A Social Media Survival Guide for Small Business

“I can only conclude that people who don’t use social media are, at best, considered to be mavericks or, at worst, some kind of psychopath.”  Steve Blakeman

“I’m not a very social media person” my new client admitted to me. “I mean, I know I should be…I’m just not.”

I get it.

If you were born before 1980 you are less likely to be a ‘social media person’.

So, there you are: a business person who needs social media to reach your tribe – even attract a bigger tribe. The problem is the thought of checking Instagram every morning or uploading a video to Facebook gives you a cold sweat.

You could go cold turkey, buy a yurt and live in the desert (been done), or you could find a happy compromise and use social media on your terms.

There is a solution and it starts by understanding that you don’t need to reach the world.

If you were born before 1980, you are less likely to be a 'social media person'. 

You don’t need to reach the world.

“There is also the joy of learning new ways of marketing, with that there is often the accompanying pain of mistakes that comes along for the ride.”  Jeff Bullas

Sure, you see a tweet that had 425 retweets or your competitor has 10,000 followers on Facebook. Whoop-di-doo (tech speak for ‘who cares?’)!

Unless you're promoting your new punk band or selling a new gaming app, volume is not your goal.

Your goal should be to build loyal followers

The kind of loyal followers who follow you all the way back to your website. The kind of followers who share your content and buy your stuff.

You don’t need to reach the world … you need to reach your tribe.

Start by getting a clear notion of who you are speaking to – who is your ideal audience, or your avatar:

• what age are they?
• gender?
• type of work or career?
• what problems do they seek solutions for?
• what style of writing do they enjoy: high-brow philosophy or Gary Larson cartoons?
• how do they like to engage: sharing, quizzes, comments?

Evernote uses a variety of image styles, quizzes, videos and text to test their market and get loyal fans to share.

Good is better than more.

“I am 100% convinced that you can live without using or be on social media.” Israel Garcia

There’s lots of “expert” advice online on how to schedule loads and loads of updates. As if volume is the ultimate goal.

Let me ask you a question…

If you went to a restaurant, would you rather have a huge bowl of mediocre food or a delicious meal prepared by a chef? I’d choose good over more every time.

Good can simply mean a few extra minutes choosing an original image, or making a reference to a trending topic.

A good rule with social media is people share what makes them look smart. A clever twist on what they think they already know will go a lot further than 5 more ways to be a better leader.

Oreo does a great job of creating smart, often sarcastic, comedy in their Tweets.

Work in batches

“The best way to engage honestly with the marketplace via Twitter is to never use the words ‘engage,’ ‘honestly,’ or ‘marketplace.’” –  Jeffrey Zeldman, Founder, A List Apart magazine

One of the best ways to be more effective is to work in batches. That could be 15 minutes of solid email work, followed by no email for an hour, instead of constantly checking your email all morning.

You can also batch your social media.

Instead of interrupting your day with updates and responding to followers, you do it once a day. You might not go viral, but you will have time for other work without distraction.

Fortunately, there are scheduling tools like Buffer and CoSchedule that are powerful ways to load up a calendar full of updates. The problem with any schedule tools (this will intentionally sound self-serving) is if you are like most people – especially super busy business owners – you don’t have time to learn how to use the scheduling tool, let alone constantly fill it.

I’ll give you two weeks before you quit.

Good news! At BlogWorks we can do it all for you. No scheduling tools, searching for articles, fussing with pictures, or shortening links. One account, one solution, social media is done. Learn how to get start with BlogWorks.

Good news! At BlogWorks we can do it all for you.

Outsource $10/hour jobs

“If you love life, don’t waste time for time is what life is made up of.” Bruce Lee

One of the most powerful lessons I received as an entrepreneur was about the value of my time.

Here’s a simple exercise that could be a big eye-opener for you:

Start by making three columns on a piece of paper (a flip chart is even better) and title them: $10, $50, $[your value to clients per hour]. These are the value of the time for each task, starting with up to $10/hour, and then up to $50/hour and finally, up to your current value when working for clients.

Now, add all the tasks, jobs, routines, roles you fill in a typical week, putting each one in the column that matches the value of the job in dollars.

A common mistake entrepreneurs make is doing $10/hour jobs instead of delegating them to others.

Do you see a problem? Most small business owners discover there’s lots of $10 jobs they are still doing, even though they charge 10X that, or more, to their customers. This is what Michael Gerber meant when we said “Most business owners spend too much time working in their business instead of working on their business.”

The solution is to start documenting routines for all your $10/hour jobs. Simply make a list of each step using a Google Doc (we use Google Doc’s because they are easy to share).

These are called SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) and they can change your life.

Next, go on UpWork and hire a freelancer to do that job. Don’t think you need to create full-time employment or give them five jobs to make this worth their time — just one job that repeats itself.

A good job to start with is publishing your blog. When you list it out there are at least a dozen steps, starting with logging into WordPress, that have to be done exactly the same way every time to get your blog looking good.

Pro tip: once you post your job in Upwork, use the filters to choose the criteria for the freelancer you are looking for.

Even if you’re not into social media, you don’t have to abandon it altogether.

These strategies can keep you in the game with minimal effort and time.

Speaking of which, now you have more time for what you are into, like watching reruns of All in the family with a nice mug of Ovaltine.

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