Twiddle Those Social Media Thumbs All Day!

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Ever feel like your social media efforts are weighing you down?

I sure do! So I thought up a way to make some changes.

Just created a little spreadsheet starting with a list of all the social media accounts that I have, both personal and for business, and the list includes just the ones that are active. The count? Eleven major social networks with 15 business accounts and 7 personal ones. The personal accounts may be related to my businesses to some degree but only slightly (say less than 20%).

That’s a LOT of accounts to handle! No; wait a minute! It is insanity!
And it explains why my days get bogged down at times. Putting it “in writing” brought things into focus.

A big thumbs down! 

Ah, but a spreadsheet is really useless without data. A list has been created and nothing more. A little birdie tells me that I've been checking these accounts all too often because they’re checked on a whim; kind of like an “ooh ah! I haven’t checked that one in a while!” Need to add some structure!

Time to put in some columns. How ‘bout times of the day? I put them in intervals of 2 hours, starting with 7AM …on second thought, I snuck in 8AM too since I tend to do a lot of “busy” stuff in the morning. And for good measure, 12PM is now there too.

Started using the spreadsheet today. A couple weeks from now when there's enough data: Analysis! Will it eventually show patterns and and where there’s too much time being spent, or perhaps not enough? 

The good news is that not all social networks need my attention on a daily basis, such as Pinterest. However, it’s there on the sheet as a reminder not to forget it; it is important that I pin my blogs there as well and also see what other people have pinned, however, it just can’t be every day!

See, I'm already prioritizing before even getting started: Mindset! This little “experiment” is going to pan out. While I feel like I'm twiddling my thumbs, I know that’s not actually true and now there will be evidence of how much work is involved with social media upkeep.

How ‘bout you? Would you try something like this? 
The Rolling Stones sang about something we all want to have better control of (see below). If you need better control of your time spent marketing, let us help you with your strategy. Stop by our website, or stop by on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.   

Data, Social Media, and You.

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How do YOU pronounce it? Day-ta or Dat-a?

What actually IS it? Encarta defines it as information, often in the form of facts or figures obtained from experiments or surveys, used as a basis for making calculations or drawing conclusions.

Surveys? Experiments? How does this apply to social media? And, you thought I was going to talk about ROI, didn’t you?

Ah, questionnaires. Good old fashioned quantitative market research; an excellent way to get some insight from your fans, followers or circlers. And plenty of free sources to use. But beware of bias and improper wording; I’ve seen lots of poorly written surveys in my time!
Find a market research professional, tell them what it is you’d like to learn from your clients, and let them do the rest. Great data starts from the best preparation, from defining the issue, including determining the possible actions that will be taken as a result of the findings, creating the questionnaire, testing, fielding, processing, analyzing and reporting.

What do you want to learn from your fans on Facebook for example? Some ideas include:

• Demographics, beyond the location, age group and gender that Facebook provides to page owners
• Gather ideas on what they’d like to see on your page
• Test out a new product concept
• Their opinions on a particular subject; perhaps something that you’d like to blog about at a later date
• Greater detail on their interests (psychographics in market research speak)
• How they feel about some of your current products and likelihood to buy
• What charity they’d like to see you make a donation to

And the other half of that definition, experiment?  How about trying something new with your posts? For example, my other endeavor, Groovy Reflections, offers products, namely hand tie-dyed t-shirts sporting the brand logo. Personally, I don’t enjoy getting in people’s faces touting these offerings.

So, instead, I’ll post something that’s more on the “softer side”, such as giving away a shirt instead (have been doing this every 500 new fans).  Discussion about the free shirt will be lively and some of the more curious folks may inquire more about the products while others will explore quietly on the website. It's both engaging and creating awareness.

Not exactly a focus group facility!

It’s not as good as having a focus group, but you’ll get some qualitative feedback. DO remember that this is a very informal way to gather information and it’s not representative of the population at large that has an interest in your brand or business.

Focus Groups, either in person or on-line would provide some concrete data on the respondents as well as their individual responses in conversation based on a well-planned out guide contain the question you’d like to have the respondents discuss.

Data is powerful if gathered wisely! Do learn from it to make your social media efforts even more successful!

For more data (ha!) on data, say hello on my Facebook or Google+ pages or tweet me.

This is "D" of the Blogging A to Z Challenge. Don't forget your A, B, C's!