Prioritize Your Social Media Efforts

November 18, 2009 · Comments

stacks There aren’t enough hours in the day for all the chores that social media puts in front of us. The best writing I’ve found on how to manage your time in social media is via Amber Naslund’s social media time management series. Her efforts in crafting this should become a little ebook that you hand around to everyone. If you skipped over that link, go back, click it to open a new tab/window, and then read it when you’re done with this (or skip mine and read Amber’s- it’s that good). If you’re still with me, here’s what I want to say on the matter.

These are written from a marketer’s perspective. I can write from other perspectives if you want. Just let me know in the comments.

Prioritize Your Social Media Efforts

First, the Foundations

Without the following, there’s no point doing social media and social networking for business.

  • Goals first – If you don’t stick to your goals, there’s no reason to put any time into social media, period. If your goal is to build relationships that yield sales for your organization, then make sure you’re always trying to answer the question: “how do I know which relationships will yield, and how do I attract/find more of those people who are perfect for my product/service?”
  • Dashboard – At New Marketing Labs, we’re going into 2010 with the rule that all projects have a dashboard of measurements. We will be clear with every client which needles we’re going to move for them, and how. Without an understanding of progress, how will we know we’re helping them with their goals?
  • Strategies – Strategies are paths one might take to accomplish one’s goals. Come up with a few strategies (not too many, but not one), and make those strategies relate to your goals and not to the tools. To start with the tools in mind is to believe those tools will be there forever. Where’s your Plurk strategy? Right.
  • Wins/Losses – What do you want to count as a win or a loss? Make sure your dashboard can report on this.

In Order Of Value

  • Listen – Listening gives you data, gives you metrics, gives you topic material for content, gives you a sense of where your crowd is. Use professional listening tools and even some free ones to be sure you’ve got information and a hot map of the territory.
  • Read/Consume – Might seem counter to what you think I’d say, but I read several blogs and news sources before I start in on many of my other social media duties. Why? Because it gives me perspective, it lets me know what folks are finding useful, it gives me ideas on what the topics I follow might need from me.
  • Comment/Share – I comment and share other people’s work for two reasons: first is that I want you to see the good stuff. Second, is that it also starts/encourages new relationships between people. Some of these relationships benefit me. Many benefit the person I point out. It all works to form a nice ecosystem.
  • Create – Making media (blogging, video, podcasts, ebooks, tweets, email marketing, whatever) is the reason you came to start using these tools. By all means, use them. Creation is your chance to have a voice, to share your thoughts, to encourage people to do business with you. This blog is where I share with you, because I’m also simultaneously signaling to my typical clients (midsized-to-Fortune-100 companies) that if I’m giving you all this for free, you’d be thrilled with what I charge you for. Creating is important, but only after you’ve done the other steps.
  • Communicate – It might be weird to see email/phone calls/face-to-face so low in my social media prioritizing. It’s “social” media after all, right? But if you look at all the above, you’ll note that they’re all meant to help the most possible people. With email/phone/f2f, that’s about a 1:1 connection (most times- email can be more). I find that communications help out fewer people than all the above so I try to handle them after I’ve done my other work.
  • Close – Okay, closing is more sales than it is a social media tool, but that’s what I try to do last in my order of priorities. Not all that I do is a sales funnel (at least not for my own site and personal use of social media). To that end, I think closing goes last in my order of things I try to do, though I still have goals and targets for this. This might seem the most backwards for business people, especially sales people, to think about. But then again, think about what REALLY goes into a sale: awareness, education, negotiation, purchase, support, renewal. Right? Sales, or the close, is only the last in the line of all that. The rest of what I’ve listed out above lines up with those other parts of the funnel. Now does it make sense?

In Explaining This to The Leadership

The way I do business with companies is by sharing what I’ve learned and what I know, and then mapping that to the company’s goals and desires. I work mostly from the mindset of “how can I get you more _____” and then we talk through the various ways that can be accomplished. In almost all cases, we work to “teach them to fish,” as our goal isn’t to be in some kind of endless retainer loop.

In how YOU might explain this and get your goals across, try lining everything up with business objectives. Try working out how this all integrates to your departments, how the process flows will go, etc. Make sure you think of as many questions that other departments and key voices will throw at you, and work out your answers ahead of time.

If you’re a small business, then you get to make all the decisions. You’ll note that I wrote this from the marketer’s perspective. I haven’t factored in the time you need to create your product or service. Let’s cover smaller business in another post. Fair?

Your Take

How do you think this maps for you? Do you see it? Do you have questions based on what I covered up there? How can I help you better understand the priorities?

Photo credit theogeo

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  • Awesome post, Chris. I love the idea of providing a dashboard to at least gauge your efforts as time goes on and also as a means to evaluate and re-evaluate what you are doing that is working or not working.
  • Nailed it, as usual, Chris.

    In my own post today at ibrander.org, "Branded People, Peopled Brands," I talk about the priority for business leaders to think about... well, socializing social media... as a shift in thinking from people being associated with brands to brands being associated with people.

    Business leaders can't be afraid of empowering individuals with the authorization to publish and communicate their own individual expertise because, by extension, that expertise becomes affiliated with the brand. People bring expertise to brands, not the other way around -- and social media is the perfect way to leverage that.
  • veenacooks
    I am going to look at your site right now, good points!
  • korenmotekaitis
    Chris, as a swim coach, I find myself teaching principles over and over again to athletes and parents. I refuse to do private lessons with athletes, because they are not as effective as team practices. So I agree with you 1:1 communication can not be as effective as group communication via social media, teaching, coaching (athletic or otherwise). In group settings you send out the message over and over and it is understood in bite sizes. Sometimes the groups help move the message whereas the skepticism from an individual can halter oneself. Of course working in group settings also helps us leverage our time, and allow people to learn from each other - not just the leader.
  • I think it's cool that you're a swim coach! Thanks for validating my thoughts on the team effort. : )
  • I have to say that I'm not completely sold on groups over 1:1. The reality is that the group is a collection of individuals and some of them carry a lot of influence. Others watch what they do and how they perform in practice and in meets. Others want to be just like the "star." And then there's those individuals who like to help others, and somehow the message is different coming from those individuals than from the coach. I'm not entirely disagreeing with the value of group settings here... I see the value. That said, 1:1 also has a place and a power we shouldn't dismiss in our social media universe.
  • Yes 1:1 does have it's place. But in terms of leveraging and truly helping many people, group settings can be effective. Whether in group athletic coaching or at conferences, or classes group interaction is cheaper for the individual. Then if they need further steps or more implementation/accountability that is where 1:1 meetings (athletic) / consulting/coaching can come into play. I use my swim coaching as my "lab" to test out a lot of these theories. I have seen parents willing to throw money for individual work, but the results don't measure up to the outcomes the parents are looking for. Learning takes time to understand beyond the actual intellectual ability. So I do think after group work(conferences, reading, classes), learning and then when the individual is truly committed, has a relationship of TRUST with the teacher/coach/consultant and understands the information then 1:1 can be effective.
  • Thanks, Koren. I think we share a lot of common ground here. Group settings ARE very effective in helping many people all at one time, no doubt about it. The 1:1 part contributes and augments... That said, I think BOTH are needed. It's an AND versus an either/or. To stick with the swimming analogy, we have children in competitive swimming and we've seen dramatic improvement from a combination of regular group practices AND individual instruction. In some cases, the group setting didn't enable the kids to truly "get" a technique or correct bad form. Individual instruction or even individual attention within the larger group setting did make the difference. So, both matter.

    I was also making the point that we can't dismiss the importance of individuals as influencers and examples within the larger group settings. Their 1:1 interactions within the group are difference making as well. In our marketing world, everybody is nobody. Somebody is who truly matters.
  • David, yes both 1:1 and group settings are effective. I think in Chris' case he is more effective in the larger setting since he has such a huge platform. He can leverage himself out to many many more people. Then the rest of us can be "The Feeder's (from Brian Clark, Copyblogger) and do more 1:1 work with people.

    And in groups you are right there are those who are trying to be a "star" or what I call a "climber" and there can be the nay sayers trying to find what is wrong with the given leader. That is when it is really effective to have strong leadership. Leaders who focus on their tribes and realizing not everyone is truly their "people" and that is okay.

    Thanks David.

    smiling,

    Koren
  • Ed
    "Wins/Losses – What do you want to count as a win or a loss? Make sure your dashboard can report on this."

    Whatever you do, do not take this as permission to dehumanize your
    online interaction (aka social media business use).
  • Makes sense to me. My point was, if you're not measuring, then you're not playing for business.
  • Ed
    Agreed. I just don't want folks who might not have seen all that's
    come before, (much of which you in particular have taught),
    to lose sight of the great strides made in humanizing social media for
    customers and businesses, including big businesses, by thinking only
    'Dashboard/measurement'
    while forgetting they're measuring actions by people.
    You've had a great impact this year by teaching that the customer
    now demands and deserves good interaction.
    The scalable part is the businesses problem, and failing
    to measure that will make companies road kill in coming years.
  • Chris,

    Thanks for this post. I think I kind of started backwards. I started with my blogs and then started getting involved in communities. But the one thing I liked about the approach I took/am taking is that I have a solid set of content to establish who I am. That said my getting involved in other communities by commenting does seem to help me understand better what I'm trying to do.

    You mention listening tools above. I use twitter, twitter lists, and igoogle to help me listen what else is good to use?
  • As I delve deeper into the Social Media Marketing world, and actually prepare to speak to several attendees at an upcoming local seminar, my overriding question seems to be how can the results of SMM be differentiated from a company's SOP? Even according to Tamar Weinberg "you can't cant' put a numeric value on buzz..." This leads more pessimistic potential customers to think "well, if you can't quantify it, I'm not paying for it."
  • remarkablogger
    Note to single person businesses: you have to have goals beyond "make more money."
  • Chris, I think it maps perfectly as a marketer. However, it's really hard to pitch this kind of new approach to business owners that think marketing is about flyers, business cards, and an ad on the local paper. How would you look at social media from a small business owner's point of view doing business, let's say, in the downtown district? That's when you either graduate or flunk in pitching.

    Also, I'd add something to the effects of "Living", as most of the time what happens to you in the real world (not only online) has the capability of helping you become more humanized on your approach and thus connect more effectively with others. Connecting with someone face to face that doesn't have a clue on what Twitter is or what Facebook does is always great to see what the John and Jane Doe's of the world think of what you and I (and almost everybody here) do all the time. And there's no better way to understand what life is, was, OR could become than by simply watching others as they pass you by.

    Thank you for the advice and link to Amber's great series. --Paul
  • I am pleased by your "order of value" list. For social media newbies, I say it in a quick three-bucket process. First, know the tools. Second, listen and see what people are saying about you and the competition and see what the competition does. Third, participate. Your order of things is spot on.
  • It's a good list and I love Amber's posts about SM Time Management, I see this as a really good outline and frame for building a social media plan. My question is about the wins/losses. What do you mean by those? The tactics didn't work, the strategy ended up unraveling, the goals were unrealistic and couldn't be met, or something else entirely? Are the wins increased sales, the goals met and or exceeded?

    I assume the wins/losses you're talking about would be driven by the goals you're setting at the beginning, but I'd still like a bit more info on when you consider it a loss (negative ROI on sales based goal, dismal numbers, negative impact to sentiment analysis, etc.)?
  • I bet you are right about the wins and losses being decided by the goals you are setting. However, I like to measure it all with impact.

    Sometimes you hit the nail on the head, other times, you have to just cross it off the list and be reassured R & D is (almost) always time well spent. :)
  • Great article - thanks
  • milenaregos
    Great post. It makes sense from a marketer's perspective.
  • good article
  • tedlsimon
    Chris,
    I really enjoyed your post (as usual). Your comments are insightful, helpful and come as a welcomed breeze of support!

    I've seen many forget the fundamentals of business strategy in their rush to "do" social media. Tactics and activity (and energy and money) are applied without clear direction. That's backwards. If you start with Objectives and Strategies, and allow Tactics to follow (and social media IS a tactic), then you can more effectively integrate social media tools and technologies into business and marketing plans.

    One more build on your point about fundamentals: even when we have a new technology or element to consider in helping us achieve business goals, that does not mean that strategic fundamentals no longer apply. In fact, I'd say that those strategic fundamentals are even MORE important when considering newer tools and tactics.

    Starting with fundamentals keeps you focused on your real goals, customers, etc. and helps you prioritize your efforts. It also helps you avoid what I call SNOS: "Shiny New Object Syndrome." Let's face it -- we all like to play with those "shiny new objects," but those "shiny new objects" may not have anything to do with what you are really trying to accomplish, or may even distract you for your goals. But, if they flow directly from your objectives and strategies, then they can become powerful tools toward achieving your goals.
  • Great stuff here, Ted. Thanks for adding on. : )
  • Ted,

    You make an excellent point about technology. Technology should be the servant of corporate objectives and strategies and the only way for that to happen is to put the latter first. Once execs know their strategy, then the right tech solution sets will be more obvious.
  • kathyherrmann
    Ted,

    You make an excellent point about technology. Technology should be the servant of corporate objectives and strategies and the only way for that to happen is to put the latter first. Once execs know their strategy, then the right tech solution sets will be more obvious.
  • I’ve loved the way you explain the process that a prospect goes through between awareness and talking.What I haven’t understood is the relationship between strategy priorization and the pre/post purchase funnel.Is it that you have to use a different strategy depending on the part of the purchase funnel?
    Thank you!

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  • while doing social media we should have the goal first, then execution. Else we will be confused regarding our purpose what we want to have from social media
  • First goal and second is the time... without the time we cant participate in social media
  • in my mind, this type of post is a sort of "coming of age" of social media as a business tool.

    As marketers it is no longer sufficient to use social media as the new cool tool. It has to be transformed into an effective part of the marketing mix. Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your point of view) this raises the complexity.

    Chris, as you said in the post, we need to address the high level strategy then outline the metrics.
    And we need to be very clear about tangible goals, which may not provide the whole picture, but do provide an objective one that everyone can relate to.
  • You've got that right, Tally. It's not a playground any more.
  • Good article. Come to Katrineholm, Sweden and try to explain this to our tourism people.
  • Get your tourism people to pay me, and I'll spend a few days there for sure. : ) Went to Stockholm in 2007 and loved it.
  • Paul DeLuca
    Two things come to mind for me here: 1) When thinking about benefits/ROI, I try to frame each activity around one of the five classic Dale Carnegie benefits: make money, save money, save time, improve somone's position, or remove hassle from someone's life. I've yet to find another meaningful benefit that can't be put into one of those buckets; and 2) I understand what you're saying on the 1:1 vs. team communication concept (I coach middle school boys lacrosse, so I understand the need for communication!), but a website, blog post, comment, or tweet still communicates 1:1. There is only one person that matters reading that piece of communication: the one on the other side of the screen. There just happen to be many one persons, if that makes sense. Because we can potentially get feedback from each person, SMM offers both a mass audience and 1:1 opportunities.
  • This is all really great. I'm happy to hear your additional thoughts. : )
  • Very thought provoking post. In my own case I've been thinking about my use of social media. It's "somewhat' focused, but lacks clearly defined goals. I've been thinking about hybrid forms of employment also, ones in which I can have a variety of employment(s). One might be a long-term relationship with a single company (which occupies 20% of my potential workdays), another might be a 6 to 12 month relationship (going on at the same time) which occupies 80% of my workdays.

    I've spent years in the corporate world changing roles every couple of years when the project finished or I perceived the role to becoming stale. My thinking on this is based on that model which was fruitful for 18 years.

    Your article focused me on the use of social media to further my ambitions for Hybrid employment. Very thought provoking Chris. Thank you. I will be diving into Amber's post also and subscribed to her RSS feed this morning.
  • I think that's a great model for work. Keep up the ideas on hybrid employment. Do you blog about that?
  • The idea really just occurred to me last night. I will do more thinking about it and will very likely post something on my personal blog about that. Discussed it with my wife. She totally freaked-out. I've always had a "job" with a "paycheck." I really like the potentials that sort of arrangement creates for me. I spent nearly 18 years in a mid-sized global company shifting jobs/projects globally every couple of years. I'd like to increase my playing field to everyone/everywhere.
  • My primary blogging (infrequent) revolves around what I call the data rEVOLUTION. Based on lessons learned over the past 20 years. I like Darwin's model better than Che's. Darwin explains a lot about how the world (the universe) really functions. It's not random. Che's life demonstrates that a revolutionary can burn brightly for a short time....and flame out.

    Darwin died in bed, at home, with his family. Che died violently in Bolivia, alone.

    Who left the larger contribution? Clearly Darwin.
  • jamesiharris
    Chris,
    Thanks for the post. I understand this from a marketing standpoint, but I'm an artist. I'm working through this to see how this would apply to an artist building a following. What this is telling me is that individual business owners like artists should have a brand before they do anything and contrary to what seems to be popular thinking in the artists community they need to blog about more than just themselves and their work. One needs to really think through how they plan on using social media to effectively reach potential customers, aka art collectors.
  • Oh, I never mind doing what's contrary to a community of practitioners. Remember, you're not making your art for them. You're either making it for yourself, or you're making it for your buyers. : )
  • We are currently evaluating the best way to measure engagement via a dashboard. Do you have any company recommendations? ie. (Radian6)
    Christine
  • Radian6 is a great one. Scoutlabs is different but good. Spiral16 is good. There are so many. And that's just monitoring. There are dozens of other tools for dashboard inputs. : )
  • We tend to sequence in these things over time so that they build on each other. For example, we agree listening is the key first step. We tent to thinking about that in the context of looking at the entire "digital forensics" of your market or niche. The idea is to come out of that process with a very tightly defined set of goals and objectives...what can you win now, what is a longer term objective. Then roll out the strategy and executional elements in layers so you get good learning along the way.

    Another great post Chris (and you have a terrific name:-))
  • Thanks, Chris. I see your point, and I think it mirrors Jeremy's as well. Iterative strategy making.
  • Distinguish Between Strategies and Tactics

    You note the need to focus on strategies over tools. I'd expand that further to insure that you don't confuse strategies with tactics. I've often seen tactical approaches in place, without a cohesive strategy.

    That's kind of like deciding you're going to cross-country ski instead of drive - even though you've not set your destination...
  • Agreed. To not have a sense of paths to the goal is a bad one.
  • Great points, especially with listening at the top of the heap. Did you know that 85% of people are poor listeners yet 85% think they are actually good listeners? Scary that most folks don't realize that they suck at it.
  • Thanks for the info - set the goals to build more relationships and relate to more clients - money will always follow later, don't make it all you think about
  • Chris,

    Coming at this from more of a PR perspective, I would naturally have some shift in priorities. I would have Listen as my 2nd, Strategies 3rd, Dashboard 4th.

    My belief is that after you set your goals, you have to start the listening process (which you accurately described). What the audience is saying will help determine your strategy that will fit in best with that audience's interest. That, INHO, gives your strategy the best chance of success.

    Once you have your strategies, you'll know what to measure through your Dashboard. I was a little unclear as to why you would have Dashboard ahead of Strategy in that respect. How do you know what measurement criteria you need, if you haven't developed your strategies yet?

    Just some thoughts.
  • That's not a bad way to look at it Jeremy. Listening might drive some strategy. So maybe it could also be, Goals/Strategies/Listening/Strategies/Dashboard, such that strategies get shifted once the listening is taken into account. Yes?
  • du4
    Chris,

    Very helpful list! Thanks!

    I think it's important in any business, marketing or otherwise, to ensure that in the Share category, you're sharing physically as well as virtually. It's very easy to fave or retweet good Twitter content or interesting articles from your Reader, but it's a whole 'nother step to bringing that same level of knowledge to others who may want to join the conversation and benefit from it but CAN'T or WON'T.

    I find in my profession that MANY professionals simply don't have time, patience, or the drive to understand how social knowledge sharing works. What they value most is the person that stays current on this information and interacts with them IN PERSON to share it in meaningful ways. My recommendations on useful articles get more per capita hits when I verbally tell someone about them versus simple sharing features across my social media toolset.

    Also, on CLOSING: if you've done all the other things in your list right, Chris, CLOSING is the easiest task there is. :)

    Du4
  • Glad we see that similarly.
  • Looking forward to your thoughts on prioritizing social media efforts for small biz. Vianka
  • lynnelle
    Nice. Am heading out to do a "social media" marketing talk and half of content is the basics on marketing - objective, strategy, benchmarks... I love watching this industry evolve into - - doing good business. Thanks, Chris. Always a pleasure.
  • This is so good Chris. I do internal marketing of a concept within a large company, so these generic strategies will work there also. And I like your concept of prioritization. In fact, that is one of our first steps to improving our throughput.
  • Chris,

    I'm a new reader to your blog and this topic seems to be the theme of the day. I wrote about it this morning for my own post to be published next week. But I also heard it in the car yesterday listening to Brian Tracy who said "Ask yourself the question what's the highest value you task you could be doing right now." Ironically I've broken down my routine to almost the exact order you've provided here.
  • Really good, simple post. Just visualizing needles on a dashboard has shed some new light on a strategy I'm working on for a client. Cheers!
  • lwm
    I especially like your emphasis on LISTENING. There is a knee-jerk response (and pressure, perhaps) to RESPOND, respond, respond...sometimes you shouldn't. Listening...and sometimes waiting and postponing that impulse to respond and engage...should be FIRST. Counseling clients on the importance of listening is sometimes difficult but it's crucial.
  • I completely agree with this - it seems that for some people, the hardest thing to learn to do is shut up and just listen - whether it's to the conversation they're a part of or a bigger conversation going on around them.
  • katierobinson72
    Great article! I am starting an Interactive Marketing group in a somewhat conservative financial services organization so I need all the help I can get!!
  • Super insight Chris. I agree with putting email/phone calls lower on the list. My goal is to create for a greater whole first, communicate later. It's eased my social media anxiety and boosted my efficiency tremendously.
  • Chris, thank you for this, I'll share to my entire team, very relevant content and points.
  • This is a GREAT post! I put the priority of social media efforts into a visual in case anybody is interested... Feel free to use it!
  • Realtormike
    I think the time to read and learn while also being very busy selling Real Estate is one of my personal large challenges, I enjoy the thought of an opportunity to be involved in the making of a new world and am continuously amazed by your thoughtful teachings.
    thank you
  • Couldn't have said it any better, someone who really get's it. Social media is powerful and I agree with "goals first" although it's fun to interact and meet new people and form new relationships, you still have to have your bottom line, to keep your business profitable, but your business will stay profitable when your having fun, building your exposure and reaching new potential JV partners and frriends ;)
  • AmberNaslund
    Hiya - first of all, thanks a million for the kind words and all the new friends. Appreciated and sorry it took me so long to get over here to say so. :)

    Second, thank you for bringing up the issue of closing, or in other terms, follow up (whatever that means for you). It's where so many folks drop the reins, but it disrupts the *entire* cycle if it's not done.

    Closing loops, making connections, moving things off one spot and onto another is the critical bit to keeping things productive. If you can't figure out how to move it forward, *that* is the first problem you need to solve. It's not just closing a deal, but figuring out what the next step is for each piece (or whether or not it's done and ready for the archives). Soooo many processes get stalled in wondering where to go from there.
  • I am quickly becoming a huge fan of your work. I appreciate your no-nonsense style and the way you break things down. I look forward to reading more of your posts.
  • Seabuckthorn
    I don't have a comment on what you wrote (beyond that it was interesting and relevant), but FWIW your blog post sent me off on a major internal tangent about the philosophy of hiring (or from the employee's POV, interviewing) to fit corporate culture. Thanks for that, it's something I need to think about. I guess I'm an object lesson in how social media helps people tangentially. BTW got here through Twitter.
  • SocialSplash
    great post.....thanks

    food for the mind ( of a social media buff )
  • JeffSexton
    Chris,

    I love this. It reminds me a lot of Bryan Eisenberg's hierarchy of Website optimization. I also love that "Listen" comes first in your order of values. I spend so much time convincing people that it isn't about them or their companies - that it's about the customer. SM has the potential to undo that if companies think that people will want to hear whatever they have to say. In other words, it has the potential to become one more tub for leadership and marketing to drink their own bathwater out of. Listening first breaks that cycle. Nicely done.

    - Jeff
  • You put it together perfectly, no doubt about it. I'm actually writing down the list under "In Order Of Value" because it's a great reminder to keep you on track, even though it's so dang simple.
  • Great!
  • Chris,

    You know when you link this post from inside this post (the 'Prioritize Your Social Media Efforts' link)? Was that deliberate? If so, why?
  • Thanks for the post Chris! "Read/Consume – Might seem counter to what you think I’d say, but I read several blogs and news sources before I start in on many of my other social media duties. Why? Because it gives me perspective, it lets me know what folks are finding useful, it gives me ideas on what the topics I follow might need from me. " that about sums up my morning in a nutshell. I think it has helped me in a professional sense more that anything else I have done. Great read as usual!
  • veenacooks
    great stuff, too bad I have the attention span of a puppy, i have a business but i'm still trying to figure everything out.... maybe, i'll re-read and it might sink in.thanks,
  • Effective branding is about what you choose NOT to do. How to prioritize your Social Media efforts
  • These are my favorite kinds of posts from you--focused outlines with obvious steps and goals. Very helpful. Tweeted it our for you. (Nice birthday present--BTW)
  • Listening is always important. I'm glad that you mentioned that in your post. I realized the other day I need to do more listening. Before I continue to put myself out there.
  • I really enjoyed your email "How Much Time Should I Spend On Social Media?" because it put a realistic time-frame ratio on all of the important factors.
  • Thank you. I really liked the Listen part. I really believe is the most important thing.

    Laura Chapman
    Wadja.com
  • Chris, you are so right about the time Social Media can consume and without a propper plan and more important discipline you are dead before starting. So many people discipline is restrictive, to the contrary ... its freeing!
  • I did like...
  • I'd be interested in a fairly comprehensive list of "free" listening and search marketing tools too. How are you using Twitter lists?
  • Somehow I missed this post when you originally posted it. But the ideas you share here are dead-on. In fact, I will absolutely use this as one of those posts I refer to when consulting with some of my clients on their social media platforms and strategies. I actually talk about some of these same ideas in my book, Market Yourself: A Beginner's Guide to Social Media, it's always so great to see someone else confirm what you've been saying!
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