. Take this to heart, but don’t let one complaint spoil a good thing. Use metrics to verify whether your schedule is too aggressive or misguided.
• A slowly fading interest in your content. I think the biggest threat to a social feed that has become “too busy” is a natural tendency of followers to simply ignore the content. Watch your click throughs to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.

I know this seems like an infomercial for a new prescription drug that must disclose all possible side effects, even though very few people ever experience any of them. You can take this technique too far, and I don’t want to accidentally turn you into a spammer. If you do this right, it will be worth the effort. If you do it wrong, then you may suffer some of the adverse consequences listed above.

Content Shared More than Once Might Go Viral

Not long ago, one of our own writers had a post go viral a full month after it was originally published, thanks to her implementation of this exact social promotion strategy. Julie’s message schedule was pretty simple. She tweeted once when the post went live, and then repeated it once 30 days later. The first tweet went relatively unnoticed, but the second one (a full month later) took off.

Regarding the message, Julie says: “The original publishing of the post didn’t cause much interest, beyond regular readers, nor did any of my posts on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or LinkedIn. It was a little tweet I sent out, just one tweet, a month later. I was very glad I had put into place a structured system that didn’t just blast out one social message at the moment of publishing and call it good enough.”

In Julie’s case, that second tweet brought her some pretty big traffic, and made the extra effort totally worth it. By sharing your content on social media more than once, you not only stand a chance of doubling your traffic, you also may double your chances of striking a chord and going viral. Of course, you should never become a spammer. Always remember there is a right way and a wrong way to share your content. Choose wisely.

https://blog.kissmetrics.com/double-your-social-media-traffic/ 
About the Author: Garrett Moon is a founder at CoSchedule, a WordPress editorial calendar that allows you to schedule your blogs posts and social media messages together on an easy drag-and-drop calendar. Get a free blog editorial calendar template for 2014. Follow him on Twitter or Google+.

How to Easily Double Your Traffic from Social Media

Many businesses are publishing content as a way to build their audiences and increase traffic to their websites. However, they may not be getting everything they could from each piece of content they create.

If you are serious about your content, then you also need to be serious about driving as much traffic to it (over social media) as possible. One great way to do this is to share your content on social media more than once. Sounds pretty simple, right? Let’s take a look at a hypothetical example:

Immediately after publishing a new blog post, we promote that post on social media. When we share it with each of our networks, we garner a certain number of clicks for each share. In the chart above, I hypothesize about a post that is sent to Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ immediately after the post goes live. The return on the effort looks great.

What happens when we share a link to that post a second time the next day? Does the traffic double? Based on the law of diminishing returns, no. That’s not quite what happens during the second round.
But, if we share the content again a third time, the traffic (for the second and third sets of shares combined) more than doubles. How can you argue with results like that?

Of course, this is a simple (and hypothetical) example, but the point is the more often you share, the more likely you are to get clicks. The big question most of us have is whether this type of thing really is ok?

Is It OK to Share Content More than Once?

Sharing your content multiple times on social media can trigger strong reactions. Some people don’t care for the practice of sharing the same content more than once on a social account, but, as is often the case, it is hard to argue with results. Awhile back, I shared the strategy my own startup uses to promote blog content on social media. Guess how many complaints we’ve received from the practice?
Zero.

The reality is that no one really cares, or even notices. And if they do, what is the worst thing that can happen? I mean, really? One aspect of marketing we often forget is that no one notices everything we do.

Your social media followers aren’t like RSS subscribers who see and read every post. In fact, sharing more than once probably is an essential part of providing your audience with the value you promised them. If you don’t share your links a few times, they may never see any of your updates.

How to Not Be a Spammer

I once was a guest on a podcast where the host was having a heyday complaining about a few Twitter users who were sharing content too much. His complaints were valid. The users had installed a certain plugin that shared their old blog posts (randomly) once every single hour. It was too much, and it seemed like spam.

While that strategy might lead to additional clicks (in the short term, at least), it is not the type of practice I am suggesting in this post. If you share too much, people eventually will learn to ignore your tweets, and probably will unfollow you altogether. If you are going to start sharing your content more than once, you need to abide by a few ground rules, such as:

1. Take your followers into consideration. Your social feed is for them, not for you.
2. Don’t turn into a spammer. Create a smart schedule rather than a crowded one (more on this later).
3. Consider your own habits. How do you use social media? Where is the “spam line” for you? Don’t cross it.
4. Don’t do anything that you wouldn’t like. How would you react if you saw another user with your identical strategy? This is a great gauge, because you probably wouldn’t be the only one who would feel that way.
5. Always provide value. Like I said, promoting content more than once actually is a good thing, as long as you are doing it to provide value for your audience.

Once you agree to follow these simple ground rules, you should be able to develop a great social promotion schedule for your content that literally doubles your traffic.

https://blog.kissmetrics.com/double-your-social-media-traffic/ 

5 Biggest Differences between Social Media and Social Networking

Trying to figure out the difference between social media and social networking is like trying to fully understand every ranking factor that Google uses for SEO: it’s not easy.

 












To really understand the difference between the two, we first need to define them. Merriam-Webster defines social media and social networking as the below:

Social Media: forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).

Social Networking: the creation and maintenance of personal and business relationships especially online

With that said, let’s take a look at the five biggest differences between social media and social networking.

Communication Style

On social media, you’re doing all of the talking. You’re publishing content—images, videos, eBooks, infographics, white papers, and more—and trying to generate engagement with your fans and followers, and ultimately hoping that they interact with your brand or take an action.

With social networking, there needs be a mix of both talking and listening. If you’re joining groups and networks on social media and doing all of the talking—posting about your brand and tooting your own horn—you’re not going to get the type of respect that you probably deserve, and you’re likely going to miss out on some great opportunities because you’re not listening.

To be great at social networking, you have to take the time to listen and engage with others.

Goals

Perhaps the biggest difference between social media and social networking is the goal that you’re trying to achieve.

With social networking, your ultimate goal is to build your network of fans/followers and foster those relationships. Whether or not those relationships lead to new business is an unknown, but it’s not the ultimate goal.

Social media differs because while you’re certainly trying to generate buzz and interaction, you also want to increase your bottom line, and that means data acquisition for lead generation and sales for eCommerce.

Content

Content is so important to every aspect of marketing, and while you need it for both social media and social networking, the type of content you use for each is going to be different.

In social networking, it’s a lot of rich conversation and questions. You’re having deep, informative conversations with people in hopes of sparking a connection and gaining a new fan or follower while growing your referral network.

On the social media side of things, you’re trying to drive engagement, and you can’t do that with 250 word Facebook posts. No, you need to be posting and sharing images, videos, infographics, and other meaningful pieces of content to keep your audience engaged and interested in your brand.

It’s not to say that this type of content can’t overlap, but how you use the content should be different.

Time & Effort

If you’re an active brand on social media, you’re probably using a tool like Hootsuite or Sprout Social to help save time and measure the analytics behind your efforts. You can create your posts and schedule them out days ahead, and then sit back and watch the engagement that takes place.

With social networking, there’s no automated way to really grow relationships, and you can’t cut corners. Each interaction you have needs unique focus and attention.

Social networking is like dating—it’s time consuming, and it takes a lot of time and effort to really make it work, but it’s all worth it in the end.

ROI Measurement

In this digital age, we’re all trying to measure the ROI from everything that we do, especially social media.

How you attribute ROI to your social media and social networking is going to differ because you need to go about the two completely different. Measuring the ROI from your social networking efforts is going to be easier because there’s more direct response—if your network of social followers is increasing, then that’s measurable ROI.  

But since your social media strategy is about generating buzz and engagement, it’s a bit difficult to nail down that type of return. Over a longer period of time, you should be able to attribute some type of success, but it’s not going to be as clear as it is in your social networking game. Of course if you’re driving things like sales and you have your tracking and analytics in place, it’ll be easier to measure your ROI.

All in all, social media and social networking are two important marketing tactics, but they each come armed with their own unique challenges.

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-business/peteschauer/2015-06-28/5-biggest-differences-between-social-media-and-social