Once you’ve decided to “dip your toe” into social media, it can quickly become overwhelming. With so many platforms – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ (to name just a few) – it can be difficult to keep everything straight.
- Where do you start?
- How much time do you dedicate? A day? A week?
- How do you keep track of all the neat forums and blogs you come across?
- Where do I come up with content?
I get it. It is a lot.
My advice (that I often have to remind myself of too, from time to time) is this: Start slowly. If you are fairly new to social media, begin with only one or two platforms and get familiar with interacting on those first. Once you are comfortable with navigating, creating meaningful content, posting and interacting, expand your reach by learning a new social media platform – while maintaining those you already know.
If you try to manage too many too soon, you’ll flop at all of them. Not only will you feel frustrated because you don’t “get” it, but your audience (those you are connected to), will quickly tire of your lack of interaction and dismiss you – and your business.
For those looking for tips to better manage and organize your social media, I recently came across this great blog post by ER Marketing. In short, they offer these social media management tips:
- Research. There are a lot of outlets out there, what is best for you and your business?
- Focus. Although there are lots of tips and tricks to keep your social media organized (even social media tools), focus is absolutely key.
- Organize. Keep a running list of the social media sites you are active on.
- Plan. Plan time and create a schedule for social media.
To get a more thorough explanation of these tips, please visit their blog.
Remember, it is impossible to be active in all social media sites, so it is best to learn a few really well and stick to them. And for remodelers looking for help with creating content for their blog and newsletter, I invite you to check out the Social Media Content Warehouse.
