At a recent seminar, we heard a social media expert say that marketers need to spend at least 10 hours a week researching, posting, Tweeting, monitoring and responding in order to execute a successful social media strategy. This guideline seems reasonable if social media management is a key aspect of your job description, but what if you wear other hats like many of our small business clients do? Does that mean your social media efforts are wasted if you can’t even spend a fraction of that time?
At OnMark, we’ve become skilled at customizing online marketing strategies to both business goals and internal resources. We believe that while 10+ hours a week may be ideal, it is not realistic for many companies and that there are ways to manage these social media efforts, achieve results and still focus on your core business.
So what if you only can dedicate 2 hours a week to social media? What should you do to make the most of your time?
Start small and focus on the Big 3: Email, Facebook and Twitter. There are an overwhelming number of social media outlets, many of which may or may not make sense for your company. But if you opt to tackle the ones people are the most active on, you’re off to a great start. Consider establishing or enhancing an email marketing program. Set up a Twitter and/or Facebook account and get a conversation started on around something that is relevant to your target audience.
Use a free social media monitoring and management tool like HootSuite (http://hootsuite.com). Using HootSuite’s dashboard feature, you can monitor and post to multiple social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. You can also write and schedule messages ahead of time so they are sent when it makes the most sense for your audience.
Establish a monthly “editorial calendar” in advance. Take one hour and brainstorm or send an email to various functions in your company and enlist their help. What are the most frequently asked questions they receive? What are important industry trends and news items you can comment on or post links to in Facebook or Twitter? Mix in some seasonal and/or personal entries and you’ve got a good mix of messages that you can cycle through as needed.
Sign up for Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts) and other tools to automatically receive email updates on what’s being said about your brand, the competition and your industry. This service delivers the information to your in-box daily or weekly. Regularly scanning the alerts helps keep social media messages timely and can give you ideas on what others in your industry are doing with their social media strategy.
Consider outsourcing the more time-consuming pieces, such as strategy development, measurement and ongoing planning efforts. There are benefits to letting an online marketing expert help define your overall social media strategy since they have access to the latest tools and resources. You are the content expert so your input is critical, but this gives you the opportunity to influence the overall direction without spending the time researching and developing the plan and budget.
