Are You Being Social?

Social media is taking over. Social networking sites such as Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook (and even the now out-of-date MySpace still has some market share) are growing at an alarming rate. Facebook now has over 800 million users and is still growing. What does this mean? Let’s face it, if you’re not using social media to grow your business, you’re missing out.

Each of these sites offer new ways for your businesses to connect & grow your client base. From creating Fan Pages to posting reviews or even sharing photos of the office party with your new found online friends (aka: clients). But how do you manage all of this? It is easy to get overwhelmed and even easier to waste countless hours with social media. You need to make sure you’re not spinning your wheels and spending too much time online.

Here are 3 quick tips to get you started:

1) Set Goals

Decide what you want to achieve from your social media marketing before you begin. Do you want to connect with new customers or clients? Then you may want to set goals of adding 3 friends a week and posting one tip a week. When you know what you want to accomplish it is easy to focus your efforts and measure your results.

2) Limit Your Time

This is the most difficult discipline for most.  It is so easy to think, “I just need to respond to this tweet.” Which then turns into an hour of looking at articles. Limiting the time you spend each day on social media will help you avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed by it all. You may even want to start small and grow as you get more comfortable with it. 10 minutes a week is all it takes to post a quick tip for your clients.

3) Be Consistent

Once you set your goals and specify an amount of time to spend each day/week on social media, don’t stop. Too often I will visit an agent’s website, blog or Facebook page and find that it hasn’t been updated in months. Once you have someones attention, you want to keep it. It doesn’t matter if you post once a week, or once a day…but consistency will win you point with your social media followers.