You often hear, especially in January, of people choosing a word for the year. My word for this year is INTENTIONAL and I am going to be intentional about the choices I make for my business. Those choices will filter down into the everyday actions of the things that I’m talking about, the things that I’m doing, the appointments that I’m taking, the investments I’m making – you get the idea. I’m going to be intentional about all of them.
I want to talk about that because I think that a lot of us know that we need to be on social media, but we struggle with knowing what we’re actually supposed to be doing there and really how it drives our bottom line. So, I want to share with you some ideas for being intentional on social media that ultimately are going to help you build your business.
You know that simply being on social media, having a Facebook page, having a LinkedIn profile – that’s not going to bring you business in itself. You need to engage on those sites.
So, what are you going to do and how are you going to measure it?
1. The first thing is to determine which social media network is the most important for you and your business
Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, SnapChat, Instagram – you need to decide based on the information you have to share and the industry that you’re in, and your client demographics.
2. Once you’ve selected the network, you need to set measurable goals.
These goals are for the actions you’re going to take. Here are some things to think about when setting your goals:
- What are you going to do on social media?
- How many conversations are you going to start? Every time you post, you should be thinking of it as the start of a conversation. The post should be designed to engage your audience and prompt them to have a conversation with you.
- How many new connections are you going to make?
- How are you going to grow your social network?
- How many discussions are you going to participate in?
It’s not all about pushing your content, it’s about being present, listening, and offering value to others.
3. Identify goals for the actions that you want your network to take
These are the calls-to-action. For example:
- How many people schedule a call with you?
- How many people opt-in to your offer?
- How many visits to your webpage?
The goal of social media is to get people talking or to drive people to your website. If you are not doing either of those things with your social media posts, then you need to re-evaluate your strategy. Put systems in place to measure your goals because you will be analyzing the results after a period of time.
4.The next thing you need to do is prioritize
You might be connected to 500 people on LinkedIn. Are you really able to engage with all 500 at once? Probably not. Try engaging with your current customers first. Make sure you’re following their pages and you’re staying up to date on the content they are sharing. Then, you can add your top level prospects to your engagement strategy. These are the people who are your ideal clients, but haven’t purchased from you yet. You really want to focus on who you are serving and the value that you are providing to them.
5. Stay relevant on your social media sites
You need to be active. Stay up to date on trends in your industry and share this knowledge on social media. Be a thought leader in your industry, so that when you post, your audience will know that it’s valuable information. Block out time to do this. I suggest at least 30 minutes every day if you’re really serious about building your business on social media. This includes starting conversations and networking in groups. If you do that for a month, I think you’ll have some amazing results.
6. The last step is to track your results
Review the goals that you set on the actions that you take and the actions your audience take. What worked? What needs to be adjusted? Just because something doesn’t work, doesn’t mean you should immediately stop. It just means you need to tweak your action plan a bit.
To help you with these steps, download the ACTION guide Being Intentional About Your Social Networking now.
So, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments on being intentional on social media. And if you have any questions on this, please feel free to ask those below as well.