We all have certain things that we do everyday. We get up, brush our teeth, get ready for work, make the kids breakfast, have our coffee and start our day without really taking any notice of it. It is our daily routine.
As with life, business also has its own set of routines. For example, when doing marketing and sales there are certain things that we must do at certain times. This is no different for the wonderful world of social media marketing. To keep me and my team on point, there are two mantras that we repeat each day. I wanted to share them with you because I truly believe they can not only help you keep you in line, but also keep you on message.
Mantra #1:
I Will Listen, Watch and Monitor the Activity Before I Join the Discussion
The mistake many of us make is that we don’t listen before we leap. Our gut instinct is to stick to the same communication style as our email blasts, corporate website or to “business speak.”
I’m not saying its a bad way to go, my point is that if you are going to talk that way then you better make make sure everyone else is speaking your language.
Go onto sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook and look around. Go into the groups section on LinkedIn and Facebook and use the search function to find groups relevant to your professional interests. Look at the discussion topics, how people are conversing in each topic, check the level of activity. Anyone providing links to video or audio? Click, watch and listen.
Also, both sites have a main micro-blog wall (they call it “Status Updates”, but looks very similar to Twitter…how uncanny). See how people are interacting, watch how they speak.
Twitter is more tricky, my tip is to download TweetDeck. It is a third party platform that helps you listen in a fast and efficient way. You can search for people talking about relevant topics to your business, your company and even you! Before you send out your first “tweet”, check out TweetDeck and size up the playing field.
Mantra #2:
I Will Plan Before I Dive
If you are going to begin engaging with the global online audience, it’s important to get your act together first, so to speak. Stop and think for a minute. Would you execute a branding or pr initiative without at least a plan outline?
Sit down and identify what you want to get out of this. This can be the hardest step. Without full knowledge about what you can expect, it is hard to identify what your goals should even be. My advice, be realistic, honest and take into consideration what the medium is all about. If you are thinking about SEO, direct response advertising or pay-per-click Google ads then you will think in terms of hits to your online point-of-sale. The social media has elements of this, but the purpose is to position you as an expert, increase visibility to you and your brand, build relationships that will in turn build your business and more.
Think about your purpose, what you are an expert in and what value you can offer. Once you pinpoint that, you can identify the sites you want to focus on, the methods you want to employ and targets you want to hit.
Do you have any mantras that you apply to your professional life? I would love to hear them!
