What are your social media woes today? Are you struggling with developing a strategy? Social media management (winging it?), or not sure what and how to measure and monitor?
Building a solid social media infrastructure with platforms and tools, starts with identifying your goals and objectives (for the year, broken down by quarters, but remain flexible to accommodate trends and changes); a plan involving tactics, technical know how, content marketing strategy, Online research (identify target market:who needs solutions you provide, where are they located,what keywords are they using to find solutions to their problems)
It may seem (and it can be) time consuming to be available real time on Twitter, Facebook, G+, LinkedIn groups/answers, Quora, and commenting on blog posts, but as with any business, in order to GET, you must INVEST your time in establishing connections and maintaining those relationships. oJohn Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing once said that people buy from those they know, like, and trust, and as a business professional offering services and products, it takes time to get the momentum going, so it's important to schedule and plan out your week in order to build your relationships.
Social media channels, platforms and tools are one of the best inventions offering instant access to communities and networks without borders, being able to manage and monitor, measure and extract important data that will inspire you to provide relevant and timely information created just for your network. Participating on Twitter, Facebook, G+, and niche sites like Quora and Linkedin Answers sets you up as a person who is knowledgeable, experienced and cares about solving customer's problems and helping people (Businesses) succeed.
Using the information you discover thru your research and data should offer ideas for content creation using blog, video, or podcast. Compliment your post with strong hashtags and learn which ones have a high reach,impressions, retweets on Twitter thru Hashtracking.com and create a list of key hashtags and keywords.
Planning out your week requires some thought and insight into your audience (customers, peers, trends) but you are able to organize your content by writing blogs and pre-scheduling them to post by a determined date and time; you can pre-schedule timely and relevant posts with Hootsuite that speak / relate to your customers, append appropriate hashtags, select dates and times through-out the week.
Utilizing a calendar, and plan for the month. Using an editorial calendar will offer you the focus you need to priortize and manage your time effectively. For Example:
- Schedule time to conduct hashtag research and create a bucket list
- Conduct adwords keyword research for words to use in your headlines, categories or tag words
- Create content in advance (using appropriate keywords in headlines, and as categories or tag words)
- Schedule social media maintenance: using Twellow to grow targeted followers; Responding to Linkedin Invites and emails; curate content for the following week and/or to hyperlink to your new blogs
- Check weekly measure/monitor your results
These steps are essential for social media management. It requires a time commitment (investment) and is not considered an extracurricular activity.. Some of these activities can be outsourced to a seasoned, trained virtual assistant or a social media manager.
Sometimes all you need a pair of fresh eyes, with a marketing, social media mindset to partner up with you and develop a blueprint or roadmap that outlines your steps and help you organize your social media infrastructure; build out a calendar that includes tools to
(a) seek/target Twitter followers
(b) mention people on Twitter
(c) use Klout and Kred to honor your followers
(d) use Facebook apps that honors Fan of the week (I have several apps that do that for me) this starts conversation, a tactical way to grow your list, offer a giveaway to nurture relationships
(e) bookmark content that publishes to multiple sites
I use a methodology that works for me: The PCP™ Method (Persistency, Consistency, Patience) which has worked very well for me. I'm not saying it's a the magic pill, but that by being persistent with sharing great content (and most of it was other people's content), consistently showing up on 3 main channels (Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin) and I frequent Quora, Linkedin Answers and Linkedin Groups, has generated traction online towards my profiles. This has lead me to new business opportunties. You do not have to be everywhere daily, but practice the PCP method. When you schedule specific activities into your calendar, leverage submission tools like OnlyWire for bookmarking, Oneload for Video submissions and social media dashboard management tools like Hootsuite or SproutSocial. Crowdbooster offers a feature that tells you best times to share announcements, events, posts on Twitter and Facebook.
New habits take time to master, but when you practice and commit to a schedule, you will get better and better at mastering your online activities with tools, and will be able to spend quality time through-out the week engaging, sharing,and commenting. Having a structured road-map for the week that aligns with your goals and objectives makes your personal and business life manageabl. You will begin to see and experience results and adjust accordingly. Be patient with the process of establishing relationships and getting results. Apply my PCP methodology and hang in there - you will see how things will unfold and spin into a life of its own, making your life and the life of your business exciting!
Please share your social media woes with me and I welcome input and iideas as to how you plan, execute and manage your day to day social media.