The shifting of social media strategy and outlets–the game will never stop changing. The second you might think you have an inkling of how to do something new questions arise. Do I pay for sponsored posts on Facebook?
Do you schedule tweets? How do you keep up with everything that is going out there?
The questions will never stop and the strategy will always evolve.
Here’s what I believe you can do to ensure that your time spent on social media marketing, whether it be from a personal branding strategy or if you work on a team developing a strategy for a business, will be worth it regardless of the ever spinning dizziness of a 24/7 social world.
1) Use it to find new people that you previously couldn’t and see what value they are offering. Learn from them and perhaps if the situation calls for it build a real life relationship with them. A human relationship not a “bot” relationship.
2) Embrace the changes. Know they are coming…but also know that being a human, telling a story, helping others, and having original content with a call to action and true point will win out in the end. Just have the mindset that it won’t always be perfect but if you know that going in you can find wins.
3) Speaking of wins. Small wins. Small wins. Small wins. As of this moment in time I have 418 Facebook Likes and 1,583 Twitter Followers. (This is not a pat yourself on the back hype sentence, just using myself as a real life case study.)
But while having a very small group compared to other larger marketers, celebrities, businesses, and even spam accounts I have received wonderful comments, emails, letters, and notes from people who have thanked me for the content I provide and how much it has helped them.
Those may seem miniscule to the naked eye but those small wins are huge. Take solace in them and love those small wins. That’s why you are doing what you do in the first place.
I wouldn’t trade for 2,000 Facebook likes and 4,000 twitter followers for just one less of those people I was able to help.
It has nothing to do with how many you have following but how many you can truly help.
4) Let your true personality (whether it is you or the personality of your business) shine through. Being funny and laughing is okay. People don’t come to Facebook to read all about what our consulting prices are or how much below MSRP the recent 2014 car arrivals are. They come there to learn about you and how you do business. Then and only then may they consider finding out those prices.
Bob Burg (his new book Tuning Adversaries into Allies is a salesperson’s must read) is a true expert and mentor in my world. He said in his book Endless Referrals “People do business with people they know, like, and trust.” I know I do. I know most of my family, friends, and clients do.
Build your social media strategy around that framework. Not around how many posts per day should we do or does it make sense to put our TV ad on our LinkedIn page? (Hint: No it doesn’t.)
5) It’s a marathon not a sprint. Only there is no finish line. It’s more about the stops along the race and the impact you can make at those stops.
6) Sometimes if we don’t know what we want to tell people on social media we blame social media. We should probably look in the mirror first and figure out if our story or message is really all that important and if it isn’t how can we make it so.
In closing…
We are going to miss Facebook posts others put up that are very valuable. We will lose followers on twitter. Have people say mean things to us on Instagram or not want to connect with us on Google +.
Don’t take it personally…you can’t. Do your thing…let what you are trying to provide, serve, help, promote, etc shine through in your social media strategy. And do the same thing for others you enjoy and it will all work out. It always does.
Questions or thoughts on developing some of these, I’d be happy to help you just reach out [email protected].
Thanks for reading everyone, have a wonderful day.
Carpe Diem!
Mike
–Mike Rudd is a Sports Marketing Specialist, Author, Speaker, and Hot Dog Extraordinaire! His blog, speaking info, and podcasts can be found at www.marketingfunwithmike.com and his books “Hot Dogs, A Little Marketing, and A Lot of Fun” and “When can I KETCHUP and find my Hot Dog Stand?” can be found on Amazon.
