The other evening, I was doing my nightly ritual of skimming the Internet in seek of inspiring/interesting articles to read. For some reason an article on the origin of "Kung Fu" caught my eye. As I was reading this article, I started noticing how many of the principles that described this art were reminding me so much of social media. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, "what does Kung Fu and social media have to do with each other?" Well, Kung Fu's original meaning refers to ones expertise in any skill achieved through hard work and practice, not necessarily martial. This thought inspired me to write what I feel are five ways to bring out the inner social media "Kung Fu" in you!
- "Kung fu" requires hard work, practice, and a strategy to master it. The same is true for social media. It is vital to your success that you create a strategy. Before you do anything, map out what platforms best suit your business, layout tactics, develop content, and define how you will measure your success. It is that kind of hard work that you need to do in the beginning that will aid you in your development of your social tribe. Also, keep your strategy flexible. It will need to change and adapt based on your communities needs and growth.
- The most advanced martial artists leverage the tools and tactics they were taught when they just started out. They manage to build a variety of advanced moves off of the foundation of basics they learned from when they began to learn their art form. This also rings true when thinking about social media. Master the basics first and then move on to building more advanced skills. Before you go running crazy contests and expecting people to automatically participate...grow your community! Start building and forming relationships first. Once you gain that trust with people and they know you are a real person genuinely trying to engage with them, they WILL engage back! Then that will be your cue that you're ready for the next step. Contests, promotions, applications...etc.
- There are a specific set of weapons "kung fu" masters practice mastering. In social media, there are a countless number of different tools to use. You just need to find the ones that work best for you, your business, and your overall strategy. Study these tools and learn to master them. They will help you manage your presence more efficiently. Some ones that I use, or have used, are HootSuite, bit.ly, Google Analyitics, TweetDeck, CoTweet, Nearby Tweets, JustUnfollow, SpredFast...etc.
- "Kung fu" masters create moves based on their opponents actions. The best martial artists know their opponents next move before they even make it and use this to their advantage. In social media you can get ahead by using a similar tactic. Study what your competitors are doing. See what is working for them and what isn't. But most importantly, stay authentic...be "you"! The goal here is not to ever mimic or steal someone else's ideas or strategies, but to be mindful of what they're doing. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer!
- Lastly, "kung fu" masters have mastered their strategy and know how to leverage it to win. This is something you must also do in social media. You must develop a strategy, omit random acts of posting/marketing, and stick to it...master it! Be prepared and always have a goal and plan on how to get there. If you do this, your chances of being successful sky rocket!
Can you think of any other ways to bring out the inner "Kung Fu" in you? Have you taken the time to develop a social media strategy? Have you first developed relationships with your following before you expected anything from them? What is something you can do today to foster better relationships with your tribe?