« 5 Simple Ways to Prevent Social Media Activities from Becoming a Time Trap!

July 28, 2009

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Since our recent blog post, The 10 commandments of social media, many people have voiced opinions about the amount of time spent interacting on social networking websites and the lack of visible results on their efforts. There are a lot of misconceptions about social media. One thing for certain is there are definitely benefits to using social media campaigns and the results can easily be measured. Those who disagree simply lack the true understanding of how social media works. In other words, it is more than possible to grow your business using social media techniques. However, if you’re spending too much time, with very little results, you must rethink your strategy. Most people blindly embark into social media and the Internet without having a narrowed marketing focus or proper marketing plan. Here are some sure ways to avoid getting sucked into the dreaded social media time traps:

1. Only communicate with people in your target market. It can be easy to get distracted and communicate with all of your social networking followers (the person selling bikes, the relationship blogger, etc.). However, just as you would carefully target a radio or billboard campaign (by analyzing the demographics), you can use a similar targeting technique in social media. Do this by posting information that is relevant to your target market only. The other markets can simply be ignored. For example, when promoting on Twitter, try using applications such as www.twellow.com to locate followers in your target market and www.Tweetdeck.com to manage them. You can also conduct tests to ensure you have the right twitter followers by using www.twittersheep.com. Now, I’m not advocating pushing your sales pitch to your target market – just as I wouldn’t if you attended a local networking event. Use an informative approach. Show your target market who you are (your brand) by posting helpful and interesting information about you, your business and your industry.




2. Create a communication funnel. Most people get frustrated with social media because they view it as a never-ending process. With no end in sight, it can be difficult to anticipate a return on your invested time. The best way to track your social media ROI is to funnel – by way of a link – all of your communications back to a website or blog. Never give away all of your information or advice directly in the social media platform. Update your profile status with a brief summary, then link the summary back to your website or blog.





3. Put your social media tasks on autopilot. There are several 3rd party applications that will allow you to implement your social networking activities automatically and in advance. Simply conduct a Google search to locate hundreds of them. For example, Hootsuite is great for posting to multiple websites at once, such as twitter, facebook and others. The application allows you to update your status one time and then automatically publish it to a whole slew of other social networking websites. Or, perhaps you’d like to plan & implement your strategy for the entire week, or month. That’s easy too! TweetLater.com allows you to do just that. By using TweelLater.com you can schedule multiple posts to be released on a specific date and time.




4. Never attempt to “trick” your followers into doing anything. Don’t provide misleading titles or images. They won’t appreciate it, and ultimately you will have wasted valuable time in the process. People who feel tricked into going to your website or blog will never return, and will most likely remove you from their network. More importantly, they will never trust you enough to do business with your company.




5. Provide valuable information! There are some who will say, “Provide content, content, content.” I’m a non-believer of that advice. Content minus value equals junk. It is a time waster. Most social media websites are indexed by Google these days. So update quality content that your target market can search for on the Internet, well beyond the social network websites you posted to.

The obvious is unavoidable. Social media can open up new sources of revenue in global markets, and increase brand recognition, when properly implemented. More & more companies are eager to spend millions on Internet advertising because there is undeniable, and measurable, evidence that social media WORKS!

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