The secret to effective time management in social media

Posted by: Michael Reynolds in General on Monday, April 23, 2012

I give regular presentations and training sessions on social media, online marketing, and technology-related topics. My audiences include business owners, professionals, and non-profit teams. 100% of the time I get this question or some variation of it:

“How much time do you spend on this stuff?”

Variations include:

“How do you find the time for all this?”
“How many hours a week do you spend online?”
“How much time do I need to spend on social media?”

My favorite is:

“When do you actually work?”

If I sense that my audience is truly looking for some practical “runway-level” tips on time management with online marketing, I will talk about automation, batched activity, block scheduling, and so on.

However, sometimes I will give a much simpler answer:

“Love what you do.”

That’s it. If you love what you do, you won’t ever have to ask how to find the time to talk about it. Social media is about communication with other people. If you love what you do, I mean truly love what you do with a passion, then talking about it with others will be effortless and natural. It won’t be forced and pushy; it will be honest and passionate and your business will grow naturally as a result.

You won’t have to “find the time” to be active in social media. It will become a natural extension of what you already do. You will be excited to have a new set of tools to expand your network and participate with a learners mind.

The bad news is, if you don’t love what you do this message will be uncomfortable for you. It might prompt you to question why you do what you do. It might make you think about change.

The good news is, what you do with your life is up to you.

So what is the secret to effective time management in social media? You could try block scheduling and other fancy things. Or you could simply love what you do.

Prioritizing social networking with your DISC profile

Posted by: Michael Reynolds in General on Monday, April 16, 2012

With four major social networks now competing for your attention, it can sometimes be overwhelming trying to keep up. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus all have shiny appeal and are full of people just dying to network with you. But what if you only have so much time? How do you prioritize while still getting value out of social media, both personally and professionally?

My friend, you need to dust off your DISC profile.

If you are familiar with DISC and have taken it once or twice, you are probably already nodding and seeing a light bulb start to glow above your head. If not, be sure to do some reading on it. DISC is a personality assessment that uses four different classifications to identify how you behave and function. You can find plenty of places to take the DISC online. Or better yet, talk to our friends at Lushin for some professional feedback on DISC. The types are:

• Dominance: relating to control, power and assertiveness
• Influence: relating to social situations and communication
• Steadiness: relating to patience, persistence, and thoughtfulness
• Conscientiousness: relating to structure and organization

Upon taking the assessment, you will be given a report that includes a chart explaining where you fall in the DISC personality types. For example, I am both a very high “D” and a very high “I”. My “C” is third and my “S” is last. This means I am very action-oriented, outgoing, and somewhat process-driven.

So how does this relate to your social media activity? Well, I believe that people are most successful when their activities are aligned with their energy and interests. If this is true, then why not use your DISC profile to help you decide which social network will be the most effective and natural for you? Let’s take a look at each type and which social network is the best match.

D – Your network is Twitter.

Twitter is fast-paced, concise, and to the point. As a “D”, you have a bias toward efficiency, action, and speed. People who ramble and take forever to get to the point exasperate you. You’re in luck because those people don’t survive on Twitter. Since this network is fast-paced, limited to 140 characters per post, and full of rapid exchanges of information, you’ll feel right at home on Twitter.

I – Your network is Facebook.

As an “I”, you are the life of the party, you love to talk to people, and you like to have fun. Facebook is the place for you. Here you’ll find photos of parties, cats, and other people. Additionally, you’ll find lots of photos of you, which appeals to your slightly narcissistic (but well-meaning) desire to be noticed. People tend to be the most casual and “fun” on Facebook. Let’s face it, as an “I” you like people and you like having fun and being a little silly. Facebook encourages all of this.

S – Your network is Google Plus.

As an “S” you crave tight personal relationships and security. Google Plus offers both since it is built on a system of “circles” that allow you to easily group people into sub-networks that are private and exclusive. You can easily keep your conversations within certain circles and avoid broadcasting your messages to everyone at once. Additionally, the clean and simple user interface of Google Plus appeals to your aversion to over-stimulation and clutter. Google Plus will be a peaceful place for you.

C – Your network is LinkedIn.

As a high “C” you crave order, rules, and systems. You’re in luck because LinkedIn is built around all three. First of all, LinkedIn is all business so it appeals to your desire to keep your personal and professional lives separate and your personal life private. It is based on strict rules of conduct and communication that encourages people to only make connections based on a prior meeting or a specific reason outlined in the rules. It is designed to make networking systematic, structured, and safe. As the most process-driven and professional social network, LinkedIn will be a zen-like oasis for your high “C” desire for structure.

My favorite social network is Twitter, and as you can see it lines up very well with my high “D” personality. I like fast-paced, efficient communication so Twitter is the place for me. I like all four major networks and Facebook and LinkedIn both appeal to my “I” and “C”, but I find myself gravitating most often to Twitter when I default to my most comfortable medium.

So if you’re wondering how you might prioritize your time on social media, try comparing your activity to your DISC profile and embrace the network that appeals to your style the most. You might end up enjoying social media even more.

Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go see what I’ve missed on Twitter in the last hour...

The value of an event landing page

Posted by: Michael Reynolds in General on Monday, November 7, 2011

So you've got a great event set up - maybe it's a seminar, webinar, conference, or networking event. You've got your agenda set, your speakers, and all the others details. Now it's time to get people to come.

There are many ways to promote your event. Having a great permission-based email database will give you an audience to invite, and social media can also be a great channel for promotion. But there is one piece of the puzzle that I often see forgotten, even by large organizations.

Do you have a well-optimized event landing page?

A landing page is a key component in marketing your event. I see lots of organizations that miss this part of the equation. They send out emails with a PDF attached, or announce the event at meetings, but they don't give their audiences a call to action that drives them to the next step. When someone gets an email with a PDF attached announcing the event, they have a few options: add it to a calendar, delete the email, file it away for later processing, ignore it, RSVP by calling or emailing, and/or forwarding it to someone else. None of these things are very difficult, but when placed in the context of a busy inbox full of other competing email, delete often becomes the path of least resistance.

Even worse is the verbal announcement. I can't remember the last time I actually attended an event that was only verbally announced to me. It's just not worth the effort of researching the event information and adding it to my calendar based on bits and pieces that I hear at a meeting.

However, there is one action that people can take that is easier than all of the other options: a click.

Every call to action within an announcement should be a click that leads to an event landing page on your website. An event landing page gives your constituents all the necessary information to make a fast decision about attending, and also gives them the option to quickly register online on the spot. This removes friction. Most of us are faced with decision fatigue every day and anything that removed friction from a decision will help your constituents make a commitment.

If you are using a good Content Management System (CMS), building an event landing page should be very easy. Your CMS should allow you to set up all the necessary elements for your landing page.

Some elements of a well-optimized landing page include:

Location information with map link. This should be obvious but I often see event pages that just give a generic venue name like "The City Center Building" or something. Don't make people look up addresses or guess. Include the venue name, complete address, and a link to a Google Map to make it easy to get directions on the spot.

Online registration. Assuming you are requesting an RSVP or a registration (which most professional events do), capturing online registration is a must. Your landing page needs to make registration quick, easy, and painless. If payment is required for the event, your constituents should be able to pay online with a credit card.

Social sharing widgets. One advantage of an event landing page is the fact that it serves as a centralized "hub" on the web that others can share and drive traffic to. By placing re-tweet buttons, Facebook Like buttons, and other share buttons on the landing page, you make it easy for others to share the event with their networks. This is a good thing, as it can increase exposure and registrations.

Well-written event description. A good landing page includes clear, articulate information about the event. Clear start times and end times, speaker bios and details, and narrative about the content will all help your constituents make a more rapid decision about attending the event.

Short event URL. Every email or post you send out should drive people to your landing page with a single click. If you plan to announce the event verbally or place the URL on print material, the URL should be short, such as "www.domain.com/summit" or something similar. A short, easy to remember event URL will make it easier to market verbally and in print because it makes it easier for people to type it in to get more information.

Once you have a strong event landing page built, you can use that as your centralized location that all of your promotional efforts point to. To see some examples of SpinWeb's landing pages, feel free to visit our events section and click on the title of any event.

Hopefully this helps offer some insight into how to create an optimized event landing page. If you have any comments or tips of your own, please feel free to post them below.

It's not just about social media

Posted by: Michael Reynolds in General on Monday, October 24, 2011

The term "social media" is everywhere. It's shiny, it's trendy, and everyone either wants to hear more about it or is already tired of it. Social media is a great way to communicate. I love the technology that allows me to stay in touch with people from all over the world and share information, media, and content.

Social media is also good for businesses (and non-profits). However, a lot of organizations are jumping into social media with blinders on. They seem to have decided that Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the silver bullets that will cause their organizations to become overnight successes, and that they will automatically get more customers by asking for more "Likes" on Facebook.

I typically encourage my clients to think bigger.

Social tools can be a key component in a successful digital marketing system. However, it's only one component. A successful strategy also includes other key components - things like email, your website, QR codes, presentations, print (yes - sometimes print!), podcasts, and especially content.

More importantly is how you tie it all together. You can set up Facebook pages, ask for likes, tweet links, and generally "show up" on social media all day but unless you have a clear vision of how it fits together and how your content marketing system is structured, your marketing will not reach it's full potential.

Try thinking of social media as one piece of the pie. Explore some ideas for how you can tie social media to email, video, articles, and other types of content. Where do you want to guide your constituents? What specifically do you want your Twitter followers or Facebook fans to do next? What would motivate them to follow you?

By creating a plan for how it all fits together, you will begin to see the big picture and can optimize each segment more efficiently. This will help your organization go from "jumping into" social media to executing a strategic digital marketing plan.

P.S. This Friday's webinar would be a great place to start.

Optimize your website for social media

Posted by: Michael Reynolds in General on Monday, December 6, 2010

Most blogs and the websites they live on today have social widgets that allow readers to share the website's content on social networks. This is extremely important because your readers are your best promoters. If they like your content, they will share it with their networks which will drive more traffic to your website, along with a strong peer endorsement.

However, so much of the time, websites are not optimized for maximum effectiveness when content is shared. There are three things I frequently see as "red flags" on blogs that hurt the organization's chances of reaching the most people.

1. Lack of attribution in the Re-tweet widget. You've probably noticed that most blogs allow readers to share the content on Twitter via a re-tweet button. However, most of the time I've noticed that it does not include the organization's Twitter ID in the post. When someone shares your content on Twitter, it should include your Twitter ID. For example, if you click the Tweet button at the bottom of this blog, you will notice that it includes the text "via @spinweb" at the end. This does a couple of things. One: it allows us to see who is re-tweeting our content, which means we can follow up with a thank you, a follow back, or some other form of communication. Two: it grows our Twitter following because now anyone else who sees that posting can easily click on our Twitter ID and follow us.

2. Un-captivating titles. The TITLE tag of your web pages is typically what gets displayed on social networks when your content is shared. Many organizations don't put a whole lot of thought into how their individual blogs and web pages display the title of the content so it ends up being something like "Company XYZ - Marketing tagline - Content headline". This is not ideal because when a blog is shared on Facebook or Twitter, the first thing people see is the company name, followed by a tagline, and finally (if there is room), the title of the article. This looks somewhat spammy and will not generate much interest. Instead, make sure your content title leads with the headline of the article so that people will instantly be able to see the topic when it is shared on social networks. This will maximize the chances that people will click on the link and come to your website.

3. Lack of social commenting. Many blogs allow readers to post comments on articles. However, most of the time these comments only exist on the blog itself and do not reach much further. Services like Disqus, however, allow readers to log in with their Facebook or Twitter accounts and post with their own photos and names which personalizes the experience. It also allows commenters to share their comments on social networks, which in turn drives more traffic to your website. Try it by commenting on this blog below. Be sure to log in with one of your social profiles and choose the option to share it with your networks.

Want more eyes on your content? With a few simple changes, you can easily increase the number of visits, followers, and readers you acquire to your website and blog. Comments and questions are welcome.