The 5 Habits for Social-Media Success While social media allows you to meet new people, connect with potential customer and hone relationships with business partners, it can be draining. Here are a few tips on remaining productive on social media.
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While social media can be entertaining, educational and a network haven, it takes a great deal of work, flexibility and consistency to be successful on social media. If you aren't careful, you can easily burn out. So how can you juggle growing your business without running out of steam? Carefully.
Here are five ways to be engaging and productive on social media (without getting overly fatigued).
1. Have a morning planning session. Spend the early hours of the day preparing yourself for the day ahead, and utilize it as a time to recharge. Employ meditation, take a power walk in nature, go for a run or attend a yoga class to rejuvenate your energy and reflect and fine tune.
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When I travel, I take advantage of any alone time that I have by taking a stroll to explore on my own. (Usually it's when you're surrounded by chaos that you need to shut down and re-energize the most.) When you take quiet time for yourself, you'll find that on many occasions, the silence will bestow you with a gift -- a remedy to the situation.
2. Utilize resources. Don't be afraid to use tools that can help you measure the impact of your message.
I use HootSuite to schedule my tweets and Twitter is the only platform that I automate. (That said, I don't want to automate too much, but it's a fine balance.) I schedule posts ahead of time when I travel, because you don't want to be inactive on your accounts too long. When you tweet or post, your content will be shared and people will engage with you even though you may not be online. When this occurs, make sure you do interact with others, so you don't look like a robot. Your followers will appreciate the effort.
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One way I choose to interact is tweeting insightful quotes, as they seem to capture the most engagement. I mix it up by combining the quote with an eye-catching photo. Sharing articles about your knowledge, your successes and lessons along the way are also popular.
3. Unplug. Sounds counterintuitive when social media is a platform that is always "on" but by recharging once a week, you can renew your social-media spirit.
You don't need to photograph and share everything you eat or drink. (Honestly, you don't.) Live in the moment with your friends and family, and try to actually live your life, rather than tell others about it. Take a bite of your meal and taste the food, I mean, truly taste it! That memory is worth 1,000 photos. Instead of focusing on your next photo or post, give your mind a break. Who knows what it will come up with?
4. Create an engaging content strategy to reach your audience. Change it up! Remember, your social channels are like a television station. When I tune in, I want to learn something new. I want to be amazed!
Read your comments and interact with your fans -- it's where I get many of my writing ideas. If your audience appreciates what you contribute, it's a great opportunity to give them more of that in a unique, useful and productive message.
Like your website, make each of your social channels a visual feast for your viewers. For instance, when you share an article across various social-media channels, change up the photo, as no one wants to see the same thing across your stations.
5. Work with a team you trust. You can't do it alone. Surround yourself with a loyal, trustworthy team.
Use your gut instinct to align yourself with genuine harmonious crew. Make sure you take care of them, because in return, they will reciprocate the fondness and friendship. That way they will be there for you, to support and help you grow with unconditional love and, the most important thing, provide an honest perspective.
Although these steps seem to be easy and straightforward enough, they must be consistently implemented daily or weekly. Make sure to tweak and recalibrate each social channel or brand as you go along your social media journey to figure out what will work best for each case. As we all know, social media moves at hyper-speed, and therefore it's mandatory to adjust what will improve your brand or image on a constant basis.
