Before I get into this post, I need to define what I mean by “social media” and “productivity” in this instance. First, by social media, I’m referring to your efforts to connect, share, mediate, and be relational online, whether for personal or online marketing reasons. I am including the use of social networking sites to socialize, social bookmarking sites to share your favorite information and resources, and microblogging, blogging, and forum-type platforms. Second, by productivity, I’m talking about how efficient and effective these efforts are. For example, I believe that it’s pretty easy to expand your social media reach online piece by piece by sending out Tweets each and every day, unsolicited, but you may not be as efficient as you could be. In the same vein, you may be able to convert a few visitors a day to your site/blog by sending these Tweets, but you may not be as effective as you want to be.What’s our goal here? Why look into the productivity of our Tweets? I’m only using Twitter as an example–this approach should apply to every “social media” or online marketing activity we partake in. Simply put, we need to analyze what’s working and do more of it, and find what’s not working, and cut it out completely or change it so it is. In traditional marketing campaigns, this process can be done through split (A/B) testing, focus groups, and old-school data-analysis. In the world of online marketing, the concepts are basically the same, but the social media methods are a bit more elegant and the results come (a bit) quicker. Let’s get started.
Step 1 – Break down what you’ve got.
Pick a social media channel–I’ll start with my blog. My blog only has about 30 regular readers on average. It sucks, but to me that’s 30 people a day who “seem” to care about what I’m writing here. As I started from nothing, building to a 30-subscriber count to me is a taste–albeit small–of success. Anyway, let’s break down what we’ve got.
- Who’s reading? FeedBurner makes it a bit tricky to analyze who’s reading, but judging by the comments I’ve received on the blog, I can assume most people who are stopping by at this point are bloggers, social media folks, and internet marketers. This is important data to me because I can either continue trying to reach this group of people by writing more about these topics, or I can focus on another sector by switching gears to something else. However, just by understanding who’s reading shouldn’t be enough information to make that decision. We need to keep going to figure that out.
- Who’s responding? Who’s re-Tweeting? Who’s commenting? Who’s replying to your forum posts? Are they happy/sad/mad/whatever about your posts, or are they just trying to stir up conversation so you’ll go visit their site (by the way, visit their site–let them know you stopped by, and they’ll probably come back to yours!)? It’s not hard to tell who’s actively interested in what you have to say, and who just wants some cheap attention. Both reasons for responding are completely fine–but one isn’t going to be a lasting relationship.
- Who’s reacting? Is anyone on your blog or Twitter feed responding in a way that is fueling your conversation with the world? Look for re-Tweets of your messages from the same people, and reach out to them in the social media world more. Find those who ask questions on your comments pages and answer them publicly by writing a post in response to them. Reacting is basically responding with initiative–more than a “thank you,” and implying that they’re looking to you for advice, help, guidance, camaraderie, etc.
Once you’ve broken down your audience (your current audience, not your target audience), see if it aligns with what you envisioned for your social media and/or online marketing efforts. Are you reaching the people you need/want to reach? Are you getting the results (even if only on a minuscule scale) you intended? If so, move on to Step 2. If not, tweak your message and work extra hard to reach out to those who are your target audience.
Step 2 -Place measurement tools and checkpoints.
Once you’ve got a good idea of who falls into your readership/audience demographic, place the measuring tools within your reach. Using online social media tools every day can help you expand your network and keep up with your industry–giving you invaluable insight into what’s going on with your customers, competitors, suppliers, etc. Here are some examples of “tools” I use daily/weekly/monthly:
- Google Analytics – For my blog, I check in with my Analytics account daily. I want to see who’s visiting, where they’re coming from, and what they’re looking at when they get there. Also important to me are from where they’re exiting (exit pages), and how long they stick around.
- Hootsuite – For Twitter, I use Hootsuite almost exclusively now to send and read posts from all of my accounts–including those from LinkedIn and Facebook. Since I manage multiple Twitter accounts for clients, I like having the stats and dashboard for everything all in one place–and with only one login. Hootsuite also has a great built-in search function. I have live searches set up for things like #social media, #socialmarketing, #interpersonalskills, etc. Use the search function in whatever program you prefer to keep a tab on who’s saying what. Bonus: follow those who are coming up regularly in your searches, and re-Tweet their information liberally. Hootsuite can very quickly become your social media hub for checking in with your network(s).
- Google Reader – While I use NetNewsWire for my RSS subscriptions (because I can read them offline), Google Reader is a fantastic way to have everything under one roof. If you have an Analytics, Gmail, AdSense, or other Google account, Google Reader is a piece of cake to hook up. A great way to use an RSS reader is to do a Technorati search for the keywords that relate to your niche and subscribe (via RSS) to the results. They’ll show up right in your RSS reader every time it’s updated.
There are a million other social media resources out there for tracking and data analysis, but these are the most frequently used for me. Remember–burying your head in stats all day may enlighten you, but it won’t create your content or build your business for you. Keep it simple and you’ll be set.
Step 3 – Set up your systems.
If you’re like me, your motto is “I’ll procrastinate tomorrow…” Don’t let your good intentions go to waste by not acting on them. Set up systems for yourself that are easy to follow and reasonable early in the game, and try as hard as you can to stick with them. Here are some examples of my systems:
- Plan your posts/Tweets. For blog posts, I use the Blog Post Planners made available by ProductiveFlourishing. They give me a great tool to guide my blogging throughout the entire month for multiple blogs. For Twitter accounts, you can use Hootsuite or TweetLater (now SocialOomph) to schedule Tweets in advance. An excel spreadsheet is also a simple yet effective way to plan out your Twitter and online marketing/social media strategies. Most of what I plan in Twitter is on-the-fly, as I like to follow up quickly with RTs of great content from people in my network.
- Schedule your time. My daily schedule was so drastically different each day last year that I didn’t get nearly as much done as I could have. Just by having a single block of time daily for writing posts, I was able to completely turn around my business–and I’m still adding “blocks” to my schedule. By adding “blocks” one at a time, I’m able to still feel free and unhindered by an otherwise rigid schedule. Remember–as a blogger, you can work from wherever you want, whenever you want!
- Break the rules. After you’ve created and followed a schedule for yourself and your writing, stop following it for one day a week. Like dieting, your mind needs a day or two to completely indulge itself and recharge for the next week. Use that day to read something other than blogs, forums, and web stuff. I like a bit of fiction–maybe The Count of Monte Cristo?
Systems are a big favorite of mine. With systems, we can build an online business that is virtually run without our input–for some great examples of that, read Tim Ferriss’ The Four-Hour Workweek. Blogs can also provide a great example of an automated income stream based on systems.
In conclusion, it’s important to see your business from all sides: choosing keywords and targeting them through killer content can net you some profit, but it won’t go too far to build a network for you. Ideally you want to follow the set of rules the SEOs have set forth to optimizing your blog and website for keywords, but use the social media tools to help people trust you. A killer online marketing, branding and social media strategy involves both SEO and social media working together simultaneously. Don’t leave out one or the other!
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Really great overview with good tips. thanks!!
Thanks for stopping by, Claire! Hope to see you around again!