This document provides tips for maximizing social media impact and engagement. It discusses understanding your target audience, optimizing organic reach through Facebook insights and best practices, using paid posts effectively, managing communities, and metrics for analyzing performance. Key tips include knowing your audience, posting at optimal times, engaging with followers, and addressing comments personally while de-escalating negative interactions. Tools recommended include Canva, Bitly, Hootsuite, Buffer, and After the Deadline.

1. Let’s Get Social!
Maximizing Your Social Media Impact

2. Just Who the Heck is Melinda?
• Atlanta, GA
• Social media and digital marketing
• Shown AQHA since 1995, prior to that, a product of the
hunter/ jumper world
• Owner of two Quarter Horses
• Tech nerd
• Coffee addict
• Peanut butter connoisseur

3. Where can you find me?
melinda.davison@gmail.com
@Melinda83
linkedin.com/in/melindadavison/

4. Experience

5. How do you use social media?
Training Tips?
Show Results?
Sale horses?
Client News and Information?

6. Then and Now?
• 2004
– Mailing videos to prospective
buyers
– Show results were published
and mailed several months after
the event
– Stable updates/notices were
posted on bulletin boards or
announced via phone calls
• 2017
– Videos are shot on cell phones
and uploaded on Facebook or
Youtube and shared by
followers
– Show results, videos, and
photos are posted in real-time
– Stable Facebook pages post
status updates

8. Agenda
• Audience and Targeting
• Maximize Your Organic Reach
• Paid Posts
• Best Practices
• Community Management
• Social Media Tools

9. Know Your Audience
Casting the widest net isn’t always the best
answer, particularly in niche markets

10. Know Your Audience
• Before you can start tailoring your content
to your audience, you have to know who
they are!
• So…how?

11. Facebook Audience Insights

12. Facebook Audience Insights
1. Define Your
Audience

13. Facebook Audience Insights
2. Find Out Who’s On
Facebook

14. Facebook Audience Insights
3. Explore Your Audience

15. Facebook Audience Insights
4. Save Your Audience

16. Facebook Audience Insights
5. Create Ad If Necessary

17. Maximize Your Organic Reach
What is EdgeRank, what affects it, and how to
optimize for it

18. Maximize Your Organic Reach
• What is ”organic reach”?
• EdgeRank and algorithms
Via Sprout Social

19. Maximize Your Organic Reach
1. Build relationships with your followers and create conversations
around your posts.
2. Pose a question in your post to encourage people to respond with
comments, likes, or shares.
3. Do some trial and error tests to see how often you can post without
being “spammy.”
4. If possible, post about trending topics. However, don’t force it.
5. Share content from other sources or pages.
6. Try not to be overly promotional.

20. Paying To Play
When and How to Use Boosted Posts

21. Paying to Play
• When should you boost a post and why?
– Horse for sale
– Promoting an event
– Announcing a clinic, new training video or
product

22. Paying To Play

23. Paying To Play

24. Paying To Play - Select Your Audience

25. Paying To Play – Select Your Audience

26. Paying To Play – Select Your Budget

27. Best Practices
Understanding Strengths and Weaknesses of
Popular Social Platforms

28. Best Practices
1. Does the platform makes sense for you?
2. The more visual the better. Videos and images perform better than just
text updates.
3. Say as much as you can in as little as you can.
4. Learn the best times and days to post content on your profile.
• Facebook- Thursdays and Fridays, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.
• Twitter- Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays
• Instagram- Saturdays, highest activity is 3-4 p.m.
• YouTube- Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 12 – 3
p.m. (avoid 5-6 p.m.)

29. Facebook Strengths
• Wide network and customer reach
• Multiple platforms: Pages, Groups, Ads
• Specifically target your audience
• Budget-friendly advertising
• Share status updates, news, photos,
videos, links

31. Twitter Strengths
• Real-time news
• Customer service platform

32. Instagram Strengths
• Extremely visual platform
• Popular with a younger audience
• Owned by Facebook, many crossover
advertising tools
• Great for behind-the-scenes photos at
shows and “daily life” at the farm

34. YouTube Strengths
• Can create channels that viewers can
subscribe to for regular content updates
• Can be used for training tips, show videos,
sale videos

36. Basic Stats and Metrics To Understand
Performance
Analyze This

37. Reach
• # of people who have seen your post
Image via Sprout Social

38. Engagement
• # of people who have commented, liked, or shared your
post
Image via Sprout Social

39. Page Likes
• # of people who like your page
Image via Sprout Social

40. Managing Your Community

41. What Is Community Management?
• More than community management
• Opportunity to connect with your followers
• ”Surprise” is still a powerful marketing tool
• Interaction with a business or brand on
social media makes them less likely to
unfollow you

43. 1. Personally addresses commenter (“Hey Mike”)
2. Expresses empathy without apologizing
3. Lets them know when they’re in the right (if
necessary)
4. Takes conversation offline. Sends them to
customer service channel (ie: website, private
message)
5. Assures urgency in handling the concern
without making a specific time guarantee

46. What NOT To Do In Community
Management

47. What NOT To Do In Community
Management

48. What NOT To Do In Community
Management

49. Social Toolbox

50. Canva
Photo via TechCrunch

51. Bit.ly

52. Hootsuite

53. buffer

54. After The Deadline

55. Additional questions?