Does Social Media Overwhelm Have You at a Dead Stop?
If you’ve been spending time on LinkedIn, in the blogosphere, or have just been searching for advice about how to be marketing your business, you’ve probably been inundated with advice about all of the different things you have to be doing to be successful using social media. If you’re a one-person shop or a very small business, you’re probably wondering how in the H-E-double hockey sticks, you’re going to have time to do this and still keep the business running – at least that’s the first question I often get from clients and business acquaintances. Where you should start, what are the 2 or 3 most important things, and how you get it all perfectly on the web immediately are usually the follow-up questions.
Social media marketing can be one of the most effective and low cost business development strategies for the single operator or small shop. The problem is, however, that they have the least amount of time to be able dedicate to social media and often limited funds to outsource the activities. Further, if the previous sentence describes you and you happen to have some perfectionist tendencies (like me), the idea of getting started without being able to put out something that is absolutely spectacular and without flaws can be difficult to overcome.
What then ends up happening is that you fall into the “I’ll get started when…” loop – I’ll get started on LinkedIn when I have a great website to send people to. I’ll get started on my website when I have a big email list. I’ll get started on my email list when I have a great blog to send them to and my LinkedIn profile is perfect. And so on…
The most important thing to do is to get out there on the 3 most important social media components in a simple, but professional manner. If you wait to put up your website until it is complete and perfect, or wait to complete your LinkedIn profile until you have time to enter your entire resume and write a really cool summary, or wait to communicate with customers and prospects until you have all of the autoresponse letters and templates for your email service perfect, you are losing a ton of money in opportunity costs. Search engines consider length of time on the web as one of the variables they use to rank their listings – so the sooner you have it up the better. One of your clients could be having lunch with someone they could have referred to you, but because you hadn’t sent them an email message in a while you didn’t come to mind. Someone on LinkedIn in one of the groups you would have joined posts that they are looking for a sub-contractor or vendor in your field for a major project, but you weren’t there to see it.
What this essentially means is that you have to “get dressed” with everyone watching. It is not ideal, but it’s better than nothing and if done correctly and professionally, could possibly even make it appear like your business is growing because of the improvements you keep making. So, before you walk out the door into the social media world, put on a nice, clean and pressed outfit so that you are presentable. As you travel, you will be able to add other pieces to your outfit like a jacket or exchange your pants for pants that are better quality. You’re able to add these pieces because along the way you’ve been able to stop in hamlets and pick up business that you wouldn’t have otherwise found.
I’m going to be perfectly honest…I’m far from happy with the website/blog you’re looking at right now. It needs a ton of improvement! But, I’m one person and there’s only 24 hours in a day (actually I recently heard a statistic that says that Americans are currently fitting 31 hours of work in that 24 hours, but I digress). The important thing is that it’s going and I’m developing new contacts and building credibility (at least I hope I am:-)).
So, I bet you’re wondering what the 3 most important social media components are! Well, in my humble opinion, they are website, email list and one social network. If you are business-to-business, that social network is LinkedIn; and if you are business-to-consumer, that social network is Facebook.
It has never been cheaper or easier to get a bare bones, professional website up and running. Web hosts have WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) website builders with pre-built templates that you just plug in text and pictures, so you don’t have to hire a graphic designer. Seriously…for less than $100, you can pay for a year’s worth of web hosting, get a domain and access to software to build a simple website. There’s no excuse to not have a website. If you want to go even cheaper and want to blog, you can set up a free Wordpress.com blog and add a couple of pages that describe your business (if you go this route, I would recommend spending the $20 to buy a domain and have it point to your site).
I recommend using an email service over sending email directly from your computer because of the statistics features and opt-out service. If you’re not familiar with email services, you may be surprised to learn that you can actually see who opened up your email message; as well as other activities such as link clicks and forwarding depending on the service. Also, if you don’t remove people from your list when requested, there can be negative repercussions to your reputation. Therefore, you don’t want to have to remember to do this manually. Most email services let you try before you buy in some manner and you can get started for around $10 per month with a service that has few bells and whistles.
Lastly, LinkedIn and Facebook are free! So there’s no excuse not to use them.
So, overall, you’re looking at $200-300 for the year to get started at the most basic level and do it yourself.
Pick a direction, get moving and take the next step!
If you were stuck at one point and eventually took the next step and were surprised at the results, I’d love for you to share your story in the comments section. Other comments are always welcome too!
Agreed on all points except that I think you need to push yourself just a bit more and do LinkedIn AND Facebook. A lot of people say Twitter is a flash in the pan but I think that, too, is worth some of your time. On Twitter, it’s worth having a persona – business or personal – and focusing your “tweets” around some common themes. It can be a solid way to bring viewers to your website.
It’s painful to start a blog, write a post, stick it out there and…. wait. Then you write another one, do the same thing… and wait some more. Crystal is right: it’s just like getting dressed with everyone watching. Get over yourself and jump in! My website/blog is hardly finished either but here it is for the world to see!
http://firstthirdconsulting.com/blog/
Oh, yeah. have some fun while you’re at it!
Allen,
I agree with you 100% that you eventually need to do more than that; this is just a minimalist suggestion to reduce the overwhelm that I’ve heard from many people to get them to actually take real steps into the arena. “Getting dressed” means that once you get this piece going, you get comfortable with it, and then circle around and add another social network, or improve the layout and design of your blog or website, or add a Squidoo page, or revamp your LinkedIn profile, etc.
I also want to say that although I’m on both LinkedIn and Facebook, because my business is mostly b2b and not b2c, I choose to use Facebook only for personal relationships. That’s a decision that each person will ultimately have to make for themselves.
Thanks for the comment!
Nicely written! Social networking will soon become the most effective way of building your professional career and creating a personal brand. In addition to spending time on it and learning by experience, I guess one can also begin by joining various tutorials available on the Internet itself.
By the way, I am new to LinkedIn too and have found this resource quite useful. It is a new book called “How to REALLY use LinkedIn” by networking expert Jan Vermeiren. Check it out, you can find a free lite version at http://www.how-to-really-use-linkedin.com/
Hi Crystal , this article is right on,this is exactly what I have had to do. It does take a lot of time to keep up with these social sites. I am not as good as I should be about updates,but I am working on that.
I’m with you on the perfectionistic tendencies. Thanks for reminding me that something is better than nothing, that forward movement is what matters, and that I’m not alone!!!
Crystal
Thank you for your well written article. I too am a one person shop. I have been concerned lately that I am spending too much time on social media marketing. However, I do feel that it is the best way to grow my buisness. My business is B2B and B2C so I am on FaceBook (a personal profile and a business page) and on LinkedIn. I am on twitter to keep up with local goings on. Blogging and maintaining a website with a monthly newsletter as well as managing a monthly e-mail campaign are exhausting. Fortunately, I am in my “slow” season so I plan on taking advantage of the extra time now so that I will be in a good position when my “busy time” hits. With good planning and time managment skills it can be done.
I appreciate your statement about your blog “he important thing is that it’s going” … business owners need to be reminded that there needs to be a balance between perfection and action. If the pursuit of perfection is paralyzing you – then find a compromise that will allow you to move forward without sacrificing too much of your current image, vision or standards.
There’s no excuse not to get started …
Hello Crystal, What an awesome article. I find myself in so much that you are saying. Just now getting dressed whilst everyone is watching and adding that jacket and changing the shoes as I go along… I am now on linkedin and the next step now is facebook. Do you have any recommendation on how to do this professionally? Apart from showcasing my business services, I also would like to promote upcoming events. Thanks so much.
Elvira,
In regards to Facebook, you will want to set up a company page in addition to your personal profile. On the page, there are applications to list events and other links – perhaps of your clients. If you are going to be promoting your clients, make sure that they are aware that that is a benefit of working with you or you could even charge extra for it (but you would have to have a significant fan base before anyone would likely find it worthwhile to pay for). After you set up your page, I highly recommend connecting with as many people as possible to get them to be fans. You now have to get only 100 fans before you can create a customized link to your page – which is very important to have. You can do this by using your personal facebook connections and by using your email list.
I went on your website and just want to make a couple comments…the articles you have listed on the sidebar aren’t related to your business and that is confusing. I’m guessing that those are articles from your clients that you are promoting. If that is the case, I would recommend changing the title from just “Articles” to “Client Articles” or “Meet My Clients” or something similar. Since your company is focused on events, when I see “Articles” I’m anticipating articles about how to hold successful events. Also, the link to your Services is either not functioning or the page isn’t up. That is a crucial page to have because that is the first place potential clients will look. Not having that page is like walking around with a top and nothing but your underwear.
As you build your presence, focus on the key pieces that relate directly to revenue generation. One of the services I offer small businesses like yours is a strategic review that will help you know what strategies to focus on first to have the largest ROI. I can also help implement the strategies I recommend. Feel free to contact me if you want more information. Thanks for the comment!