Social media marketing has revolutionised the way businesses interact with their customers.
In the good old days, new clients were found through cold calling, leaflet drops and word of mouth.
Today, you can use Twitter, blogs, Facebook, Google Wave and all manner of Web 2 properties to engage with your audience and win new customers. But all that social media activity can take over your time if you let it.
One of the biggest reasons some businesses don’t use social media is time. Granted, if you’re not organised you can waste an inordinate amount of time Tweeting and blogging. But, if you are disciplined, you can gain great results.
Make social media work for you
If you want to get the best out of social media, you must be strict with yourself and follow these simple rules.
1. It’s not your full time job
It is true that for social media to be effective you must do it regularly. This is because it is all about building relationships with people. The more you talk and engage with them, the more they will grow to trust you. But, never lose sight of the fact that this isn’t your full time job.
Social media is an enhancement to your marketing arsenal. Build it into your weekly work schedule and set aside a specific time for it. Getting into a routine like that will help you keep it under control.
2. Set a time limit
The most addictive and time consuming of all social media is Twitter. It is very easy to trawl through your followers’ tweets – and once you get engrossed in the stream, you may never find your way out again.
If you are going to tweet, make sure you specify a certain amount of time to it and don’t go over it. You can also automate tweets or funnel your blog RSS feed into your Twitter account so you are contributing to the Twitter world without actually being there.
3. Set goals
If you are going to utilise social media as a marketing tool, you must ensure you have specific goals in mind. If you know what you want to get out of it, you’re more likely to achieve results and you will be more likely to use it in a constructive way.
Every blog post and article that you write should have a purpose. They will be used to attract a certain audience, increase traffic to your website or boost your exposure as an expert in your field.
4. Prioritise
The key thing to remember is that your social media activities are secondary. Your primary aims should be your daily work. Therefore as a freelance copywriter my primary aim is to complete the website copywriting project,, brochure, case study or email for my client. Social media is my secondary objective so only when my primary goals have been completed do I make time for blogging, article writing and Twitter.
When using social media marketing always keep an eye on your results. Much of what you do will be measurable so make sure you check the effectiveness of all that you do.
The main thing is that you enjoy social media – it’s about engaging with people, talking to them and sharing information. It is the perfect way to display the human side of your business.
5 comments ↓
Great Article Again!
I agree, while they can be a great tool, social networks can eat up a huge amount of your time. Many people get distracted by it.
They key is to give that much time which you can handle and complete your other tasks. Balance is always better than extravagance.
In terms of Twitter, the easiest way to lose hours on there is by using something like Tweet Deck. For your own sanity, don’t install it – it’s a slippery slope!
And if you do use the likes of Tweet Deck, I’ve found it better to set very strict time limits – ie. 10 minutes at the start and end of each work day, or 10 minutes before and after every copywriting job is complete. So long as it’s rigidly defined and you’ve got some self discipline, things should be OK.
@Neil
Oh Ok. Thanks for advising about Tweet Deck.
A blog recently recommended Tweet Deck, and said that ‘Twitter is nothing without it’, and so I downloaded it.
But the tweets keep popping up on my screen every time someone tweets!
I hate to think how many hours of my life have gone to social media!
Love your article, preparation is the best way to tackle the time stealing theif that is social media!
Another great post, and glad someone’s pointing out that too much social media can be a bad thing! Personally I know that Twitter et al can and do eat into my day if I’m not careful, so I tend to set a strict work/reward structure. Either something like for every project finished I take an hour off, or for every hour worked I take 10 minutes to potter about online. So far so good. Keep up the good writing!
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