Do you like to cook? If so do you watch cooking shows, read books on the subject, attend seminars, or meet with friends with the same interest? If you do all these things to become a better cook what is your eventual goal? Do you want to own a restaurant? Do you want to simply be able to cook a competent gourmet meal for your family during the holidays?
Understanding how to leverage social media is like learning to cook. No matter how sophisticated your skills become, the best way to “cook” is to stick to the simple ingredients. Keep it simple stupid aka KISS rule is the most effective advice I can give any of the late adopters just beginning to understand social media. What does it mean to stick to the simple ingredients?
10 Simple Ingredients to Utilizing Social Media
- Plan: you must have a master plan for your Social Media efforts
- Objective: identify your goals and business objectives in utilizing Social Media
- Networks: identify which network(s) you will utilize.
- Audience: where are your customers/prospects? Which social networks are they using?
- Tools: identify which tool(s), third party applications, that will help you automate and save time in executing your plan
- Measurement: how will you measure your Social Media efforts? Without measurement strategy, you will never know how effective you are or can become
- Honesty: be true to your style, your company mantra, stay within your philosophies. Don’t be something you are not
- Communication Mix: do not spam a network with hard sell messages. Ensure your communication mix is giving value 70% and serving your sales needs 30% of the time
- Avatar: use pictures of people, or you, as often as possible when branding your social network profile
- Commitment: if you are going to utilize a social network then you must be present, communicate, and engage consistently. This is not a part time endeavor!
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