Yes! Here’s 6 that I always end up repeating to clients. Enjoy and throw me some questions in the comments.
Pick one
Don’t try and do everything, and do all things badly. Pick one space, one service or one community and really work on it. The one you pick is not important, as long as you know your market uses it (do your research). Being everywhere on-line is something big companies can do (not necessarily well, though), but without budget and manpower even experts struggle. Focusing always works.
Develop a routine
Allocate some time in your day to check Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, Facebook, Google+ or whatever else you deem important for your business. Everyone that invests time into social networking and content creation gets the rewards. Everyone I meet who says social media hasn’t done anything for them, hasn’t committed to the act long-term. The best shortcut I can give is to invest in longevity and commitment (Oxymoron?). Digital people are real people, and you invest in real people everyday, don’t you? Brush your teeth everyday for that social media shine!
Start with a bang!
With a blog, you’ve got the running shoes, the weather, the blocks and you’re poised to sprint down the track. Without a handful of great blog posts behind you, you might as well do the race blindfolded. Many people will set you up with a blog, but very few will tell you what to write or even how to do it beyond some button pressing! Find an expert, ask about their successes and discover if the same can be done for you. It’s much better than thinking you can do it alone and getting it wrong from day one. Once you’ve got the gist of it, fire the consultant asap and get on with it yourself – why let them have all the fun!?
Talk to people
Not on-line, but in real life. Tell them you’re exploring what has worked for people. Ask about people’s best blog posts, most engaging tweets, and most shared content. Don’t worry about what they did exactly, but look for how they did it. Can you apply it to your industry? Take one point from the conversation, flip it to your situation and try it out quickly. Social media generally responds fast, so if you haven’t had a reaction in 24 hrs, its probably not good enough, so tweak it and try again. Perhaps try something else completely, or get feedback from an expert. Learn from your network, but you’ll have to start the conversation, if it isn’t there already! If you belong to a networking group, suggest a topic for the meeting, ‘What’s your biggest social media success?’ Take your Dictaphone and record the whole conversation!
Go where the people are
One of my golden rules for behaviour. Don’t spend all the time, re-reading your own content and thinking that it needs changing and tweaking to ‘be better’. The truth is the content is probably fine, what you need to do is to go to a busy place and make an impact. That could be guest blogging on someone else’s website, or contributing to a LinkedIn group, or sharing some pictures on a really active Flickr group. It’s the equivalent of walking down the high street with a placard around your neck, you’ve just got to pick the right street in the right town and do something which really connects with people instead of thinking you’re connecting. I’m pretty certain that unless your website stats are through the roof, you should be somewhere else on-line other than your own profile.
Ignore the competition
I’m sure you’ve heard this a thousand times, so why are you monitoring others? You were an innovator when you started your business, and you need to keep innovating to retain and lead the business. Don’t look at what Nike are doing and think that applies to you because you’re also in the shoe business. Similarly, if you’re in the professional services game, don’t look at another business consultant website and feel pressured to do the same. They might have a different objective, budget, manpower and target market. Running a competition will work for a company with thousands of active community participants, but it won’t do much for your 70 friends on Facebook (unless your prize is incredible, not good, but incredible!). If you really want to compare efforts, look at anyone else that’s also starting out like you, but with the same manpower and budget – then see point 3 and talk to them about it! I’m certain they’ll be glad to have a friendly ear who has noticed their efforts.
That’s enough from me. I’m sure I’ve given you plenty to think about here.
All the best – Mark.