No time for social media? Try these steps.
Copyright © JC Kiadii, Mortgage Virtual Assistant and Online Marketing Specialist
Think you don’t have time for social media (blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, etc.)? Perhaps you are right.
Here are a few facts.
- Successful social media demands a substantial time commitment. With some social media platforms, just broadcasting your information is enough. Others, however, require a two-way conversation. This means you can’t just post information, you have to interact with other members and contribute.
Michael Stelzner‘s study of the time commitment required for social media shows more experienced social marketers spend over 10 hours a week. Another survey shows that social media may require an investment of over 30 hours per month per account.
- The social media landmark is vast. This diagram by Robert Scoble shows that you have many choices in social media. Wikipedia’s list of major active social media sites also shows the landscape.
All of this research supports what I’ve said in my Internet marketing training classes for a long time. Information marketers and other people who don’t have to work in their business have the most time for social media. Business owners like mortgage brokers who work 1-on-1 with clients, however, may not have the time to spend 1.5 to 2 hours a day.
So, what are you to do? These 3 steps will help you get visible and protect your brand.
- Hire someone to perform your keyword research. Keyword research is the first step in any online marketing. Your keyword research will tell you what terms you should use in all of your online marketing, in order to attract the attention of your target market.
If someone else conducts your keyword research, they should first interview you to find out information about your marketing plan, niche markets, competition, etc. The next step is to use a combination of automated and manual tools to comb through possible keywords to find ones that match your marketing strategy, have good traffic potential and minimal competition.
- Preserve your brand on the major social networks. Let’s say, for example, that you are known as the Mortgage Maverick. Establish accounts on the major social networks and reserve your name. That way, even if you don’t have the time to get involved right now, no one else can use it. You don’t have to fill in all of the profile information, but should you decide to do so, don’t forget those keywords!
- Pick the low hanging fruit. Create full profiles on Google profiles, LinkedIn, Google local, and a few other sites that may not require as much time to maintain.
Of course, if you have no time to do this at all, consider outsourcing some of your social media tasks. While some tasks should not be outsourced, there are many (such as establishing robust profiles on all of the major sites) a qualified professional can handle for you.
JC Kiadii, Mortgage Virtual Assistance and Internet Marketing Services .
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