I honestly can’t remember not using social media in one way or another to forge relationships, build brand awareness or create sales prospects. I recall using sites such as Hi5, Bebo and MySpace long before the rise of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the new kids on the block.
That said, LinkedIn has probably been around for one of the longest times but took a long time to build traction. If used correctly, LinkedIn can be one of the most powerful weapons within your digital arsenal.
But where do you start? You have sites like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, MeerKat, Periscope, YouTube, SnapChat, Medium etc. The list goes on and on and grows pretty much weekly.
And then you face the problem of, what do you share? Is it your food? Is it sales messages, do you check in to every location you visit?
And just when you have all the above in order, the next question is how often should you post? Is it each day? A few times a week, several times a day…
And finally, how do you decide if this social media is working?
Sounds like a lot to manage, and that’s before I have even considered the time it will take to publish these posts, and then engage with the others…
The biggest problem you will face here is not any of the above, it’s the time it will take to manage these accounts, or even which ones to use.
The biggest challenge you will face is not getting started sooner!
What social media allows you to do is be everywhere, all at the same time. Social media allows you to come out of obscurity to people, to become more visible.
I remember back to my estate agent days when I would bump into friends and get chatting about how things are doing. Only to find out that they have just put their house on the market, but with another agent and not me. BECAUSE THEY FORGOT THAT I WAS AN ESATET AGENT!!!
It wasn’t that they didn’t want to use my service, it was because I was obscure to them. Social media has changed this.
SOCIAL MEDIA ALLOWS YOU TO DOMINATE SPACE!
So here’s my top 6 tips to getting out of obscurity, and dominating social media.
1. GET A PLAN.
Without a strategy, you have no hope. But most people are so eager to get started with social media, they don’t spend the necessary time planning what they want to achieve when using it.
The most important rule of using social media is getting your strategy nailed, who will you target, where will you target them, how will you measure the results, what are the results. Anyone who is serious about using social media to crush the digital playground MUST have a social media strategy, otherwise, you will walk away from it 6 months later saying it doesn’t work.
2. SIGN UP FOR A MANAGEMENT PLATFORM
You can find social media management platforms everywhere now, you have ones such as BufferApp, Hootsuite, Falcon, SproutSocial, ZohoSocial. The list goes on, but be sure to get one as early as possible.
Personally, I recommend SproutSocial, Hootsuite & Zoho Social. They save you massive amounts of time and make using multiple social media accounts a breeze.
3. PROMOTE THE SITES EVERYWHERE
You need to spend time working on building your follows and fans, so need to be shameless in promoting which sites you use. Add the icons to your website, business card, email signature, marketing material, Voicemail, smartphone signatures.
If you have an email list, send out a campaign designed at building fans, share the sites you use with that list, and actively encourage them to like, follow the sites you use. Every person you meet, ask them to join you on your social channels.
4. OVERLOAD THE CONTENT
This may sound very spam-like, but you need to be consistent. So you MUST share massive amounts of content on a daily basis, I like to work on a mix of 80/20. 80% of the content you share is value driven information, things like the latest news about your sector, really insightful stuff.
20% of the content needs to be sales orientated, after all, you want to get sales. Don’t be afraid of pushing sales messages; just don’t push sales messages only!
5. CURATE ALMOST EVERYTHING
I see so many people spend time building a social audience to then send them to other peoples content. What I mean here is, you see an interesting article on a popular news site, then share the link to that site. What you need to do is lift that information, add it to your own blog and give citation back to its original source. This way when you share the link, your sharing the link to your website/blog, not someone else’s.
6. GET A PLAN
I know I said this already, but all of the above is pretty much a waste of time without one, so its imperative that you get a strategy nailed before you even start using social media. Have fun using social media, make it enjoyable and build amazing relationships!
I actually met my soon to be wife on Twitter! Awesome, I know!!!