Social Media Success ~ Don’t be afraid to start again

You have grabbed a few (free) platforms – Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube; and put in serious time trying to build a meaningful following; and started gathering momentum but then you hit the Wall.

It could be a loss of enthusiasm.

Or you question the ROI when set against the historical backdrop: advertising, networking or direct mail.

Or it could just be that you don’t see the point (It sucks!).

Do you keep on pushing through?

Do you stay committed?

Social Media is an exploration. It is not tried and tested, yet.

You cannot yet say with any degree of predictability that it gets results. And it does seem hit and miss.

It could just be that the best advice is … to start again.

Stand back and consider:

1. Is it right for you or your business?
2. Do you understand it?
3. Can 1,000 followers on Twitter or 500 connections on LinkedIn translate to results?
4. Have you spent enough time thinking about the focus of your efforts?
5. Is your website being neglected all the time you are Tweeting or messing around on every new social media platform that comes along?
6. Have you achieved the objectives that you originally sketched out? Chances are you didn’t have any, so it is nigh on impossible to measure your success?
7. Have you made any money?
8. Do you have the most memorable content in the world? [In the new World order of social media, content will be the sine qua non of success. Absent content, there will simply be too many people on each of the platforms to make sense of things.]
9. Has your life been affected for the better? Or have you found social media a massive intrusion?
10. Do you wish you had never got started?

I am not suggesting that if you answer more of these in the affirmative that you should pull up the stumps and walk away but don’t be afraid to strip things back to the basics and start over.

If I were starting again, then I would to focus on:

• Does social media add to your current offering?
• Does your audience or raving fans understand it, or are they likely to if you spend time evangelising about it?
• Have you worked out some key objectives?
• Have you considered your strategy and tactics separately?
• Are you able to measure your results?
• Is it something that feels meaningful and rewarding?
• Which platforms have the strongest pull?
• Do you have a content creation plan?
• Are you blogging or willing to do so?

Professional practice is playing catch up but as a result too many people are coming on board and copying their competitors. It feels like Web 1.0 all over again.

If social media is going to work for you, then ask yourself if your current offering makes you stand out from the crowd or are you buried amongst it.

Too many people have dug a hole which they seem unable to climb out from for fear of upsetting their audience. I wouldn’t worry about that. Make sure that if you are blowing the sail on your path to success that the tiller is pointed in the right direction. You may just find otherwise that you end up on the wrong island.

~ JS~