You were excited about getting your organization involved with tools like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. But your efforts have only produced online cobwebs and tumbleweed.
Now you’re frustrated and ready to swear off social networking for good. Don’t let that happen because social media is a wonderful tool that can boost your brand awareness, bring in new supporters, and rally followers to your mission.
Most likely you treated social media like a New Year’s Resolution. You were excited about it at first but then your enthusiasm started to fade when you didn’t see instant results. An effective online strategy requires a lot of planning, patience, and persistence. Here are some of the common mistakes you need to avoid:
People Don’t Know About You
You’ve signed up for social media sites and expect people to magically appear and become your followers. “If you build it, they will come,” only works in Iowa cornfields. From business cards to brochures to email signatures, you need to list all of the sites where you have a presence. Every opportunity you have, you need to let people know that they can find out more about your business by visiting your Facebook, MySpace, or YouTube pages. Social media does not reward the shy.
Not Enough Or Any Updates
You’ve successful directed people to your pages but there’s no reason for people to ever come back. The problem is that you don’t provide a steady stream of updates. This happens a lot for organizations that rely on traditional marketing tools like quarterly newsletters.
But online, you can’t update your supporters and fans every three months. That’s too long of a wait and the kiss of death. Instead you need to provide regular updates, even if that means breaking a print newsletter into lots of online segments.
Make a commitment to a schedule of updates and then stick to it. This can be news from your organization, pictures, or comments on national news stories. These updates don’t need to be very long but they should tell people something they didn’t know about your organization. You’re goal is to be the most interesting person at a party, who always has a good story and never outstays his or her welcome.
You Ignore Daily Opportunities
If you do anything of interest, you need to capture the moment with a digital camera or video recorder. Within a few hours, you need to post your photos or videos and tell people to log on to see them. Don’t let pictures become leftovers that no one wants to eat. Serve them up while they’re still fresh in their minds.
One Person Does All the Work
When one person is in charge of updating all of your social networking ventures, it’s easy for them to become burned out. Plus, what happens if they go on vacation or become ill? Spread the workload, make sure everyone has a backup, and ensure that your online efforts will continue no matter what happens.
You Have No Patience
It’s easy to think, that like Oprah, you can get a million followers on Twitter in less than a week. But unless you host a daytime talk show, things probably won’t move that fast at first. Don’t get discouraged if you only have a handful of followers. And most importantly, provide the same level of quality in your postings whether you have one or one million followers.
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Copyright 2009 Ken Okel
Ken Okel helps people and organizations get around the obstacles that are blocking the path to success.
If you want to get better results, subscribe to his free, biweekly newsletter at www.kenokel.com
You will also receive his special report, 7 Communication Mistakes that are Costing You Money, and have a chance to watch clips from his presentations.
Ken is available to speak to your organization. Call him at (561) 737-4321 or email TVGuy@kenokel.com to reserve your program date or to find out more.
