Keeping Up with Facebook Changes
For those of us who strive to stay on top of the latest-greatest social media innovations, often staying up until the wee hours of the morning totally entranced in a Mashable.com article or pouring over marketing trends graphs from HubSpot, it becomes necessary to put the whole social media phenomenon into perspective. Do our clients really need to learn about hash tags, algorithms or RSS feeds? I am just as delinquent as my clients in ignoring my daily posting routine. It’s definitely a case of the cobbler’s neglected shoes.
The bottom line is that when I do post, and pay attention to my keywords, things happen! More people follow and comment, clients suddenly appear. It’s a miracle! No, it’s social media. It really does work if you know how to use your time wisely.
So what is the minimum you can do to make social media a worthwhile use of your time.
1. Start with professionally researched keywords & phrases. If you don’t, you are unlikely to succeed. You may have a wish list of keywords, such as Sacramento Realtor (over 9 million results on Google, but only 789 on YouTube), or Sacramento Yoga Instructor (close to 9 million results on Google, but only 231 on You Tube). You need to know what to do with this information (besides of course setting up a YouTube Channel pronto!)
2. Write a Blog at least once per week. You may think you have nothing to say that will be of any interest to anyone…but that’s not true. You are in business right? Or, you are involved in an organization, are a parent, play a musical instrument, advocate for a good cause, etc. Write about your experiences, share helpful tips, keep it short (about 400 words), educational and USE YOUR KEYWORDS!
3. Use Your Blog Content to Post to Your Social Media Sites. Create an attention grabbing headline and link it to your blog, then post to your Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook sites. Remember that social media doesn’t work unless you provide something that people will want to share. Posting to your sites will keep you front of mind to your friends and fans. The next time someone is looking for a realtor, yoga instructor or advice for their daughter’s soccer career, they will think of you and the stories or insights that you shared.
So – At least until something better than Social Media comes along…and it will… don’t be overwhelmed by how much you should be doing. Don’t worry about the latest-greatest ways to retweet or check in. Just come up with a strategy that you can live with and dive in!