Why schedule your social media activity? The mid-experiment update.
Two weeks ago, I shared my experiment to schedule – and thus wrangle- my social media activities.
Many of my clients and friends have asked how the ‘test’ is going.
So far, so good.
My original goal was just to maximize my investment in Twitter and LinkedIn. But then….I realized I hadn’t shared how social media fits into my strategy. Here’s a summary:
Strategy: to grow Bellwether Strategies to [$ in annual revenue] by 2015 by offering strategic services that build the reputations and value of my clients – regulated, Canadian-based professional services firms. The Bellwether Strategies brand will be developed through careful cultivation of networks, proprietary resources and results that create competitive advantage.
Social media strategy: to grow the visibility and credibility of the Bellwether Strategies brand among influential networks using Twitter and LinkedIn. This will be achieved through participation in conversations, sharing resources and supporting those in my network. Results will be measured by search engine rankings, engagement and analytics. (I’m keeping the exact target numbers to myself…for now).
And here’s what I’ve learned so far in the experiment
LinkedIn Company Pages do not link properly to blogs built on WordPress. Sharing new articles, engaging in conversations, and building a following using the Bellwether Strategies company page takes a lot more than 10 minutes. LinkedIn is “working on this”.
Twitter works better for me to engage in social media than LinkedIn. Publishing links to my blog posts has increased the search engine rankings for my company name and my personal name. I know that clients search for me using both terms.
Three hours per week is just the right amount of time for me to balance social media with other strategies. It ensures that I ‘m doing something to keep up visibility in the networks I care about, and it sets a boundary for not getting lost in cyberspace.
Google Analytics is invaluable for measuring my blog and related activities. I track how people find the site, what they read, which services they’re interested in and how long they stay engaged in the site. Which tells me what I should market to whom.
There are some great resources available for anyone seeking advice on social media strategy. Some of the most helpful articles I found last week are on TechCrunch, the New York Times “You’re the Boss” column and an article “Scaling up Social Media” by the management consulting experts at Booz & Company.
Thanks for continuing to follow the experiment and for being curious about social media as a brand-building strategy. In the next two weeks, I’ll continue to measure results, investigate what can be outsourced and share some best practices.
