Social media is wonderful for your business. You can gain customers, grow your list, make sales, establish yourself as a leader, and more. The problem is, social media is also an awful lot of fun. It’s easy to get worktime confused as playtime.
People are sharing interesting links all the time, having great discussions, and more. It’s very easy to get distracted. It’s easy to start clicking links and find yourself getting caught in a never-ending rabbit hole. Before long, you can find that you’ve wasted an entire day clicking links on social media. Where does the time go?
Maybe you’ve found yourself in this situation before. You started out your day intending to use social media as a way to boost your business. But, you found that you wasted several hours instead. You have to get a control on this, you realize. But how?
Maybe it’s not even a problem of self-control. Maybe you just find that your social media efforts are not having the effect you want them to have. You’re trying a little of this and a little of that to boost your business and you’re just not seeing the results you thought you would see.
Let’s address both of these issues head-on.
First of all, you have to have a social media plan if you want to be successful with it. If you don’t have a plan, then you’ll just be using social media willy-nilly. It’s no wonder that you won’t have the results you want… you’re effectively aiming at nothing. Give yourself something to aim for.
Take a look at the social media accounts of those who are most successful in your niche. What are they doing on social media? The chances are good that they do have a plan. They use social media in a way they know will have the biggest impact on the market.
It can be helpful to emulate those who are already successful with social media. Are they on social media all day long? Do they seem to be time wasting on social media? Of course not. They have a plan. They likely have goals. They are consistent. Do what you can to follow in those footsteps.
Where Are the People in Your Niche Hanging out Online?
It’s important to figure out where the people of your niche are hanging out online. You don’t want to join every single social media site there is. Sure, you want to show up in many places online. You want people to become familiar with seeing your name and your brand online. With that said, you’ll just be wasting time if you are present everywhere and you don’t need to be because there’s no audience there.
Instead, figure out where your future followers are concentrated and where they are most responsive. The chances are good that Facebook is a good place to start. See if there are active, popular Facebook pages and groups already dedicated to your niche. This is a good sign that this is where you should be as well. You can join these active pages and groups as well as start your own.
You might also check Twitter. Twitter is a great spot for many niches.
Other social media hubs like Instagram and Pinterest are geared toward more visual niches. You can get creative with how you use these. It may be the case that it would be a waste of time for you to join these particular social sites. But maybe not.
You have to do the legwork and do the research ahead of time. You might be wasting your time or you might find that there is a lot of benefit for you in joining these social sites. Do the research and figure this out.
Set Goals for Using Social Media
Now, once you’ve figured out which social sites you’ll be using, set goals. How many followers do you want to have? What sort of results do you want to have from your social media use? If you figure this out, you can make a lot of headway much more quickly.
For example, if you decide that you’d like to start a Facebook group and you aim to get 1,000 members in your group, that’s a great goal to have. You can further decide that you would like to funnel at least 400 of those members onto your email list over time. Remember – social media is a means to an end, always. You should always be trying to funnel your social media efforts onto your own properties and especially onto your email list. This gives you control and staying power, no matter what happens.
Set a Social Media Schedule
This will really help you. You should be spending some time on social media every day. That doesn’t mean you should be spending all day long on social media. Instead, have a set schedule where you pay attention to social media.
You might spend half an hour a day responding to customer inquiries.
You might spend half an hour a day following other people and interacting with other people.
You might spend half an hour a day finding potential affiliates and JV partners (joint-venture partners) on social media.
You might spend half an hour a day funneling people from social media onto your email lists, and so on.
You might spend half an hour a day using social media to drive traffic.
You might spend half an hour day creating posts that have the potential to go viral, help people, and so on.
Potentially, you’ll spend between 30 minutes to a few hours on social media per day. The point is that this time will be structured and you will have solid goals for your social media efforts.
Setting a social media schedule will help you stay consistent and see good results within a short period.
There is no one-size-fits-all schedule. You have to figure out what results you want to see and what is best for your niche and business. You’ll have to figure out what those who are already successfully using social media in your niche are doing and what you can do to emulate that.
Learn to Hold Yourself Back from Wasting Time
Another part of this is learning to resist social media when it tempts you to waste time. You don’t have to click on every link you see. Maybe save the links you’re interested in for later. Facebook gives you the options to save posts, for example. Or, you can use the Pocket (getpocket.com) extension to save posts for later – or Evernote or whatever works for you.
There has to be a time for work and a time for play. Separate the two out. Don’t allow yourself to click links or enter into discussions that are for fun when it’s time for work.
No, you don’t have to work on social media all the time. Social media is all about being social. It is fun- often even while you’re working it to grow your business. It doesn’t have to be all work and no play. But you do have to remain focused. You do have to make sure you don’t spend five hours a day just playing on social media when you’re really supposed to be working. That will just frustrate you and you won’t see any results.
Be structured about your work time on social media, set goals, set a social media schedule, and actually follow through.
Put Social Media to Work for You
It’s time to put social media to work for you. It’s time to end the temptation to waste time on social media. It’s time for you to claim the power social media can hold for your business. Figure out the best social sites to use for your business and the most effective ways you can use those social sites. Connect with your audience in new and better ways. Social media is one of the best things you can do for your business – you just have to do it in a focused and measured way.
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