Five Tips to Create Social Media Success in 15 Minutes a Day
Creating and maintaining an effective social media presence doesn’t need to be a labor-intensive time trap. When you know what your goals are and why, the “how” becomes simple. Here are my top 5 tips to creating social media success in 15 minutes a day:
1. What do you want from your social media presence? Many people in my classes say that they want to educate readers, build visibility and credibility, become known as “the expert”, etc. While this is great, isn’t your real purpose to gain new clients/customers and make more money? It’s important you recognize what you want your end result to be because if you don’t, you won’t position yourself in a way that helps you achieve your goals.
2. Who is your target market? Identify the top 5 clients or customers you would clone if you could. What similarities do they share? Why do you like working with them? What problems do they have? What solutions do you provide? How do they benefit?
3. Now that you know who your target market is, how do you find them?
- First, look for groups of people who have the same background, interests, etc., as you do. If you graduated from a college, you should have received an inquiry when filling out your profile, asking if you would like to find and connect with anyone with the same info. Do it!
- What other organizaitons do you belong to? Toastmasters? BNI? Rotary? ABWA? Search for online groups and join.
- What organizations, groups, colleges, or industries does your target market(s) belong to? Identify at least one group in each category and join. I look at the number of members and how recent and how often there are group updates when determing which group to choose. I want to be in an “active” group. If you join a group and it’s not what you thought, just click on “leave group. It’s that easy!
4. Read the group discussions and comments. Get a feel for how the conversaitons flow, what seems to be acceptable, and make appropriate comments. The more you share helpful tips, ideas, etc., the sooner others will respect what you say. How can you help? This is about building credibility - it’s NOT PITCHING your product. However, you can share short stories of your clients or customers, what their problem was, the solution you provided, and the end result for them. We relate to stories. Stories sell.
5. Connect with all the people you know. It doesn’t matter how you know them: high school, previous employment, social activities, past clients/customers, etc. You are already at the visibility, credibility, or profitability stage with some of these people, so use social media to renew these friendships and associations. Connect with them, read what they post, and make appropriate and sincere comments.
Social networking isn’t about how many people you are connected to, it’s about how deep your connections with these people are. People do business with people they like, know, and trust. You CAN build meaningful relationships in 15 minutes a day when you show sincere interest in others and offer helpful tips, ideas, suggestions, and yes, products and services.
Tags: Marketing, social media, target market, web 2.0