Posts Tagged ‘S.M.A.R.T.’

 

Four Steps to Crafting a Connection Strategy on Social Media

Monday, January 28th, 2013

The amount of information and the speed at which content is currently produced may seem overwhelming. If you have a message, product or service to deliver to the masses you may wish to use social media to connect with customers, friends or potential buyers.

But you first have to be heard.

How among all the social platforms will your voice be heard above the throng of tweets, posts and status updates?

connect

Katherine Pangaro via Compfight

Step 1: Craft a Plan

The first step to standing out from the crowd on social media is to plan. We know of a jewelry company who thought it was a ‘good idea to get on Facebook.’ After opening a Facebook page and uploading a few pictures of jewelry  they were disheartened to see very few people connecting with their business. They didn’t have a plan.

We’ll get into a few specifics below, but the old saying “if you fail to plan you plan to fail” certainly rings true.

Step 2: Set Your Goals

While crafting your plan, be specific. Use the acronym S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-based) as a guide. Ensure each of your tasks includes each and every S.M.A.R.T. item.

Step 3: Solicit for Feedback

Once a plan is crafted, consider that draft one. Perhaps you want to connect with customers on a social network like Facebook. Once you’ve crafted a plan using S.M.A.R.T. goals to do that, ask someone (and we’d be happy to help) what they think of your plan. It could be that Facebook may be the wrong platform and Pinterest or Google+ may better serve your demographic. Get a second opinion.

Step 4: Remain Consistent and Flexible

Consisten and flexible may seem dichotomous, but they’re not. A good parent is both consistent as well as flexible. The sam remains true for social media. As social media continues to expand, consistently learning new trends and methods of connection enables us not to get in a rut, rigidly refusing to adjust to changes in technological advances.

 

 

Social Media Tips Learned from Running

Friday, June 15th, 2012

The discipline of running changes lives… and love handles… and even our approach to social media.

A few of us at Wild Hair Media have taken to running–not that we love it, we don’t. But we love what it does for us.

We’ve adopted the tagline of  Tripp Crosby and Tyler Stanton’s site Reluctant Runners: “we love running, just not while we’re doing it.”

Well said gentlemen.

I personally started running because I knew I needed it, not because I had an objective or a strategy of how I was going to reach a running goal. I was just building a base because I knew I needed that rhythm of my life to include exercise.

You might be at the same place with your social media participation. You’ve jumped in with no real objective or strategy, but now it’s time for you to step back and establish those goals now that you’ve built up a basic base of knowledge.

Running has given me time to refresh and rethink. I’ve realized that our appraoch to social media and training for a marathon aren’t all that dissimilar.

(cue Chariots of Fire soundtrack and read the rest of this post while listening to those epic swells and falls)

Practical Social Media Tips Learned from Running

1. You don’t see instant results.

The first time I ran after years of not running was brutal. I felt like giving up, walking, and never doing it again.

+I felt like a failure.

+I didn’t know what I was doing.

+I didn’t have instant results.

It’s the same for your social media strategy. You need to be in it for the long haul. To build your platform you need to enter a marathon, not a sprint. Expecting immediate results from a few blog posts and tweets is like expecting to run a 5K before you’ve even run your first mile.

2. You need to have a strategy.

Successful runners set daily, weekly, monthly, and sometimes even yearly goals.

+Runners know what they want to accomplish.

+They write down their goals down and ensure they are S.M.A.R.T. goals (read more on S.M.A.R.T. goals here).

+They seek out help from those that have gone the course before.

In the social media space, a clearly defined plan which tackles the who, what, where, why, when, and how goal-related questions will give an edge over those that are simply tweeting, posting and updating their social platforms haphazardly.

3. You need to change up the routine.

After pushing through those first few runs, I began to see a difference. The runs got easier. I was making progress. It seemed so easy, until… I hit a plateau. Running hte same routes, at the same times, and feeling underwhelmed.

So it is with social media strategy. Just as a body gets accustomed to the same running trails, at times the approach we take to our social media strategy must change to reflect variety and creativity.

Run the marathon race of building your social media platform with a strategy and a flexible, creative mindset. And then go outside for a jog. You’ll be glad you did.