Social media exhaustion
Jul 5th
I take my first sip of fresh-brewed coffee and sit down in front of my computer for my 15 minutes of morning social media updating.
Blog reader. Let’s see what happened over the weekend … 328 new relevant articles. Where to even begin? I don’t.
On to Blogger. Need to finish an article, but when I add a photograph, all the spacing between paragraphs goes wacky, like soldiers breaking ranks. Damn. How many times have I formatted this thing?
Check Twitter. Ten new followers. Cool. Wait … nine of the avatars are people offering to help me get rich quick. Block … block … ummm … why are these folks still showing up on my list? Dreaded Twitter “whale of death” plops itself down in the middle of my screen. Too much traffic. Twitter down for the count.
Linked-in … 398 new discussions on the In eMarketing Forum. I can’t begin to wade through the snake oil to see if something meaningful is hiding in there.
Forget it. Go to email. 112 messages overnight. Quick scan shows:
Twelve e-newsletters
Eleven free social media webinars
Ten spammers
Nine blog comments to be moderated
Seven tweet-ups
Six Google alerts
Five new Linked-In requests
Four industry alerts
Three Facebook friend requests
Two news alerts
… and a partridge in a pear tree.
Social media has hijacked my morning. This new “free” channel is soaking up something more precious than money – time. I feel it sucking me under.
Some pundits claim you can manage a social media lifestyle in 15-30 minutes a day, but I don’t know how you can effectively participate in even a modest global conversation in that timeframe.
Help! How are you dealing with the increasing time requirements of social media? What are you doing to discipline yourself while providing meaningful engagement?
Tomorrow: A cure for social media exhaustion — digital de-tox?
Social media imperatives for small businesses
Jul 1st
My friend Nathan Egan recently gave an interview to Business Week describing the imperatives for small business to engage in social media marketing. Here are some of the highlights:
1) Social media is new but it’s not going away. It’s a valuable new extension of traditional business communication. Jump aboard!
2) Your competition is going to be doing it, if they aren’t already. You need to make a start and take the time to learn it, now!
3) For many small business owners, social media is an excellent way for virtual networking, providing a highly-efficient method for finding new customers and business contacts.
4) Social media is highly-customizable to fit your business needs. It’s not just about getting a Facebook page. There is no cut-and-paste blanket strategy. Tailor to your existing communication strategy and customer needs.
5) Take a slow, strategic, approach. Before you begin, take some time to learn. See what’s out there. Monitor activity. Listen before you start engaging. Set aside at least 10 minutes a day to read and become familiar with your options.
6) Set up RSS news feeds to help you define your strategy and learn about what’s going on.
7) Setting up social media initiatives takes time, but keep an eye on the long-term costs-savings. A highly cost-effective way to go to market compared to traditional media.
8) Take advantage of short-cuts and automated systems. There are many free applications to help you work more efficiently once you get started.
More from Nathan Egan:
Lessons from a marketing strategy gone wrong (mine!)
Jun 29th
The theme for the blog this week is “strategy” and the first thing I needed to do is turn the microscope on myself.
It’s ugly. I have not been following my own rules … but let’s see what you might learn from my mistakes.
Something I have preached relentlessly: When you start a social media strategy, it needs to be integrated into your overall business objectives … which hopefully are aligned with customer wants and needs. Remember, social marketing is still MARKETING. Same fundamental rules apply.
My traditional core business is providing low-cost marketing services to businesses in the Southeast U.S. When I started this blog a few months ago, I had that objective and those customers firmly in mind. But then it all went wrong.
Here’s what’s happened:
- Over time I have been writing less about small business marketing fundamentals, and more about B2B and social media. It’s what’s interesting to me right now, so I went with it!
- The people who read my blog and follow my tweets now come from all over the world — relatively few from my core market.
- Based on my social media presence, including the blog, Twitter, and my web page, I am getting new customers from California, Switzerland and Australia — not what I originally had in mind.
In a matter of weeks, my core business competency and customer base changed dramatically, because my message and audience changed dramatically. Isn’t that interesting? I wasn’t consistent and now I’m challenged to match my STRATEGY to my inconsistent MESSAGE!!
How did this happen? I lost sight of my core mission because writing the blog became so much fun. I wasn’t “marketing.” I was being me. And it worked out fine. I didn’t choose my audience. My audience chose me.
What did I learn? Perhaps in social media, “being me” IS the strategy.
A great example of B2B social media marketing
Jun 27th
Two weeks ago I named GE as one of the Top 5 B2B superstars utilizing social media marketing strategies. Yesterdays’ announcement on a new R&D Center in Michigan and 1,200 new jobs is a wonderful illustration of why they earned this honor.
1) An “announcement about the announcement” was broadcast over the GEreports website, blog, Twitter and Facebook.
2) By simply clicking on a link within a tweet, you could access a real-time, live, HD news feed from Michigan featuring CEO Jeff Immelt and Michigan government officials.
3) Follow-up reports of the speech were available on all social media channels and a subsequent Immelt speech to the Detroit Economic Club were available immediately. A video of the speech is featured on the GEreports website.
4) A video describing the new research center was available the same day on YouTube. An interview with the GE research director explained what would be happening at the facility. It had already received 308 views in the first day.
OK, that is impressive, but if you need any further convincing, here’s the icing on the cake.
Obviously this announcement spurred a lot of interest and excitement, but not all of the reactions were positive. GE has the foresight and courage to host an open dialogue in their onsite commentary, including comments like: “With your speech today regarding Research Center $100 million manufacturing technology center … GE stock went down today. Jeff NO ONE BELIEVES YOU ANY MORE!!!”
That’s an ouch. But a key to social media success is being willing to turn the dialogue over to the community and GE is doing it.
Last week the GE social media team agreed to an interview about their social media strategy and I’m hoping this will be posted on {grow} this week. Stay tuned for an inside view of a major B2B social media success story!
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