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“Not another social media site to manage?!”
If there is one area many bloggers feel overwhelm, it’s in the social media realm.
Just when we get comfortable with one social media outlet, another popular one surfaces.
In fact, there is even a conversation prism infographic someone created that displays hundreds of social media sites.
From the ConversationPrism.com
Looking at this infographic, you may be asking yourself a few questions:
- How in the world am I supposed to catch up to the social media conversation?
- How do you take advantage of all of these opportunities?
You choose not to.
As a busy blogger, you have to spend your time wisely. Spending more time on social media chasing every new fad instead of creating new, fresh content on your blog is a losing strategy.
You need to take care of home base first.
If you currently feel overwhelmed with social media, let me provide a simple step-by-step plan you can take.
1. Lock down your branding for the major social media sites
In just a bit, I am going to give you the permission to narrow your social media strategy to just one site. First, the wise thing to do is to lock down the branding of your blog on some of the more popular social media sites.
Even if you are not super active yet, you’ll still want to have at least your preferred username or brand name.
You can use a site like KnowEm.com to quickly register your brand name. They also offer a service to do all the hard work for you by registering your brand to the top 25 social media sites for one low fee. This way, if you ever decide to make a go of a particular social media site, you already have your branding established.
2. Find your top performer in Google Analytics
Which social media site is providing you the most traffic? I am always surprised how many bloggers do not know the answer to this question.
Login to your Google Analytics account and navigate to “Social ——> Overview” in the left sidebar. Then expand your dates to get more data. Go back 12 months if possible. Which one is your top performer?
On BloggingYourPassion.com Facebook is our top performer.
On JonathanMilligan.com, Linkedin has been my top performer for over 4 years.
On my wife’s blog over at SoLoveThat.com, Pinterest sends 90% of her social media traffic.
Once you know your top performer, it is time to move to the final step.
3. Go deep in the social media site that is working best for you
I am giving you permission to simplify your life. Go with what is working for you. Pick your best performer and “go deep.”
Going deep means you should:
- Learn all you can about that particular social media site
- Become an active participant in the conversation that’s happening there
- Share what other people are doing
- Connect with new people via that social media site
- Work at capturing more leads
- Become a thought leader on that social media site
I think you get the point. If managing 3 or 4 social media sites overwhelms you, then follow this strategy for 3-6 months. Re-evaluate and see if your traffic is improving.
What are you doing to simplify your social media strategy?
image courtesy of Mama Propaganda
Very helpful tips Jonathan. With so many social media channels available, it really is important that you figure out which ones are providing the most value and ‘dig deep’ as you say into those specific destinations. Unless you have a staff of office drones to maintain your 100 profiles, your best is to get organized and get specific.
Exactly. Well said Dave. You can always expand later. We tell ourselves we have to do it all right now. Instead tell yourself there is plenty of time and you will get to it but for now ______________ (fill in social media site) is your primary focus.
Hey Jonathan, it DOES sometimes feel overwhelming. Then I forget to go back and change all those social media accounts when I change websites and so forth. Facebook gives me the most traffic but I think it’s time to branch out to some other avenues, too. Thanks for the article.
Thanks Erika!
Excellent, many thanks
You are welcome!
I think Pat’s advice would be the ultimate goal for most, but my point is “no one starts there.” You can experience success right now by selecting your best option and going deep. You are doing great. Keep pushing forward.
Jonathan – I am on Google+ but not Facebook. Do you think I should switch to Facebook or stick it out with Google+? Thanks for this great info, it’s invaluable to us just starting out.
At the very least I would get a Facebook page set up. I know people who are doing really well with Google+, but your niche may tell you different. I think Facebook is a safe bet for most people.
You know what? Believe it or not, my top performer is StumbleUpon. I have NO idea what that even is. lol! How would I work that?
I would start by doing some research on Google for how to drive traffic from StumbleUpon. See what comes up and give it a try.
Sure thing! Thanks!
Thank you for sharing how to find that information on Analytics. I found out that most of my traffic comes through Pinterest. I was totally shocked. I guess I am going to have to figure out how to build on that. Also a little something for everyone. If you are trying to get information out to facebook, twitter and google + hootsuite.com is a great place to schedule information to go out. I love that I can take an evening and set up a weeks worth of notices to go out. I hope this helps some people.
Thanks for the comments. By the way, you might want to listen to a podcast interview we did with Court Tuttle about Pinterest. It was great!
I definitely need to look that up. I was shocked to find out that most of my traffic comes from Pinterest. I need to find out how to take advantage of that.
Good advice, Jonathan. It’s counter-productive to spend so much time trying to be everywhere at once. Focus on what works and don’t sacrifice quality for quantity.
You nailed it. We are better off doing it this way.