How Much is Too Much Social Activity?

Every business is unique and different, and so are their social styles. Not everything you see others do will work for your company.

Social activity can’t be ignored, but most small businesses that didn’t grow up in a culture of social online behavior will agree that there isn’t a whole lot of time for chit-chatting in the unknown with whoevers. There’s a business to run.

The superficial benefits to social engagement are obvious:

• Brand recognition
• Industry thought leadership
• Staying current with trends and information

But those reasons aren’t enough to keep you interesting or interested in social activity – they’re kind of flat, aren’t they?

Among the more brow-raising reasons for social engagement, the term ‘social proof’ should have you rethinking social altogether.

Your interaction with others online actually validates your company. You may have a great company in business 20 years, but if you don’t have social media profiles and descriptions for it and don’t talk about it with social media, search engines don’t connect expert knowledge behind your brand with valuable website content. Website pages have to have a way to update with current information and relevant topics frequently, and then be able to share it.

If you’re a beginner to online social engagement, these tips will help you develop a strategy that you can tweak as you progress. Start somewhere. I’m not advocating useless, time-intensive brand-shouting. That won’t help at all.

Use your platform to help others. Find the part of your ‘why’ that brings excellence to the table, and teach others how that benefits them. Give people hope, be a message of goodwill and good information. Be funny, enthusiastic, and genuinely helpful. This is just another way to connect with others, like going to a networking function.

Here are five tips to get you started:

• Decide when you’re going to be available to engage. You don’t have to be in these arenas constantly, but be accountable to yourself and pick 10-15 minutes a couple of times a day. If you’re comfortable with more, fine. Just make sure you can still get work done!
• Use your quarterly marketing plan and current month to pick topics that your company and employees should be talking about anyway and develop your strategy.
• Every platform isn’t important right now, but one location will be better than another. Decide if it’s Facebook (and you DO have to have a business page) or Twitter or LinkedIn or Foursquare that will benefit your company the most. Get comfortable in one area before going on to another. Give yourself a couple of months in your first social setting.
• Think about how often you want to share your topics, and keep it to one of your own topics to three of someone elses topics.
• Don’t just post and leave, try to engage with another person. If it doesn’t happen right away, that’s okay. Being consistent will bring you results. When someone engages with you, respond! That’s what it’s all about.

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