Social Media Not Working? Be Patient.

The options on the Internet are overwhelming and the chatter is deafening. You don’t know where to start or what to do once you get there. Just when you think you are up to speed on social networking, bookmarking, and aggregating sites, dozens of more options that you have never even heard become the darlings of the press. 

The local book stores and Amazon are filled with books on the popular sites of the moment, and even more books on what to do and what not to do for your online marketing. Once again, your eyes gloss over and you decide to take a deep breath and just walk away.  How do you dig out from this information overload and actually put a social networking plan in action? Allow me to offer a few tips: 

1. Just do it – do anything, do something. Don’t get frustrated. Allow yourself the time to start with one site and get familiar with the concept. 

2. If you are B2B try starting with the more business-oriented sites like LinkedIn and maybe Twitter. 

3. If you are B2C try starting with the more popular personal sites like Facebook and of course, Twitter. 

4. Sign up then tour and explore. Look for a competitor and a few like-type companies and evaluate their profiles. Evaluate what they say and how they say it and any other information you can find. Look for groups or gatherings that might be relevant to you or your target audience, read what they have to say but don’t join in just yet. Email some compassionate friends and clients to see if they are on that site and if so would they link to you and give some feedback. 

5. Read the FAQ on the site you join. This will offer how-to tips. 

6. Do not sell, do not brag, do not market, and above all don’t claim to have the answers. 

7. Think strategy – planning will help you to understand how to best achieve your goals and to measure the value of the site in relation to meeting those objectives. 

8. Think KEYWORDS in your communications so that others will find you based on their searches.

9. Listen and learn, then make some practice strokes. 

10. Think sandbox: share often, be polite, no bullying, be helpful, and above all, be genuine. Twitter is a great place to practice this and also to build a following. 

11. Be patient. New business is not going to start flying in the first week. Maybe not even for a month or more. In fact, it may not fly in at all; but you will have been contributing content to your name and the search engines are going to recognize that helping your website move up in the rankings. Social media is a lead channel not a sales window. This is a no-lose proposition for the most part, and you just might enjoy it, find new resources and learn new things in the process. 

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter: Twitter.com/MardySitzer.