Are You Making These Two Social Media Mistakes?

There are two big mistakes that many business owners make when it comes to using Social Media. The first is over using it. And the second is not using it at all.

When you don’t use social media often, or at all, how will anyone see what you are sharing – you’re not being social. It’s like going to a party and then sitting in the corner and not talking to anyone.

Conversely, over using will sour people – especially if you are self-promoting a lot and not providing benefits to others. Think of that same party and the person who is  obnoxiously attempting to be the centre of attention.

To assist you with avoiding these mistakes, you will want to create a schedule that keeps you in the conversation, as well as taking some time each week to prepare some simple messages that you would like to convey for the coming week.

The exact schedule that works best for you will begin to come to light as you work the  schedule. For now, you can use the following guidelines to assist you.

1. Create a schedule for status updates staggered throughout the day.
In general you may want 6-7 tweets and 2-3 facebook updates.

2. Create updates from your blog posts, newsletter articles, products, sales pages, etc.
Of these you will want to keep the number that include links to 50-75%. The rest you will you want to provide as statements or thought provokers.

3. Be organic throughout the day.
Social media is social – so remember to be social. Including an update that is live and  in the moment builds relationships with your followers and prospects.

4. Return the favour.
Comment on your friends’ updates as well as retweet your followers’. This is another relationship builder. I have had people follow and friend me because of my connections.

You will want to track your results and adjust as you see fit. This is not a one-size fits all model. Don’t be afraid to modify and make it work for you.

Bonus Tip for Systemization: Schedule it and forget it.
You can use a service such as Hootsuite to upload your social media in a bulk upload. This is not part of their free service, but it is well with the $6/month investment. All you do is create a CSV file (if that’s too technical for you, no worries, your VA should be able to take care of it for you) and you can upload up to 50 posts in seconds to your various social media profiles.