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As we have discussed before, you can’t dabble in social media, it is a major time commitment and now more than ever you need to continuously monitor and update your social media activities for success.
To run a successful campaign, follow this basic social media check-list:
It’s clear from this that to raise your social media presence and deliver the right results is a long-term process and probably needs close to full-time focus. It’s true that great social media doesn’t cost money but as highlighted above, it can cost a lot of time. We are talking about several days a month, not several hours. So what are the options?
You’ve set up Twitter account to engage, inform and educate. You want to drive your follower numbers to not only boost your social media presence but to try and encourage further engagement of your content through @mentions and re-tweets. With this all on your plate, it’s clear that Twitter management is a channel that can’t be dabbled in. Why?
So in order to avoid these failures happening, you need to make a proper time commitment and create good quality, share-able content otherwise people won’t follow you. However, if time is just not on your side and you can’t outsource, it’s best to block out a couple of “power hours” each week rather than spending a few minutes per day trying to manage your Twitter activity.
Well read on….
The key to success with LinkedIn discussions is control. By controlling the topic and direction of discussion posts, you ensure it stays beneficial to you.
For a LinkedIn discussion post to be effective it needs to be (a) engaging (b) relevant and (c) hopefully beneficial to all those viewing the post and joining in the discussion. For example: discussions about changes in tax legislation in respect of small businesses may be relevant to both small businesses and accountants but would be of no interest or use to primarily school teachers or big corporates, so for starters, ensure you are posting to the right group!
Anyone remember the Tamagotchi? It was a small handheld digital "pet" that required constant feeding as well as attention. Failure to take care of your "pet" could lead to its unhappiness, sickness and even death. The same applies to your social media campaign.
The question is, how much of a commitment do you need to make? The answer depends on which social media platform you are using. If you only have 15 mins/day or less, you can limit your activity to LinkedIn. By simply keeping your profile up to date, increasing your connections and putting out a daily status update you will help attract attention. If you have a bit more time, you can raise your profile by participating in the occasional LinkedIn discussion.
If you have more than 15 mins/day, you might consider Twitter which requires at least a few status updates each day as well as regular interaction with other users in order to build up a serious following.
But let’s be realistic, few of us can commit to our social media campaigns on a daily basis when there are regular distractions such as meetings, conferences and clients that need attention. So instead of spending a few mins each day on social media, why not set aside a couple of days each week, where you can spend at least 30 mins planning your content? The more time you have to think through what you want to say, the better quality it will be.
Why you need to be on board with your own social media campaign…
If you have chosen to use social media to get noticed, drive your business and create awareness, then you can’t just dump it all on someone. You have to be involved. There are five key roles you have to play when it comes to driving and owning your social media strategy.
Have you heard of ‘Personal branding ?
It’s a process where you differentiate yourself (rather than your company) from your competitors in order to stand out in a crowded market place and make an impact whether it’s in person, on an email or via social media.’
On the 17th October, I was a guest on Oge Okesieme’s Masterclass Series. It’s a monthly question and answer session where members of the public can ask the guest speaker on how to improve their personal branding.
Oge describes herself as a pathfinder for spiritual entrepreneurs. Her aim is to guide entrepreneurs who want to make a difference and help them to ‘shine’. Now this may sound a bit esoteric, but if you look at her steps to discovering what your personal brand is, you really can start to create a picture about how to think about the ways you want to portray yourself and what you have to offer as a brand.
Think about the following:
It’s not you, it’s me!
Sound familiar? Most people have either delivered the line or received it or both. Either way no one really likes to hear it. It conjures up feelings of insecurity, a lack of confidence and can set you back months or even years in the journey to find "the one". I am referring to the all-to-familiar, "It’s not you, it’s me". But we are not talking about romantic relationships here, we are talking about social media relationships. And in that context, it’s true. Social media is about them – all about them.
Traditional marketing is targeted to mass audiences through television, outdoor, print, radio. Obviously, you will do best if you can get choose a particular target market and ‘get inside their heads’, but you’re still not really interacting with individuals. The opportunity to direct your message to the right market is mostly static and limited to location, frequency and duration. This means that campaigns using any of the above channels pretty much need to be all about me – my brand, my offer, my call-to-action, my price, my brilliance, my, my, my… This approach is very much "it’s not you, it’s me", isn’t it?
Bring on social media – where we really need to turn this way of thinking on its head. Make it all about your audience, your followers and fans. You can’t make it all about yourself.
Do you use twitter for your business?
If so, what’s your objective?
But how about using it to attract some new customers?
This is an issue that is proving to be frustrating for most businesses. In fact many business users I speak to seem to be wholly unconvinced when it comes it comes to attracting new customers with twitter.
But it’s not that difficult. The reason most businesses struggle to attract new customers is because they expect followers to simply send them an order on the basis of a tweet they wrote. In reality, very little business gets done that way.
Where Twitter is most effective is when it’s used as a means to an end.
Do you ever ask yourself… "what shall I tweet about today?" Do you find yourself spending hours searching for something that might be of interest to your readers? If the question to either of the above is “yes” then you need a content plan.
When someone sees you on Twitter, they need to have a compelling reason to follow you. Take some time to read your own tweets and be brutally honest wit yourself. Do you find them interesting? Would you follow your own tweets?
Let’s say you’re an accountant. You have to give your readers a compelling reason to follow you. If you claim to save people tax, you need to prove it by putting tips on how to save money as well as useful news items on tax related issues. But you can’t just do that without giving it some thought. And that means more than finding ive minutes on a Monday morning. You actually need to block out some time where you brainstorm some ideas. It’s called having a content plan.
