I always encourage new bloggers/social media-ites to follow a simple formula for social media success. Think of this as setting a solid foundation:
2 + 1 +2 + 1 = 6
Two ways to view these numbers: By the Calendar and By the Clock.
Let’s look in our social media toolbox and see what we need to get started, hmm?
- A Blog (2)
- A RSS Feed Aggregator (1)
- Twitter (2)
- At least one other Social Media/Network publishing tool (1)
By the Calendar
Week 1 & 2: Start with a blog for two weeks.
Get a feel for the software. Practice using eye rests. Begin reading
other blogs, noticing what you like and dislike.
Week 3: By the third week, you’re ready to
subscribing to blogs you like. Also begin subscribing for terms and
phrases important to your own content. This will allow you to comment
on other sites who are talking your talk. And the connections begin.
Week 4 & 5: How Tweet it will be. You’ve been
blogging (both reading and writing) for three weeks. You have a
foundation of thought others can refer to. Now it’s time to Twitter.
There’s a formula for this too — 70-20-10. Use a tool like HootSuite to schedule your resource Tweets
Week 6: Time to branch out with your creative
juices. Pick a medium you have a passion for (video, photos, drawing,
audio) and find a tool that you can both publish too AND use for your
blog posts. By doing this, you also make yourself findable in multiple
places.
By the Clock
Being disciplined by the clock is as important as the calendar –
maybe more so. Take 6 hours a week for your social media. Yes — 6
hours. You probably watch that much TV. Here’s the breakdown (probably
looks familiar):
- Blogging (2 hours each week MINIMUM)
- Reading RSS Feeds (1 hour each week MINIMUM)
- Twitter (2 Hours each week MINIMUM…think about it – an average of 20 minutes a day)
- Other social media tool (1 hour each week MINIMUM)
Miss the minimums and do pushups (I’m a coach not a consultant)
This post originally appeared in November 2008
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Find Your Social Media ROI
I hear it from a lot of business owners: “Where is the ROI with all this Social Media?“ If this is a question you ask yourself, maybe we should work together a bit more. We can work together solo, or via a professional learning community. Find and increase your ROI. There is a “there” there.
