As a business owner using social media you’re probably well invested in using it frequently in your business. It’s a marvellous way to promote yourself, and build your brand. You tweet, update your status on various social networking platforms and blog whenever you can. But have you a direction for all your social media activity? Or do you sometimes feel rather like a hamster… running fast, trying to keep up, but not entirely sure of your direction?
Here are 7 signs you may be on a social media treadmill.
1. You totally get the social media thing. Hey, you “do” social media, just like everyone else does. Trouble is you’re not entirely sure why. You just know you should do it.
2. You’ve set up several social networking profiles…LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and even a couple of other social platforms your friends invited you to join. You update your status, but it’s about all you’ve been able to do. You’d love to keep them all up to date and join in the conversation regularly, but, well, there are only 24 hours in a day!
3. You diligently update all your profiles so people know what you’re doing. Sometimes you get tired of it, but if you don’t update people wonder if you’re ok.
4. You Tweet diligently every day, for hours a day. In fact, while you would never admit it, if you didn’t tweet every day you’re certain you’d get withdrawal symptoms.
5. You diligently answer tweets, questions, given answers and comment. You silence the sneaky little voice that whispers it feels more and more like a chore.
6. You’re connected… to everyone and everything. Everyone said you had to “get connected” so you did. Now you wonder what’s next. What should you do with all your connections?
7. You think you might be spread a little too thin… but you’re not quite sure what to do about it.
There is no doubt that you should be taking advantage of social media to boost your business. However, as many business owners have found out, social media can be very time consuming.
How does a business owner keep up and do it all? And how to get off the treadmill – or, better still avoid the treadmill entirely?
How do you scale and manage your social media activities? Or is social media just one more thing to add to your already full plate?
Share your thoughts… and stay tuned for part 2.
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I was wondering how people find the time to tweet all day. I don’t have that kind of time, so I came up with a system. http://www.directcreative.com/blog/hootsuite-social-marketing
Dean… Thanks for commenting – I read just a few lines of your post and it was like I was listening to myself! We have some of the exact same challenges. I too don’t know how people find the time to tweet all day and not just to tweet – to be present all the time on all the social media platforms seemingly at the same time. I know I find it very difficult and others have told me they do as well, hence this post. I’m going to check out the rest of your post.
Well at least I’ve managed one treadmill apparently! Reading this it felt like you watched me at the computer for the day and then just wrote down what you saw. Looking forward to part two!
Dean,
I would never merge my FB and LinkedIn accounts, since I use the first one for real friends only, while the second is for work relationships – although there are some friends too. This makes everything even more complicated!
“Meeting piazzas” like ADV Boucle Blog (where I found this interesting article, thanks Nicky!) are my favourite social media, where I can find interesting ideas & thoughts, promising contacts, etc.
Cheers!