How to stay focused with the Social Networking Explosion
Social Networking has become the new Vogue, if you don’t have a Linkedin Profile or a Twitter account it’s time to step out of the dark ages! But how do all of these new ways of networking and staying connected affect our core business and how can we stay focused with the enormous amount of distraction we are faced with daily?
Last Night I attended a Dublin City Enterprise Board Networking event at the Mont Clare Hotel where Fred Caballero from Channelship .ie spoke about social media networking. Although Fred delivered a very interesting and informative talk he didn’t linger too long on the subject raised of how much time should we spend on our online campaigns and how do we avoid getting distracted by these new methods of communication.
Fred suggested that we spend 30 to 40 mins a day on Twitter, Linkedin or other social networking site to keep our pages and profiles updated. I think we must be very careful to ensure that if we invest this time into social networking that it is going to add value to our business. There is no doubt that there is value in social networking but I would argue that not all businesses will benefit from all these methods and it is certainly not of value if it is distracting us from the work that needs to get done. Which brings us to the question that appears to be of greatest concern to most people starting out……
How do I maintain all of these sites without it distracting me from my core work?
I saw a very good movie clip from the movie “He’s just not that into you” where Drew Barrymore is complaining to her friend about a guy who left her a voicemail at work and so she called his house phone and he emailed her blackberry and she texted to his cell and he emailed her home account….She explained how now she has to check all of the different portals to get rejected by 7 different technologies!
So right from the start we want to avoid becoming overwhelmed with all the distractions and not spend our working days checking and replying to inmail, tweets and emails.
What can we do?
Here are 5 simple tips to stay focused with your online marketing strategy
1. Evaluate the different social media platforms. The most popular ones currently in Ireland are Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and Blogging. Decide which ones are going to be of most value to you and your business. Ask yourself where are you customers? If you are unsure which one will work for you go get advice from colleagues or friends and find out what they are doing. Alternatively look online and see which ones your competitors are using.
2. Focus on one tool and nurture it before moving on to setting up the next account.
3. Schedule time daily to check for messages and to work on your profile etc. If you do not have time to allocate daily to these platforms that is ok but then chose the slower means of connecting like linkedin or facebook, In my opinion twitter requires more regular updates to stay connected.
4. Be selective with your notifications. All of these accounts have an area where you can chose to receive notifications of messages etc to your phone or email. Turn off as many notifications as possible and only check at your allocated time during the day. You may want to do this once in morning and once in the evening or a time that suits you and your business. Remember you do not have to respond instantly to a message, if something is urgent we have phones!
5. Track the time spent, take a note of how much time you are spending daily or weekly on your social media network and see if this time input is converting. Like any strategy you can start by asking yourself
a. What do I want to achieve from social media networking?
b. Am I achieving it with my current strategy?
c. If not Readjust strategy and try a different tactic.
And don’t forget the most important lesson of all – ENJOY IT !
Good Luck