Social Media is no longer about chatting with your friends. It’s about driving business. This book shows you how it can for yours.
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“After deciding on a course of action, stick to it. This gives your plan the strength of consistency of action.” Gerald Michaelson – Sun Tzu for Success
David Finch
In my recent post, “How to Embrace the Process of Social Media” I communicated my ideas, “that the implementation of a social media strategy is a process more then just one or two events.” The engine that keeps that process moving forward is the discipline of being persistent.
Being persistent in your engagement within the communities that you are a part of communicates your willingness to make an investment versus the “get rich quick” approach that always want to “cash in” before they’ve every added anything of value. It’s this approach that is becoming very common as social media is introduced to the masses as an arsenal of tools rather then access points into groups of people, ideas and communities.
However, if you are developing a social media strategy with people and communities in mind, you’ll be more open to embrace an approach that rewards patience and persistence. Here is a simple guide to consider when mapping out your own strategy of engagement.
Here are three concepts to consider when developing your social media strategy.
Image by Chewy Chua via Flickr
Build in Phases
We’ve been told that Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your strategy, so consider building it out in phases. Whether your developing a Facebook brand strategy or a content centric information channel, launch it, monitor its degree of interaction, both the sentiment and tone and then make adjustments around the components where you’re receiving the most engagement.
This phase of your strategy demands being persistent in developing fresh content as well as monitoring how it’s being received. As you begin to determine what works for your brand or organization you begin to embrace the originality of your own strategy instead of just copying someone else’s. It’s through this methodical, persistent approach that you are able to be more streamed-lined because your able to identify what is working before being overwhelmed by adding more outlet channels.
Do the Basics
I’ve been guilty many times in getting the horse before the cart. This led to delays and frustrations that could have been avoided if I would have committed to learning the basics and doing them well. One of the ways to get in shape is to do the basic things that generate better health, loss of weight and a toned body. Now matter how you look at it this only happens by eating healthy and implementing an exercise routine. Social media has its “routines” that cannot be avoided.
Your social media strategy will always involve adding value to others and being a human face rather then just a brand or an organization. This aspect of social media will always be the foundation of social interaction.
Integrate Multiple Methods of Engagement
Now after being persistent at the basics and you’ve developed your methods of engagement in phases, now it’s time to integrate all those platforms into one concentrated effort. At this point, you now are creating content centric channels with blogs, video, images, and audio that you now can distribute within the communities that you are actively engaged in. You’ve created and interacted within channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and others and due to your persistent approach to adding value this now affords you the opportunity to promote your content, products etc.
With an understanding of the type of content that is being received and shared through the multiple platforms of distribution, you now can begin to measure the effectiveness of your strategy.
Final Thought
The key to any strategy will always be persistence. If your ideas fail, get back up and try again. If no one engages with your content, be brutally honest, stay persistent and keep moving forward.
What factors are important to you when you begin to map out your strategies?
The comment section is now open for you!
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