You are reading Social Media Guide For Beginners Read more from this series of articles.
- There Are Only 5 Reasons Why You Should Use Social Media
- First Step To Get Started With Social Media - Educate Yourself
- How To Use Social Media As A Device To Gather Market Research
- How To Find Your Social Media Bearings and Get Traction
- The Key To Social Media Marketing Success Is How You Define Social Media Marketing Success
- Participation - The Final Step Toward Social Media Marketing Success
By now, you either don’t have any idea where to start, or you’re entirely sick and tired of going absolutely nowhere with social media. Either way, you’re ready to make a change. This guide can help you with both.
This guide is your reset button. For some of you, it’s do-over time.
Follow this guide. I’ll be updating it consistently over the next couple weeks. Take action on the lessons I’m posting here, and you will gain traction with your business in the social media space.
Once you have gained some traction, you’ll be ready for the various other options that are available. But it starts here – with the basics.
Tip #1
Don’t try to get ahead of yourself.
It’s likely your time is already crunched, and you’re wondering where you’re going to fit social media into the big picture. Don’t think of social media as something new. Look at social media as an enhanced way of doing the business you’re already doing.
Tip #2
Understand Boiling Water
There is a threshold when you do the minimum required yet still get the maximum results. Such as boiling water. This is known as the minimum effective dose. It starts with a series of little two millimeter adjustments that are simple to implement.
These adjustments aren’t always much by themselves, but cumulatively, will help you reach that “sweet spot” where you get dramatic results in less time with less effort.
That’s should be your goal.
That’s MY goal for YOU.
And if you are sure to begin simply with this guide, and then apply the actionable information I post here, you will have it.
Take small steps toward daily habits. This isn’t some big overnight epiphany. It’s about being consistent.
Start Here… This Is What’s Important
Gaining social media traction starts with a strategy that is grounded in a desire to build better relationships with your prospects, leads, customers and mostly the audience you seek to be a part of.
If you have any other intention, you’re likely to get impatient and fail.
So let’s start here for today, and build upon this…
There are really only five reasons to use social media, so right now, I want you to decide on ONE of the following reasons to use social media.
Whichever one you choose, fill in the blank…
To Aide Branding &Awareness for ________________?
Pick this one if you’re entirely new to social media and no one knows who you are. Use social media so people start becoming aware of who you are, what you do and why you do it.
To Build Community Around ________________?
You can build community around your blog, your Facebook page, your Twitter profile, or Youtube channel. It could be your product, service or business. You decide.
To Provide Customer Service Opportunity for ________________?
If you already have a product, service or business “out there” where you have customers that are having a conversation then you want to be a part of that conversation, and/or you’ll probably want to be there to provide assistance.
To Allow for Research or Testing or Collaboration with ________________?
This one can be tricky. I’ll teach to this more later, but for now if you’re going to choose this one, be sure you have the following, and in this order: a goal. You need a goal. Then you need an objective to meet the goal, a strategy to implement the objective and tactics to implement strategy.
To Offer Direct Sales Opportunities for ________________?
This is obvious, but you can’t just sell, sell, sell. Nonetheless, placing your products and services into the social media space is a great way to sell more of them.
In this guide, we’ll outline a few of the strategies and tactics you can employ, and we’ll touch on how each works as the basis for your new social media plan (or use it with what you already have).
Got questions, or suggestions? Comment below…
Another fine post, Eric. This topic hits pretty close to home as I think it’s very easy to get caught up in all of the social media hype and spending entirely too much time dealing with it. This is particularly the case for those of us trying to build our business part-time around a full-time career. When there’s only so many hours in the day, you have to dedicate your time wisely to be effective.
A bigger, related question for me is how to get more interaction on the social networks. My blog is getting what I think is good traffic for only being a couple of months old, and most of my posts get a few tweets and a Facebook share or two. I’ve also gotten several compliments in person about the quality of my content, but I’m not getting many comments nor much Facebook discussion or traction. Based on the feedback I’ve gotten, I don’t think it’s a content issue, although that most certainly could be part of the problem with the bigger audience. Any suggestions on how I can improve in this area??
Your topics are always spot-on and very helpful, Eric. Thanks for providing such valuable information!
~Barry
Hi Barry,
3 suggestions for more engagement at your blog:
-locate a handful of blogs related to yours, and comment on them.
-locate a handful of blogs that will accept guest posts, and write a post for them.
-leave your posts open ended so that a comment is encourage. make that the call to action.
RE: facebook… do you have a biz page or are you referring to your profile?
also, consider thinking deeply about HOW the engagement you seek will help your business. i mean… if people are complimenting you on your content it means they’re reading it and not commenting which is not a bad thing. you’re still positioning yourself as a person who offers value and is in the know.
as always, thanks for your comments.
Eric
Hi Eric, love the post.
As I’m just getting started online, every bit of info I can pick up and implement is crucial. I like how you simplify and break down the elements, and I’m looking forward to learning more from you. Thanks!
Eryn