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+.   

Affordability, Social Media, and You

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Yesterday I was strolling around with some friends in an area where you can buy a waterfront “fixer upper” for 4 million dollars. No, not on the ocean, but on the water near the ocean. You can park your boat right there at your private pier and take a sea cruise whenever you want.

I saw the dinghies (pictured here) in the sand and said to my friend “these are the only boats I can afford here!” 

And then the notion of affordability popped into my brain on a bigger scale. 

Small businesses and social media. They assume they can’t afford to hire someone who has the skill set they would like to have. So they try do it themselves or have their teenage son or daughter do it. Their business gets zero benefit from social media. They wind up thinking that social media is useless and just stop doing it. 

Or perhaps they decide to go hire someone who “does social media”. A college student must know something about social media since it’s something so new, right? And it doesn’t cost much to hire the student to “do” it. And the business gets a very small benefit from their relatively unskilled new social consultant's efforts (the small benefit is coming from higher frequency of  posts/tweets). However, this is on the level of going around in circles in their dinghy.

Now, you don’t need to sell the family yacht to get great social media assistance! There are specialists who offer as little as a few hours of their expertise that will provide the  knowledge you need to create the awareness for your business to grow and sail smoothly.

Planning IS everything. Perhaps you can handle the posting yourself and all you need is the best strategy for your product or service. That’s where a seasoned professional can really help your business and bring it from being a dinghy to a luxury yacht!

The Yachts sang about a particular type of boat in the late 70’s (see below). If you want to avoid those rough waters in the sea of social media, stop by our website, or stop by on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.     

This is "A" for the A to Z April Blogging Challenge! Stay tuned for "B".

Hay, Social Media, and You.

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Hay. It’s packed tightly into bales, but a few strands always manage to fall out. Just how much hay is slipping out of that bale and falling to the ground, never to be used, in your business?  

Close your eyes and visualize that bale of hay as your social media efforts.  What can you do to retain more strands of those missed opportunities? A few ideas:

• Planning: Thinking out the “what” in detail beforehand instead of just pitching hay.  And yes, I will tell you time and time again that you need a road map; do you know where you are delivering that bale of hay, to who, and when?

• Scheduling. You've planned what you want to post or tweet; why not schedule some of it ahead of time? Note: Doing this does not mean you can ignore your social networks! DO be present at the times you are posting or tweeting.

• Utilizing the best tools for your business. Some are free, but could be limited; others will cost you but it’s important to weight the price versus the amount of time it will free up for you to concentrate on other aspects of your business. After all, someone has to think about profitability. Take a test ride with a software tool or two (many have free trials), ask people for advice, or hire a company who can work with you and recommend the best tools what will work for your business.

• Outsourcing. Find an individual or business that can teach you how to be efficient in your social media endeavors, including all of the above mentioned aspects plus maintaining your social media account. If you blog, consider guest bloggers or a professional writer that can edit your writing or create prose on subject matter related to your business.

Have a few strands been picked up and stuck back into the bale yet?  If you’re still trying to find that needle, click here for a tune that may help the searching go more pleasantly.

This blog is part of the Blogging A to Z challenge (this is H). Here's F and G.

Okay, I’ve got a Facebook Page…What now?

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Congrats! You’ve made a big step in the world of social media. But, oh dear. Don’t tell me you’ve started a Facebook Page without having a strategy. If that’s the case, do yourself a favor and delete it now. Harsh? Yes. But I’ve seen so many businesses wallowing out there, posting lots of spammy looking stuff and subsequently doing a great job of making themselves look BAD. Why would you do that? Perhaps some of these reasons sound like your rationale for starting a page:

•    Everyone else has a Facebook page so I have to have one too.
•    I’ll make sales. All I have to do is post my product or service.
•    I heard that other media forms are dying, like newspaper ads and direct mail.
•    It’s keeping up with the times.
•    It’s free.
•    I can get all my friends to like it, and I’ll have hundreds of people on there!

First of all, a Facebook page isn’t for everyone. It depends on a combination of factors, including what your industry is, if you’re B to C or B to B, where your audience is (or isn't) and how successful you’ve been with other media. For example, if you are a service provider and clients are coming in from your newspaper ad, and you’re turning people away, that may be enough, for now. But do revisit the thought down the road. Your clientele may be newspaper readers, and not Facebook frequenters.

Facebook pages are not about spamming the public with advertising by constantly posting hard selling come-ons on your page. If that’s your mindset, you will fail. This is social media, not hard hitting in the face, advertising. And yes, while some methods of reaching people are dying out, such as newspapers, it doesn’t mean they don’t work today for your target audience.

Myth: Facebook pages are free. That’s just not true! They require a lot of time. You can do it yourself, however, if you’re offering a service that bills at $200 an hour, is it worth taking the time to do those posts? Do you place ads in newspapers yourself? Probably not beyond making a phone call and writing a check. If you do go ahead with a Facebook page think about outsourcing so you can concentrate on your business at hand. And ramping up by growing fans rapidly via a Facebook ad will set you back a pretty penny. If you are a one person show and posting all day, what does that say about the amount of work you really do?

A Facebook business page is not about your friends; many of your friends, while interested in you, will not have much interest in the services or the products you offer. On a positive note, they may like your page, and, while they never participate there they may pass along your page to people they know that will have an interest. But do get yourself set up for rejection, and do not be offended when your friends “like” your page, then “unlike” it a couple of days later.

All the wrong reasons are posted above. Now, I don’t want to give away all my trade secrets, but I highly recommend conversing with someone who can help you determine the reasons why YOU should have a Facebook page, what the expectations are, the best way for you to go about it, content, how to handle conflict and negativity, how to project the essence of your brand, and I could go on.

Wish I didn’t have to say this: It’s not that simple. Strategy and Planning is the key. Winging it is not a substitute. Best to you!