Are you one of the many business people out there who says “Social Media just takes up too much time!”?
It’s ok, you are not alone. And, even better? YOU can change this misconception and make Social Media work for you without spending a lot of time on it.
Even if you know about Social Media, you may not be sure about all of the different platforms that are out there and you may not know the one secret to making them work for you.
But now you do!
The big secret to making Social Media work for your business right now is…Having a Plan.
Yes, it really is that simple.
One of the easiest ways to get lost in the time warp that is Social Media is to post something without a plan. If you don’t know what to say on Social Media you will start reading the posts of others to “get an idea”. Then, you begin commenting on those posts, sharing their content, etc. Right?
Before you know it, an hour has slipped by and you have accomplished nothing more than sharing some cat pictures with funny captions, reading strange news stories and catching up on what your friend had for dinner last night.
If you create a plan for what you want to share you can be strategic about using social media to grow your business and make great connections. You can still engage with people, but you will also ensure that you have shared your message.
Ideally, you should have three objectives when spending time on social media: be helpful, drive people to your website, and build your list.
Here are a few easy steps to help you PLAN your Social Media content and save tons of time:
1. Know your audience and what they want – There is a reason these people are connecting with you and that is the exact thing that will cause them to share what you are posting, tweeting, blogging, etc. Review what has worked well for you in the past – which posts got a lot of comments, what tweets were retweeted – and use that as your starting point to create new content.
2. Get some backup – Find a few places you can source content from. Note, I said source, not steal. Keep a couple of blogs and sites that post some great content that resonates with your audience bookmarked. Use them to get ideas for your own posts or even to share with your audience what they’ve posted, giving them the proper credit of course. Don’t know where to start? Make a list of topics that your audience would be interested in and then set up Google Alerts for those keywords.
3. Decide how your audience will access your content – Some of it, like blog posts, may be easily found via your website. Other items should be considered premium content and you should ask for an email address in order to access that content. These would be things like eBooks, free resources etc. In order to grow your list, you must have a good mix of completely free and opt-in content.
5. Choose the Social Platforms that will work best for you. – Don’t try to do every single Social Network right away. Focus on just one to get started and make sure it’s the right one. You want to be sure that this is the place to reach your audience and grow your business. As I said in this Shop Talk video on Maximizing Your Social Media Presence and Saving Time, you do not need to be everywhere at once.
Creating great content is just one part of building a business. Using social media to share your content so people know about it is critical to your success because, if you create content that other people think is great they want to share it too.
