Three Tips for Effective Social Media Marketing

 

Have you had this social media conversation?

During a coaching session with one of my clients, we did this little social media dance:

Client: Can you teach me about Snapchat? I read this article and they said I needed to be on there to grow my small business.

Me: Who is this ‘they’ you’re talking about? And why did they say NEED?

Client: It was a post I read in one of the blogs I follow from {undisclosed blogger name}. Well, maybe the blogger didn’t say the word NEED but that’s the way I read it. The post made me think that I need to be on there.

Me: I see. So you want me to teach you to add one more thing to your already packed schedule? We’re still working on growing your Facebook group and just today, we set up your account on Instagram. Does this THEY person understand your business? Or how you lose at least 3 hours of work every week to take your daughter to soccer practice?

Client: Guess not. It just sounded like Snapchat was the next big thing for small businesses and I better get on there before I lose business or securing my name or there was something else she said.

Me: You really don’t know why you should add this to your social media mix, right? {client nods} Let’s table Snapchat until we get everything else working and then we’ll see how right THEY were and if you should be on that network.

Did my coaching conversation sound familiar?

Have you had this exchange with someone or worse – by yourself? I wish that social media marketing folks would stop telling small business owners that they NEED to be active on every social program.

I can’t tell you how many people show up to my workshops with what I call Social Fears. They’re afraid that I’ll tell them that they need to set up six different profiles in six different social networks adding at least six more hours of managing their marketing every day.

Here is my simple solution to your Social Fear: Give yourself permission to say No.

Make the most of your social time

How do you make sure that you’re able to effectively manage your social media marketing?

Seriously, it’s not about signing up for a bunch of apps or filling out a book of worksheets. Working on your social media strategy is really no different than working on any other area of your business.

Try out these tips to help you be more effective with your time online:

1. Your Social Media MIT

For most of us, the first thing we work on is our list of MITs – your most important tasks that need to be done that day.

It could be completing a client project, preparing for and attending a meeting or sending an invoice. We all have a list of what we want to accomplish that day.

I want you to think about how you can do the same thing with your social media marketing and create a list of what I like to call ‘your social media MITs.’

At the top of this list should be the social program that brings your business the most return for your time. This is the program with the most traffic referrals to your website, your connections on this site shares the most of your content and most likely, this community will create most of the sales or conversions for your products or programs.

Think of this idea like the 80/20 rule in sales: 20% of your customer base drives 80% of your revenues and commissions.

When you make your social media MITs list for the week, use this list as your action plan to figure out where you’ll spend most of your time developing opportunities to engage with that 20% loyal fan base that delivers most of your traffic and hopefully, revenue for your business.

2. Make your social media to-do list

I’m a big fan of lists. It keeps me on task and I admit, I get a little feeling of pleasure from seeing all those things crossed off.

The next step towards effectively implementing your social media strategy is to take that list of social media MITs and setup a tracking sheet.

You can use an excel spread sheet, a pretty printable you found on Pinterest or an app like Evernote. Seriously, it doesn’t matter what you use, just find something that works for you that you’ll keep using.

I made mine as simple as possible. I created a note in an Evernote notebook and added in a basic table. In the first column, I listed all my social media MITs and then made empty boxes to the right of each MIT. Each box has enough room for me write notes in them.

I pull up my Evernote tracking chart when I’m working on my social media MIT for that day and I write down what tasks I did with the date. My notes may look like this: created 2 images for Pinterest to promote my workbook on August 15 or created my content plan for Instagram for the week on August 21.

The more you track what you’re doing, the more likely you are to keep doing it. You become accountable to yourself until the day comes when this action turns into a habit.

And the more you do something, the more efficient you become at this behavior. It’s just human nature – the more you perform the same repeated action, the easier it becomes and the quicker you’ll finish the task. Soon you’ll notice that you’re getting more done in a shorter amount of time so you can add new things on your list.

3. Give yourself permission to say No

I realize there are tons of posts and tips out there telling you that you have to be on this site or sign up over here to secure your business name. I know because I’ve read most of those blog posts too.

Social media is more than just setting up another profile. You have to show up regularly and participate.

It only works when you work it.

Seriously – who has time to be everywhere? Your time is valuable so be realistic about what you can add to your already overcrowded to-do list.

If your day is already crazy busy and the thought off adding ONE more social media thing overwhelms you, ask yourself this: If you don’t sign up for XYZ social network, what would happen tomorrow? I’m going to bet that the sun will still come up but your stress level won’t.

Think about it like this – if you had two focused hours every day for your social media marketing, what is the most important thing that you can be working on to grow your business?

Would it be creating content like writing blog posts and then sharing the links on your top social program? Or is that time better spent engaging with others, commenting in Facebook groups or other Instagram accounts who are your ideal customers?

Whatever your answer is, make sure that you use your time and energy for the social media MITs that bring you the highest return. I feel pretty confident in saying those high-return actions will do more for your business and they’re probably the ones you enjoy doing the most.

 

Looking for more ways to engage with customers online?

You want to reach more customer but you feel like this?

• I feel scattered when I’m coming up with content ideas for my social posts and I feel like I’m all over the place.
• This whole content process feels frustrating – I just want someone to pull this together for me, something that easily flows that I can follow every month.
• I feel unorganized when I’m trying to set up my social posts – this takes up so much time that I just end up posting whatever.

If you want to learn a process to get more organized with what you’re posting to your social sites, a process that let’s you know what to post and where to post it, then join us for the FREE Social Biz Builder Content Strategy Challenge.

Sign up below to get a content plan that stops the idea that ‘posting whatever’ is your social media strategy.

PLUS you’ll get a FREE download of The Guide to Getting More Done Workbook to help you create your own content planning process to get more done in less time.