Social Media Marketing Questions and Exercises

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook" by Gary Vaynerchuk. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.

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Looking for social media marketing questions and exercises to assess your business presence? Want to enhance your understanding of how to use marketing jabs and hooks?

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by marketing expert Gary Vaynerchuk calls on the sport of boxing to illustrate how to create striking social media content. He discusses how to use each of the top social media platforms to market your business. Below we have put together social media marketing questions based on Vaynerchuk’s book.

Read on for social media marketing questions and exercises related to Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.

Social Media Marketing Questions From Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook

In Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, marketing expert Gary Vaynerchuk calls on the sport of boxing to illustrate how to create striking social media content. “Jabs” are interactions that build relationships with your customers and should be thrown far more often than “right hooks,” which are calls to action.

Vaynerchuk explains how to tailor your jabs and hooks for five major platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr), how social media marketing is different than any type of marketing that’s come before it, and how small businesses can successfully compete with large ones in the social media arena.

Below are social media marketing questions and exercises about Vaynerchik’s book.

Exercise 1 : Assess Your Tweets

The first social media marketing questions are about Twitter. Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms, so it’s important to tweet effectively.

Navigate to or recall one of your brand’s recent tweets. What hashtags did you use, if any? What memorable and idiosyncratic hashtags could you add to strengthen the tweet?
What’s the voice of the tweet? How could you align it more with your brand identity? How might you amend it to match the voice of native Twitter content (for example, by using irony, if appropriate)?
Look at the hashtags that are currently trending. How could you relate one of these to your brand to trendjack? What would your trendjacking tweet say?

Exercise 2: Assess Your Facebook Posts

Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms, so it’s important to use it effectively.

Navigate to or recall one of your brand’s recent Facebook posts. Is it a link post or a photo post? Why did you choose the option you did?
How have you optimized, or how could you optimize, the post for mobile?
What appears in the comments section? (For example, do the comments include questions, positive or negative feedback, or spam?) How could you respond to some of the recent engagement?

Exercise 3: Assess Your Instagram Posts

This set of social media marketing questions relates to Instagram. Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms, so it’s important to know how to use it effectively.

Navigate to or recall one of your brand’s recent Instagram posts. Is the photo high-quality, indie, and/or artsy? Why or why not? How could you retake or edit the photo to make it more native?
What hashtags did you use in the post, if any? What additional hashtags could you use to make it easier for people to find your content?
How could you edit the post to make it more appealing to the younger generation? (For example, could you link the post to a trend that’s currently popular with young people?)

Exercise 4: Consider New Social Media Marketing Platforms

Early adopters of new platforms have the opportunity to corner a market before other businesses get around to building their presences.

What’s a social media platform that your brand doesn’t have a presence on yet? What’s holding you back?
Do your competitors have a presence on this platform?
How might you start using this platform? (For example, what content might you include in your posts? What audience might you target?)

Exercise 5: Brainstorm Posts

Tumblr is a smaller but still important social media platform, so you should consider setting up an account if you haven’t already.

Brainstorm a possible Tumblr post about your brand or product. What would the topic of the post be? What media could you include? (Consider both images (especially black and white images) and GIFs.)
How could you make the post cool to appeal to the Tumblr audience? (For example, could you include exclusive information, or reference a current pop culture trend?)
What tags would you use to ensure that users find your post?

Exercise 6: Assess Social Media Marketing Content

The final set of social media marketing questions challenges you to assess content for quality.

Below is a Facebook post from Selena Gomez. What did she do right? How? (Think about how native the post is, her choice of image, her use of text, and so on.)

[image] jabjab-selenagomez.png

Below is an Instagram post from Seaworld. What did they do wrong? How? (Think about their mobile optimization, call to action placement, image quality, and so on).