TOP 5 Steps to online social success.

Why are you doing this?

Most likely you are posting, pinning, streaming, casting, tweeting, commenting, reading, watching, and/or interacting with some type of social media on a regular basis. WHY?

I understand the draw for personal reasons but for business you have to know why or it can be all consuming and very costly. Hopefully by the end of thispost you will know why you do it and be able to take positive action for your business.

Do you have a specific GOAL in place?

If you do than, fantastic, but if you don't then STOP doing social activities until you do.

Determine your goal for the best direct positive impact on your business. Do you want to create a bigger pool of prospects for your business? Do you want search engines to find your content and rank your website better? Do you want to provide valuable information to your customers as a value add to your service or product? Do you feel you want to gain some visibility for your business within an industry group? Do you want to drive direct sales for your product or service? Etc...

Be specific and record the specifics somewhere for easy reference. An example may be, "I would like to build an audience of 200 prospects in the next 6 months and to convert 10 prospects into sales also within the next 6 months."

Do you have a way to MEASURE the progress towards your goal?

If you don't have a way to measure your performance or progress towards your goal, STOP, doing social activities until you do.

It is essential to have the means to measure your progress otherwise you won't know if your efforts are working or not. If you do have a means of measurement and things are not progressing towards your GOAL then you have a decision to make, but STOP until you make the decision.

If you don't have the means of measurement, set one up today! Is your goal an increase in sales, then how much of an increase do you need to reach your goal in time? If your goal is to provide added value to your service are you making sure a certain percentage of our audience is actually consuming your content in some way? If you are doing it to improve your search ranking, are you rising up in the rankings?

Are you doing this because the experts say you have to?

You are the expert with your business, if social activities don't help your business then STOP doing them.

It can hurt your business to do social activities wrong but it won't hurt your business if you don't do social at all.

One thing I see all the time is the enthusiastic business owner blogging up a storm, Facebook posting many times a day, etc... Only to run out of steam and leave a trail of old content for all to see. This can send the message to the world that you have given up and your business is on the decline.

Are you doing this for fun?

Fun is great if you can afford it, if not STOP.

One caveat here is that if the FUN provides you with more energy to go attack sales and you can measure the return against your goal then go for it!

Is your website in perfect professional shape?

NO, then STOP!

Your social channels should be used to push your audience back to your website where your call to action is. If your website is not ready then your social goals will fail.

Are you already in too deep and you haven't been following these success steps?

YOU need a social media RECOVERY strategy. Please contact me and we can talk about your options and next steps.