7 Steps to Streamline Social Media Marketing
“Don’t add social media when you can’t handle the load. You’ll end up resenting it and not getting its benefits.”
Lena West of xynoMedia explained this rule and more in late September to attendees of her hour-long online presentation.
Her expert guidance was invaluable, but I didn’t listen. I soon found myself in social media’s grip, overwhelmed by my attempt to fit it into my marketing programs.
Social media became too much for me to handle. I didn’t remove it from my business life, but I did slow down and begin focusing on the areas that I could control rather than have it control me.
Are you also tangled in social media’s web? If so, here are seven ways I stopped the madness before banishing these communications’ tools from my marketing plan.
1. Choose one program to post simultaneously to all sites. I linked my social media accounts within Ping.fm. With one posting, all of my followers know what’s happening with my business. Other programs are beginning to make this one-stop updating available, but for now I’ll stay with what’s familiar.
2. Edit the number of monitored topics. Signing up with SocialOomph to receive Twitter keyword updates as well as receiving Google and Yahoo! alerts was easy, but I soon found that the topics I chose were too broad. A quick fix now delivers shorter alerts that I check at day’s end.
3. Decrease the quantity of fan pages you operate and follow. A friend recently suggested that I create a Facebook fan page on a topic I blog about. While I appreciated her idea, I soon deleted the page, as I currently operate two groups and refuse to monitor more. It’s simply too much work.
In addition, I don’t agree to join every suggested fan page. While the reasons are admirable, the requests associated with each page arrive often and don’t add value to my overall agenda.
4. Change Email notifications to weekly rather than daily. This edit is especially true if you’re on LinkedIn, where group updates can arrive on an hourly basis. I find myself wasting lots of time deleting these Emails.
5. Review blog updates through one program. I chose Bloglines several years ago as a blog aggregator, and it still makes reviewing posts easy for me.
6. Realize that every new device is not for you. How many times do you read a tweet about new social media methods and programs? It’s all admirable, but ask yourself what is your true focus - following or leading?
Try to decrease your curiosity and not check out a program each time something new comes to market. If it’s worth your time, a blog you follow will report its benefits.
7. Check who’s following you once a week, not individually. While I appreciate learning about new social media followers, there’s no way I’m spending 30 minutes every day to decide if I’ll reciprocate. I check followers once weekly through FriendorFollow.com to see if our agendas match.
There are lots of social media people and programs vying for your time. You can choose to be distracted or stay on course. After spending several days wondering why dinnertime came so soon, I carefully reviewed Lena’s suggestions, monitored my activities, and changed gears. Now I’m on track.
How are you making sure that social media is truly valuable to your agenda?
Related posts that support your marketing:
- Why All Social Media May Not Be Right For You
- How to Encourage Customers to Follow Your Social Media Links
- Do Competitors Market Themselves on Your Facebook Page?
- Can a Solo Business Market through Twitter?
- Here’s How the Media Helps You Market
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Comments
We marketers do tend to investigate every program that comes our way. It’s part of our programming.
Checking all marketing sources that we learn about is where the overflow begins, so we can also program ourselves to be discerning by staying focused on our goals and setting aside a specific amount of time for research.
Time is very precious, so it’s very important to treat social media as a slice of the marketing pie, not all of it.
I thought that I really had a handle on our social media strategy but reading your post has made me realize that I may need to tweak it a bit. I’m still not convinced that Facebook is an appropriate place to market a business,so thank you for mentioning your feelings about having a fan page.
Frank,
It seems that social media marketing will always be under construction in every business, so tweaking is definitely an ongoing project.
To make matters more complicated, Facebook offers group AND fan pages. One post on the Search Engine Journal blog that clearly explains the difference is here:
Likde Flora guilty>>>>>>
I agree I need a smarter strategy, but I believe it is also about KNOW Like & Trust and I believe you need to be int he trenches as they say to build KLT. you can’t do it just with automation as per social oomph etc. i do believe they have a place
i need to rethink how I use SMie
Thanks for making me think
Hugs
Suzie
Hi Suzie,
Know, Like, and Trust are required in the social media world, for sure.
This concept is what’s aided me in focusing on who I follow and how I spend my social media time.
I’m glad this post has you thinking about this topic and know that your decisions will move you positively forward.
I had to chuckle as I read this post because I’m guilty of so many of the things you shouldn’t do. Fortunately, I hit a wall and had to back up to reevaluate my social media escapades.
One day not long ago I went through a baptism of fire. I stopped following everyone on Twitter for a moment. Then I gradually add just a few who I REALLY wanted to follow for the info and leads they share. I feel pounds lighter.
You’re absolutely right that we must realize that every device and app is not for me. It took hitting “overwhelm” for me to fully realize that.
I’m still prone to go chasing after the latest new shiny thing when I first learn of it, but now I’m hesitant about signing on with anything new unless I can see a huge benefit and addition to my marketing plan.
Likewise, I’m ready to delete, unsubscribe and unjoin anything that is no longer serving me.