The Social Media Paradigm

Social Media is like pain–it doesn’t seem to be as strong when you’re not thinking about it. Meaning if you aren’t thinking about your social media efforts, they’re probably not building your brand.

The difference between social media and SEO sometimes is this fact. The whole point of SEO is to rank high in the search engines while you sleep, so that people can find you and connect with you via social media while you’re awake. We seem to have it backwards though–why do we schedule Tweets days in advance and then actively check our Analytics stats during our waking hours?If we could somehow focus more on being present when and where our customers are and let the automated lives we’ve planned online run their course without us (that was the point of automation, was it not?), we’d be perfectly set up to capture and organize the information we really are trying to receive from business social networks: what our customers want. Here’s an example of the old school:

  1. Build a website with a blog.
  2. Visit Google’s Keyword Tool and choose two broad, maybe long-tail keywords to focus on. If you aren’t familiar with what I’m talking about here, read my WordPress book.
  3. Schedule content on a content-drip plan to be posted frequently (once a day, every other day, etc.) on the blog.
  4. As you start ranking for your long-tail keywords, begin reading and commenting on other blogs in and around your niche.
  5. Earn more backlinks by commenting, visiting forums, and emailing your visitors and commentors.
  6. Set up a Twitter account and start following the followers of “famous” people in your niche (well-known bloggers, etc.).
  7. Tweet at least twice a day someone else’s work (not the same stuff, just someone else’s stuff each time).
  8. Tweet at least once every other day your own stuff.
  9. Schedule Tweets to send out for the next month and plan them out with HootSuite.
  10. Set up a Facebook page, newsletter, and start placing links on the big social bookmarking sites (StumbleUpon, Digg, Technorati, etc.).

And here’s an example of the new school:

  1. Preparatory tasks:
    1. Set up a blog.
    2. Set up accounts at social media sites (networking, bookmarking, sharing, etc.).
    3. Set up a Twitter account.
    4. Analyze your blog’s target niche and keywords.
  2. Automated tasks:
    1. Schedule content on a content-drip plan to be posted frequently.
    2. Schedule Tweets to send each day.
    3. Schedule your time checking analytics, stats, etc.
  3. Human tasks:
    1. Tweet your life (as it applies to others who actually care.)
    2. Blog your life (as it applies to others who actually care.)
    3. Connect through social media daily.

The minor difference between the two examples is organization. How you go about thinking of your social media efforts changes drastically how you actually do it. Both can be wildly successful or epic failures, but the latter will lend you the benefit of placing your work and your perceived life (that of what others can see online) above a shoddy 1995 sales-y get-rich-quick guru.

Only the latter will seem “real,” and only the latter will earn respect. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the former example, but it’s what everyone else is already doing.

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Related posts:

  1. Where Does Social Media Fit In With Your Marketing?
  2. Social Media Influence: 3 Steps to Boost Your Social Media Productivity
  3. My New Ebook: The 3 R’s of Social Media
  4. What’s Next For the Web and Social Media?
  5. Online Marketing for Your Small Business: Networking and Social Media

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