Why Facebook restrict your post reach

Friday 15 March 2013

Does Social Media take too long? - A Guest Blog from Jon Baker




Does Social Media take too long?

Jon Baker of venture-Now (see below) has written this guest blog for 24/7.


I've always been told, but now I’ve actually discovered that I get most benefit from Social Media when I engage in discussions, in a structured manner.

Underlying this is a need to have clear objectives, linked to your strategy. This article is about my daily one hour routine - my “socmed hour” (it’s normally more like 40 minutes by the way).

What’s your routine – or when are you going to create one?


My LinkedIn morning routine

  • Groups: I’m a member of many groups which I break into 5 categories. I scan one of those categories daily. It takes 10 minutes, the objective: Contribute to interesting discussions, share information etc.
  • My profile: Check to see who’s visited my profile. Often I’ll drop them a quick LinkedIn mail to say Hi. It takes 2 minutes, the objective is to engage with potential contacts
  • Group discussions: I review responses to any comments I’ve made in discussions. LinkedIn only emails me when somebody responds to one of my comments, I focus on those threads. Those emails go to a specific folder in my email, not my inbox. It takes 10 minutes, the objective is to engage with potential contacts and prospects.

My Twitter morning routine

  • Scan through the followers I’m most interested in. Respond to interesting comments. If you think there are too many tweets and not enough time, try using lists differently. It takes 10 minutes, the objective is to engage with potential contacts.
  • Produce 10 RTs: Scan through source material looking for interesting tweets and schedule RTs throughout the day (one of my favourite tools, bufferapp is great for this). It takes 10 minutes, the objective is to become known for providing useful material, attracting new followers and engage with existing followers.
  • Review best responses to RTs: Look at the retweets from the previous day, look for the one that created the most interest and consider using it as a LinkedIn discussion group topic. Total time 2 minutes and the objective is to source good material for LinkedIn
  • New Followers: Review the tweets from my new followers, respond to some and decide to follow them, or not. I take no more than 5 minutes, and engage with new followers

Twitter spare time.

A couple of times through the day I spend 10 minutes (and no more – use an alarm clock), look at tweets mentioning me and respond where appropriate.  Read tweets made by people I’m most interested in, respond where appropriate (A-listers). Time: 2-3 minutes. Favourite any tweets I see that I might later RT

LinkedIn spare time.

Look at my home page, like or comment on entries as appropriate, for no more than a minute.

LinkedIn weekly activities

  • Group discussions: Start an interesting, useful discussion in each of the groups I’m in every 2-3 weeks. These are based on useful material I can share, seeking views on issues. Using LinkedIn groups for growing business makes lots of sense. Time: 10 minutes. Objective: Engage with potential contacts and prospects.
  • Connections: Seek target connections and either connect, get alongside or develop the relationship off line. Time: 10 minutes (excl speaking offline). Objective: Increase business.

Summary

That’s about 4 hours a week (equivalent to one networking meeting) during which I get to influence and “meet” a lot more people than one face to face networking meeting.

Fundamental to this philosophy is that:


That's the thinking behind the way I use my time; what's yours?

Jon Baker is a 24-7 Group Director in Milton Keynes. He is a Business Coach, Sales trainer and experienced public speaker. He works with the owners of businesses that have 5 to 50 staff and helps them to create focus, clarity and more profit in their organisation.

Tuesday 5 March 2013

24-7’s philosophy on Social Media Training..



24-7 Business Networking help Small Businesses and SME's... create more LEADS, and make more SALES, using SOCIAL MEDIA!  We do this through high quality training showing you how to use Social Media and how to link Social Media into your marketing strategy, you grow your business in a focused way. 

This training is delivered as ‘byte’ sized tutorials in our Fortnightly Meetings and through a growing portfolio of Training Courses.

When it comes to Social Media Training, for the Cautious or the Capable, our constantly updated tutorials and training courses take you beyond your self taught knowledge, and shield you from the existing, changing and emerging technologies. 

We keep it SIMPLE, we keep it PRAGMATIC we show you HOW, and we HELP you to make the most of Social Media, quickly taking you from Cautious to Capable.

Our training is structured around our Social Media - Success Circle…

We have a strong and growing portfolio of Tutorials and Training Courses covering each of the five elements in the Success Circle.

Our Social Media Phylosophy can be explained using our 'Success Circle' ...

The 24-7 Social Media Success Circle
24-7 Success Circle

At the heart, before anything else (inclulding developing your business goals and strategies), you need to have a complete understanding of your Brand.  If you need help with this - give Mick a call, or seek out a good business mentor / coach.  You could also try reading a highly recommend book - Simon Sinek's "Start With Why".

Once you understand your brand, then you can work on your goals and the business strategies that you are going to deploy to achieve those goals.  NOW 24-7 can start working with you and putting together a Social Media Strategy that supports your Business Stratagies in achieving your Business Goals.  There has to be a clear tangible link between what you do in your Social Media and achieving your Business Goals.


Why do it? What do I want?  We help you consider the VALUE of what you are looking to achieve in your Social Media and how that will support your wider Business Goals.  Are you goals to get:
•          Leads
•          Sales
•          Known 
•          Web traffic
•          Increased profile
And we help you determine how much time, or resources, you can devote to achieving this.

Who do I need to connect to?  Having worked What you want from your Social Media te very strategic question 'Who do I Connect with?" should be fairly easy to answer.  Visualising your ideal client, developing the persona of the people that will help you achieve your business goals should be straight forward IF you have a clear understanding of your brand.  If you are struggling with "Who do I need to connect to?"  its very likely you haven't fully defined and understood your brand.

At 24-7 we help you consider…
•          What type of people are best positioned to help with your objective?
•          Which Social Media platforms are they on?
•          How can you connect to them?
•          Work out what they are interested in?
•          Work out what can you do for them?

Where do I find them?  Now you understand 'who' you need to be reaching out to, attracting, engaging and networking with you can consider where these poeple will be - online.  Which platforms is the obvious starting point.  But within the platforms, where do they go?  Do they read news, attend to their time line or maybe hang out in groups, in whihc case ... which groups?
•          Which platforms are they likely to be on?
•          What are they interested in?
•          Search your existing connections
•          Which Groups, Pages, forums etc

What do I say to them?  As your networks grow what you say becomes increasingly important, we help you consider …
•          What your network are interested in?
•          What your personal brand should be?
•          Where you can find interesting material for your network?    (Curation)
•          How you can easily share that material with them?
•          How you can write interesting material for them?      (Content)

How do I organise them?  Now you are growing your Networks in a targeted and focused  way, we help you consider …
•          How to manage your network using LinkedIn Groups, Twitter Lists,
      Google+ Communities /Circles to manage your network.
•          Automation tools to help you engage with your networks
•          Tools to find appropriate material to share with
•          How you can manage and listen to all that NOISE

How do I know it’s working?
 With your social media campaign under way – like all strategies - you need to measure to ensure how things are going, we help you consider …
•            What was the objective?
•            How can you measure your Social Media against your objectives?
•                Followers and connections
•                Interactions
•                The results of it all?
•            How do you adjust what you are doing to improve it?

And at the heart of the circle sits your Brand and Business Strategy - everything you do Social Media wise must be consistent with achieving the Business goals and objectives.

We are always looking to improve 24-7's support for Small Businesses and SME's, we have Social Media Training on hand with a growing syllabus of courses.  But what other training do you think Small Businesses and SME's could do with to improve their businesses and achieve their strategic goals and objectives?