Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIN, Twitter, Google Plus… Social Media is here to stay and professionals continue to feel the pressure to play on every channel.
For some, it can be so overwhelming that they opt out of social media altogether, losing a great opportunity to connect with prospects and customers.
Or, they go to the other extreme and spread their efforts too thin across multiple channels to truly be effective.
There’s good news, though. Like most things – the best social networking results come when you practice in moderation and strive for quality over quantity.
As we prepare for our next Coffee with Kendra webinar “3 Steps to Your Personal Social Media Strategy”here are three tips to expand your social media sphere, make it work for you and even enjoy it. Master these easily executable tasks that cause people the most stress and you are on your way to social media success.
1. You can’t pick your family, but you CAN pick your social media channel
Pick your channel and really be there. If you can’t spend eight hours a day (who can?) toggling between the big four – Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest – then pick one channel that makes the most sense for what you are trying to accomplish, and really engage.
At the very least, invest in LinkedIn – it will connect you to other professionals and decision makers. Twitter may seem daunting and time consuming, but with a strategy it’s actually quite manageable. It’s perfect for reaching a broad number of people, even outside your followers, and starting conversations. And Facebook and Pinterest are still good options if you can produce content that is visually interesting.
Whichever platform you choose, own it like you own your favorite sweater or coffee mug. Enjoy it, love it and make it part of your daily routine.
2. Say “I do” to social
Now that you’ve decided the where, let’s move onto the how.
In one word – engagement.
The first step to engagement is to assess your profile.
Make your profile as complete as possible. Follow the channel’s provided prompts to fill in your professional information. And don’t forget to include an interesting, yet appropriate, profile photo.
Once you’re all set up and ready to begin engaging, split your dedicated social media time in half. Spend 50% of your time creating, finding and posting your content and 50% or more engaging with your network.
3. Help Wanted: A social manager to handle it all
Each day, carve out time to manage your channel and strive to engage in real time. Sometimes it’s not always possible when you’re in the middle of a busy work day. For that there are many helpful tools out there to build efficiencies into your schedule, managing and organizing your interactions in personalized ways.
Think about utilizing a dashboard system. They can pull in all your accounts and manage them from one location. They can help schedule your engagement and the best part: most offer free subscriptions.
But what you really want is your own personal engagement strategy that will attract prospects and connections to you in a way that works best for you. Find out what your social engagement strategy should be and how to create more conversations with prospects in your network. Register for our next free Coffee with Kendra “3 Steps to Your Personal Social Media Strategy” on May 16th from 1:00-2:00 ET.