GROWTH HACKING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA

THERE ISN'T REALLY ANY MAGIC OR MYSTERY ABOUT IT, BUT MORE A SET OF SHORTCUTS, HINTS OR TIPS TO FAST TRACK YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS.

Growth Hacking has become a buzzword banded around the internet wantonly in the last few years, with some claiming it can change your business into the Uber of tomorrow, overnight. So why is it so maligned and misunderstood?​

Well, maybe it has something to do with the number of 'growth hackers' who sell their services online? I spent some time with a business yesterday who had enlisted the skills of such an expert for around 12 months. Whilst they saw improvements in their social media audience and followers, to this day they still don't know what he actually did for them.

The truth is that technically you can growth hack everything, your social media, your garden and even your own body, if you feel the need. There isn't really any magic or mystery about it, but more a set of shortcuts, hints or tips to fast track you achieving what it is that you actually want to achieve. It still sounds like an awful lot of buzzwords though doesn't it? Here's my take on it; growth hacking your social media is about knowing proven techniques, which are borrowed from a range of traditional marketing techniques, mixed with some more radical non-traditional techniques, combined with a little psychology to make you far more efficient. That's right, it's all about efficiency. Here's how you can use it to grow your audience.

Getting a larger audience isn't actually a very specific goal, it's actually quite vague, so you have to start setting targets for yourself. Like 100 Facebook page fans by the end of the next 14 days. Whatever your goal is, it has to be specific and you have to be able to measure it. Without a fixed number to aim for and a deadline, you won't push yourself to achieve it.

Once you've decided on specific measurable goals, then you need to start collecting or recording the data to track, and most importantly, prove you're making progress. The best advice I can give you here is that if you're regularly tracking results then it's a lot easier for you to see which type of content is working on which channels for you, so you can focus on that ahead of anything else.

Focusing on your strengths is the most efficient way of playing the social media game and remember, I said earlier that efficiency is the key to growth hacking. If you spread your efforts too thin, then you're wasting effort on channels that may not give you anything back. By focusing on your strengths, you're putting more effort into the areas where you know you're going to get results.

But once you've discovered your strengths, it doesn't just end there. Your next step is to start pushing and experimenting with what you put out, testing new content, new ideas to see if you can achieve even more. Try different things on different platforms, mix it up, break the rules. Test different content on different audiences. As long as you're always adding value, you can't really lose.

Testing and tweaking are two very important elements of growth hacking. So don't give up on your experiments any time soon. By constantly testing, measuring and testing again, you may well discover your own hacks to help improve your efficiency and help you reach your goals sooner.

Growth hacking is not just about reaching big goals fast, it’s also about making sure that you can sustain that. So don’t forget to keep your eyes on the long-term results.