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Dear Moxie Maven:
Is there anything that I should be doing this year that I didn't do last year when it comes to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter?
— Rinse & Repeat
Dear Rinse & Repeat:
For most people the answer to this question is very simple, do more of what you did this year, just turn up the volume on your participation and you will reap more benefits.
In the end the real question cannot be answered until you have identified your objectives for the year. Your objectives should drive your social media plan, and yes you should have a social media plan.
For a moment, imagine if you have been updating to Facebook every so often, you don't even have a Twitter account, and LinkedIn you visit about three times a year just to see if the site is changed. This type of approach to social media is not producing many benefits to you, or even worse it has you thinking about quitting entirely. When you don't have objectives and measurable results, it will inevitably end in a lackluster, haphazard approach to your social media.
So what are some good objectives for 2010 in your social media plan?
If you are retail store, a possible objective would be to get customers to know more about your products, maybe even involve them in identifying unique ways of using your product. Maybe you sell socks and you didn't know that a large portion of your customer base is using your socks as golf club covers. Who knew, right? Well, if your objective is to uncover all the unique and unusual uses for your product, you would know and all your other customers, and you would sell more socks!
If you are a service provider, a possible objective would be to keep up with your current client base. One of my clients is a hairdresser that knows the value of connecting with her clients. As a person that will have six to eight weeks between appointments with a client, this hairdresser has the objective of keeping up with that client in between visits. It has means a closer relationship with her clients and her clients know that she really cares about them.
What if you don't fit into either one those categories, maybe you are highly restricted in what you can say in any marketing endeavors, such as financial planning or insurance. In the end, your objective would be to treat the social media space as one big networking event. It is all about connecting with people, learning what they need, and solving problems. This takes time, just like any good networking a relationship is not built at the first handshake.
As you can see, there are many different approaches to the objective you need to create for yourself before you can answer the question of what you should be doing in social media. Yet, I can still go back to the very first statement and say that you probably need to do more. If you are getting on your social media sites once a month, try to increase that to once a week. If you find that you are actually making it there once a week, try to increase that to three times a week. Just look at what you are doing and find ways to build in more of what you are doing.
In the end, it is like showing up consistently to a networking event. Eventually people come to expect you, miss you when you are gone, and people will become so familiar with what you do that you will become the expert in your industry that everyone will turn to when there are questions. It happens in person and it happens online, but it can't happen if you don't treat your social media networking as seriously as you treat the chamber events, and all your other networking groups.
Jennifer Kettlewell lives in Grand Junction and is known as the Moxie Maven. She is the creator of the Moxie Mafia system. As a mother of four she understands that time is precious, and when it comes to running a business there is no spare moments to do anything, let alone play online. The Moxie Mafia system is a social media training program designed to teach at your pace. Visit www.themoxiemaven.com for more information.
Dear Moxie Maven:
Is there anything that I should be doing this year that I didn't do last year when it comes to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter?
— Rinse & Repeat
Dear Rinse & Repeat:
For most people the answer to this question is very simple, do more of what you did this year, just turn up the volume on your participation and you will reap more benefits.
In the end the real question cannot be answered until you have identified your objectives for the year. Your objectives should drive your social media plan, and yes you should have a social media plan.
For a moment, imagine if you have been updating to Facebook every so often, you don't even have a Twitter account, and LinkedIn you visit about three times a year just to see if the site is changed. This type of approach to social media is not producing many benefits to you, or even worse it has you thinking about quitting entirely. When you don't have objectives and measurable results, it will inevitably end in a lackluster, haphazard approach to your social media.
So what are some good objectives for 2010 in your social media plan?
If you are retail store, a possible objective would be to get customers to know more about your products, maybe even involve them in identifying unique ways of using your product. Maybe you sell socks and you didn't know that a large portion of your customer base is using your socks as golf club covers. Who knew, right? Well, if your objective is to uncover all the unique and unusual uses for your product, you would know and all your other customers, and you would sell more socks!
If you are a service provider, a possible objective would be to keep up with your current client base. One of my clients is a hairdresser that knows the value of connecting with her clients. As a person that will have six to eight weeks between appointments with a client, this hairdresser has the objective of keeping up with that client in between visits. It has means a closer relationship with her clients and her clients know that she really cares about them.
What if you don't fit into either one those categories, maybe you are highly restricted in what you can say in any marketing endeavors, such as financial planning or insurance. In the end, your objective would be to treat the social media space as one big networking event. It is all about connecting with people, learning what they need, and solving problems. This takes time, just like any good networking a relationship is not built at the first handshake.
As you can see, there are many different approaches to the objective you need to create for yourself before you can answer the question of what you should be doing in social media. Yet, I can still go back to the very first statement and say that you probably need to do more. If you are getting on your social media sites once a month, try to increase that to once a week. If you find that you are actually making it there once a week, try to increase that to three times a week. Just look at what you are doing and find ways to build in more of what you are doing.
In the end, it is like showing up consistently to a networking event. Eventually people come to expect you, miss you when you are gone, and people will become so familiar with what you do that you will become the expert in your industry that everyone will turn to when there are questions. It happens in person and it happens online, but it can't happen if you don't treat your social media networking as seriously as you treat the chamber events, and all your other networking groups.
Jennifer Kettlewell lives in Grand Junction and is known as the Moxie Maven. She is the creator of the Moxie Mafia system. As a mother of four she understands that time is precious, and when it comes to running a business there is no spare moments to do anything, let alone play online. The Moxie Mafia system is a social media training program designed to teach at your pace. Visit www.themoxiemaven.com for more information.
