Social Media Today – Too Much Why, Too Little How

Here is the problem with today’s social media. Everyday there are people explaining what Twitter is, what Linkedin is. Why companies need social media? What will happen if they don’t use social media.

Where are the how articles? – I am not talking about the auto-following software. I am talking about the steps involved in making social media a reality for a company.

This is the problem. I believe it is a big problem.

It’s easy to run away from the whole ROI movement.

The best way I can address this issue is to tell you what I do.

I work with these tools everyday in some manner.

Here is my PLAN.

P – Participate/Plan

I get involved by maintaining a company blog and a personal marketing blog

I have a plan. I have discovered where my true clients are and I try to listen to them and communicate them. I use Twitter to do a majority of my listening and communicating.

My plan starts with a blog post. It is where I start the communication and where I lead people back as a landing page. Try doing this

L – Listen/Learn

Listen for client needs

Stay current on industry developments

Follow competitors

I do more listening than broadcasting

Learn something new each day. It’s a never-ending job

A – Action

Take action – You need to be active everyday to be successful.

Make sure you are tracking and measuring your action. You need to start somewhere. Google Analytics and Social Mention are great places.

N- Notes

Take notes – This is the key. Filter all information received. Right now, I am constantly deciding who to trust and who not to trust.

Note the items that are working and say no or stop the things that are not working.

Have a plan and keep refining it.

No one has all the answers. The only way to be successful is to develop your own plan and follow it to see results. Why would anyone stay in social media if they are not seeing results. Social media is not for everyone.

If you are a blog writer and you talk about HOW a lot, I want to connect with you. Send me your link, I would be curious to learn from your experiences. If you are a blog writer and you talk about WHY – It tells me that you are not as active in social media as you should be and you are repeating what everyone else is saying. I can get this type of information almost every day from someone. Start finding out more about HOW!

photo credit: waferbaby via photo pin cc