Chances are slim that you can simply grab a Twitter account, setup a Facebook page and spend every day tweeting out randomness and see results unless there is a method to your social madness.
At the same time, you need to go with the flow. You may set aside 30 minutes in an afternoon to “be social,” yet you may find that your community of followers and fans are busy doing other things.
So what is a social tweeting, Facebooking, Googling, Pinteresting, Linking addict to do? How do you know when to tweet, blog, pin, post, talk, chat or turn off all of the above and hang with your in real life friends and family?
1. There is only one way to do social media and that is the way that works for YOU and your business. . Only you know your objectives, goals, audience, and what it is going to take to inspire and connect with your community. On some days your community may need information that educates. Other days they may need friendship, advice or advocacy. The key is to know your community, get in their head and connect with them!
2. Have a plan. The only way to social sanity combined with results is to establish a solid plan which integrates with your business. It must include goals, objectives, a plan to inspire and engage your audience, conversion funnels, content plans and more.
3. Know your community. Know your audience of partners, clients, prospects, evangelists, friends and colleagues. Get in their heads. What do they want to know, do, hear, talk about? How can you help them meet their business goals? How can you bring value to their life? The better you know your audience and community the easier you can connect with them with less time spent. When you know them then there can be benefits to even a short five or ten minute session on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn!
4. Don’t over think everything. If you spend too much time over thinking everything you do and every minute you spend in social media you could be wasting what little time you have to actually engage and be social.
5. The heart of social media is people. At the heart of social media are people. People that laugh, tweet, post, sing, post tweets, share good, share bad and are looking for real people to do all of the above with. Take time to embrace the people, their minds and hearts. You can never go wrong investing in real people.
6. Have your ears open more than your fingers typin’! Listen more than you talk. Join a tweet chat use a social media listening tool, logon to Twitter or Facebook for 30 minutes and say nothin’ at least one a week!