Increase Social Media Results: Stay Focused and on Target

Social media can be both fun and frustrating for new people as well as seasoned folks. This article focuses on how to increase social media results including how to stay focused and on target.

One of the most frequent questions I'm asked is how I get everything done on social media. For a point of reference, I currently manage a social media portfolio of over eight million followers across Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Throw in my own personal social media network of almost 1,200,000 followers and you can see that I have learned a few things about getting social media results, staying focused, and keeping on target.

Define your niche

Creating a social media strategy with goals and objectives will help you improve your daily plan as well as your overall social media results and performance.

“Define your target audience looking for your specific area of expertise. Do not try to cater to everyone by being all things to all people. If you are truly committed to reaching the right audience, your content should speak directly to them.  says social media strategist Rebekah Radice.

• Maintain a focus on areas of authority. What is your specialty, service or skill-set? Building authority via social media requires an unwavering commitment to consistently sharing knowledge based on your particular expertise.
• Once you have your strategy in place, continue to add adjust and modify. This will keep your message fresh and your content relevant.”

In 5 Keys to Defining Your Niche, Debra Trappen gives this great little formula to great a niche statement:

In a nutshell, a niche statement formula looks like this: niche + problem + solution + promise = success.

Start by writing down these four elements:

1. Your niche (I work with _ _ _ _ _ _ _ )
2. Their problem (who want/need to _ _ _ _ _ _ _)
3. Your solution (If you are ready to or it is time to _ _ _ _ _ _ _ )
4. Your promise (I will _ _ _ _ _ _ _ )

Homework: Define your niche – it's essential for getting social media results. This must be done before you move on.

Define your goals

What is your goal for using social media? Here are some suggested goals:

• Build a social media platform – build a following for you or your brand.
• Build an email list – for future announcements or promotions.
• Make a name for yourself or your company – create thought leadership by being an authority in your area of expertise.
• Customer support and contact.
• Bring traffic to your website.

If you don't have a goal, you won't get too far. Great social media results don't happen by accident, defining your goals will help you get focused.

Homework: Narrow down why you want to use social media and then use metrics to track your success.

Create an editorial calendar

If you want to get anything done, you need to plan it! By scheduling your content and time, you'll cut down wasted time trying to scramble in the morning to find something to post or what topics to write about on your blog. I think many people feel it will take too long to create a calendar and plan their social media but it saves time in the long run and creates a much more niche-focused social media presence.

Creating and implementing a social media content calendar will boost your blog and round out all your content. You’ll want to share only a small percentage of your own blog content or content about you. The general guideline is 80% other people’s content and 20% your own. Being a good social friend and sharing other’s content builds your social network. Ultimately, you’d like to be in a position where people are organically finding your content and sharing it because they love it.

You can create one Excel workbook with a spreadsheet for blog content and another for social media content or you can use a spreadsheet for your editorial calendar and Buffer App or Hootsuite to create your social media plan. For my personal social media and blog, I use a spreadsheet and Buffer. For professional accounts that I manage, I use an Excel workbook with spreadsheets for blogging and social media content with Buffer and Hootsuite for scheduling.

Homework: Download this editorial calendar template and customize for your needs.

Be consistent

“Consistency is what psychologists call a “decision heuristic” — a shortcut for making decisions. Life is too complicated to carefully evaluate every element of every situation, so we learn to take shortcuts to help us make what are usually reasonable and reliable decisions. Consistency is a valuable adaptive behavior. Socially and personally, consistency is beneficial, a practical survival skill in a complex world. Doing things the same way time and time again, or maintaining the same ideas about things, gives us helpful shortcuts.” (read more at Influence and Persuasion: The Art of Consistency)

Consistency has a double benefit: one for you and one for those who follow you. The benefit to you is that it creates the habit of being consistent by filling the editorial calendar and meeting your goals. The benefit to your social media presence is that people will grow to know you. The more people know and like you, the more they will like you on Facebook or share your content. Being consistent will build trust, help you create authority, and receive more social signals. Consistency is important to achieve social media results, build authority, and a build an engaged network.

Remaining present and active with all the social media accounts that you start is important and vital to your success.

Homework: Figure out how much time you can realistically commit to each day or week to your social media and stick to it!

How to increase social media results: stay focused and on target

1. Define your niche to stay focused
2. Define your goals to create a smart plan
3. Create an editorial calendar to stay on track
4. Be consistent to build trust and authority

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to get you or your business ready to get focused, be consistent, and get great social media results! If you liked it, please consider sharing it with your networks on Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest or your favorite social platform. I'd love for you to stay connected so, please sign up to receive notifications for new content by email.