Anyone remember the Tamagotchi? It was a small handheld digital "pet" that required constant feeding as well as attention. Failure to take care of your "pet" could lead to its unhappiness, sickness and even death. The same applies to your social media campaign.
The question is, how much of a commitment do you need to make? The answer depends on which social media platform you are using. If you only have 15 mins/day or less, you can limit your activity to LinkedIn. By simply keeping your profile up to date, increasing your connections and putting out a daily status update you will help attract attention. If you have a bit more time, you can raise your profile by participating in the occasional LinkedIn discussion.
If you have more than 15 mins/day, you might consider Twitter which requires at least a few status updates each day as well as regular interaction with other users in order to build up a serious following.
But let’s be realistic, few of us can commit to our social media campaigns on a daily basis when there are regular distractions such as meetings, conferences and clients that need attention. So instead of spending a few mins each day on social media, why not set aside a couple of days each week, where you can spend at least 30 mins planning your content? The more time you have to think through what you want to say, the better quality it will be :
- Brainstorm with your colleagues for new ideas. Think about the sort of information that will build engagement: tips, advice, questions, competitions, even anecdotes
- Research topics you want to talk about e.g. use google alerts to track what people are saying about your chosen topics
- Repost articles that were shared a couple of days earlier. Social media updates have a short shelf life and different updates are seen by different audiences
- Think of events in your calendar coming up that you can tweet about or share with a hashtag
- Prepare a content plan that enables you to plan ahead what you want to say
- Use tools such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite that enable you to schedule updates on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ in advance. e.g. schedule a tip of the day.
If you’re serious about creating a community of followers who will eventually buy from you, you can’t just dabble in social media for a few minutes a day. You need to make a serious time commitment.
