At one point in time, I blogged daily and tweeted my fair share too. The last few days it has come to my attention that I have become a certified slacker when it comes to my social media activity. For me and my business, social media is a key marketing component. Yet, here I am being too busy to get it done and I let my plan fall by the wayside. Now this wasn’t intentional. I’ve been busy doing well, other stuff. Someone needs to stop me now and reprimand me because I need to follow my plan.
Social media activity is not the same for everyone. For some it means simply making sure that their LinkedIn profile is updated and connecting with colleagues. For others it means doing research via Twitter. But for many who are in a business development role (directly or indirectly) regular use of social media is important and spending time developing online networks is critical to success. It might include posting relevant content on Twitter and engaging with a specified amount of people. For others it is creating new blog content and pushing it out while commenting on similar blogs. It might be taking the time each day to reach out to someone that you haven’t connected to on Facebook and simply saying hello.
Again, the specific activity that you do will vary. However, in order to be successful you need to dedicate time each day to GET IT DONE. Block time on your calendar. Set a reminder. Make it part of your routine. Add it to your to do list. Put it on your whiteboard. Put in on Evernote. Okay, you get the point.
Once you have committed to using social media as a business tool, you need to treat it like it is just as important as the client meeting that is scheduled for 1pm or the presentation that you are putting together. Actually, I think this is where people get hung up. They are not treating social media as an equal. Instead, it is secondary and the last thing of importance and when you get busy, it goes away.
I’m writing this post more for myself than for you, but feel free to benefit from my thought process. In my case, I know social media works. I know it brings me opportunity. I know I need to do it. So therefore, I must follow my plan of allotting X number of hours per day to my online activity. I must spend time curating and developing content, having real conversations, and generally adding value to my community. I can do that. It’s so easy when I lay it out. Well, I know what I am going to do.
The question is, what are you going to do?