Making the decision to add social media to your marketing plan was a good one. There’s no question that it’s a smart, cost-efficient method for creating awareness, attracting a loyal following, building a solid customer base and boosting sales. Businesses everywhere are quick to attest to its success. But now that you’ve jumped into the social media pool with both feet, how do you keep from getting overwhelmed by the added responsibility of maintaining your calendar and keeping your content both current and effective?

Take a deep breath and discover these five ways to maintain your focus and keep from getting stressed out about your social media schedule.

1. Less is more. There are many social media networks out there and the numbers are growing all the time. Choose just a few based on your audience and your business goals. Managing a couple of networks on a regular basis is much more effective than spreading yourself too thin — or even worse — quitting because you simply can’t keep up.

2. Create a content calendar. Planning a social media calendar helps you feel better organized and more in control of your publishing efforts. Don’t try and plan months in advance. Every two weeks is more easily manageable and won’t force ideas that might be off-topic or bring no value to your audience.

3. Utilize the tools of the trade. Discover social marketing tools that allow you to manage multiple networks simultaneously. HootSuite and TweetDeck are just a couple of tools that were designed to help you create efficiencies and provide an analysis of the effectiveness of your efforts.

4. Get away from it all. Maintain a healthy social media balance by not becoming an online junkie. You’ll keep your message content fresh and more relevant when you take a few steps back and stay open to new ideas.

5. Have fun. Social media allows you to make an impression through your insights, connections and offerings. When you look like you’re having fun, people will gravitate to your message and success will follow.

Watch how your contemporaries are managing their social media presence, too. You may want to model your strategy and style after other businesses and organizations you admire. Just remember, not every message you deliver is going to result in a home run. But as you become more and more familiar with the medium, you won’t feel so overwhelmed by the process, and soon you’ll discover that being social is really a great way to do business.

If you have a comment about the article, or  your own tips  for avoiding social media overwhelm, I’d love to hear them! Feel free to post a comment below.

To your online success!

If you’re using email marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy, I highly recommend watching this interview with Chris Brogan. Chris shares a lot of useful tips in this short, three and a half minute video.

“…where other people go wrong though is that they stuff the email so full and if we’re reading them on 3″ screens, that’s not good anymore…one simple call to action.”

How FAST is your Internet?

I am VERY happy to say (er, type) that my Internet is super fast now — well, it’s fast for a DSL connection.

Since we cut our land-line a few weeks ago, I am now enjoying (and I mean ENJOYING) a download speed of 9-10 mb/s and an approximate upload speed of 1 mp/s. Now, I can upload/download/blog/schedule appointments/make VOIP calls/surf/research like never before. My speed prior to cutting the landline was turtle slow compared to this. It also helps that my 5-month-old Toshiba laptop has the Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor.

Read more about how the processor speed affects surfing here:
“How Does Processor Speed Affect Surfing the Internet?”

Below is a screen shot of a recent speed test.
I believe the 13.62 MB was a fluke as I haven’t come close to that since but I have been maintaining an average of 9-10MB.

Speed Test Results

You can check your Internet speed at www.speedtest.net.

What were your results?

If you have a blog, are people able to comment on your blog instantly or is your blog set up so that you can approve or reject a comment before it’s posted?
I can’t tell you how glad I am that I can read a comment and determine whether or not it’s posted. Lately, I received a couple of emails requesting that I approve or reject comments that were in no way related to my blog topic. Fortunately, I can immediately mark those comments as spam and delete them. Bub bye spammer!
If your blog isn’t set up for comment management, ask your blog guru to change that setting. You can also have comments emailed to someone else to manage them for you. It sounds like a good job for your assistant, eh?

To your blog success!
Holly

P.S. – To change the setting in your WordPress blog:
Go to Settings, then Discussion, and check the box next to “an administrator must always approve comments”

Determined to make 2009 your best year ever? Wondering how to create a vision board that keeps you powerfully aligned with your dreams? Curious about other success tools you can use to keep yourself on track all year long?
Cari Vollmer, the Passion into Profit mentor and founder of LifeOnTrack.com will teach us her world famous vision boarding process and share with us other tips for staying on track all year long.

START THE NEW YEAR ON TRACK VISION BOARDING PROCESS

Presented by: Cari Vollmer, LifeOnTrack.com

DATE: Thursday, January 15, 2009
TIME: 5p PST / 6p MST / 7p CST / 8p EST

REGISTER NOW!

http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/teleseminar.htm

Are you monitoring your website traffic? If not, you need to start and an easy way to do so is by signing up for a Google Analytics account. Once you sign up, you can copy the HTML code and place it on each page of your website. Okay, if you aren’t skilled in that area, then send the code to your web guru and ask him or her to put it on your website for you.
By monitoring the reports, you’ll find out how many visitors have been to your site and where they came from. For example, let’s say you recently posted a news release on webpr.com. If you put a link to your website in the article, Google Analytics will show you how many people visited your site from clicking on that link. Then you’ll know which marketing campaigns are working and which are not.

You’ll also learn:

• the length of time spent on each page of your site
• what browser visitors are using (i.e. Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox)
• source of the traffic
• keywords used in their search

If you don’t want to have to sign in and out of Google Analytics and monitor the reports yourself, your virtual assistant can do that for you. Just be sure to discuss the reports during your weekly or bi-weekly telephone calls.

If you’d like to see a sample report, post a comment here or send me an email. I’d be glad to show you one of my reports.

To your success!
Holly

Wow, what a day! Today was the third session of the Elizabeth Kearney Leadership Development Program. Each session has been inspiring to say the least and today was no different. I have learned so much about myself in the past couple of months.

Prior to starting the program in September, I learned that my top 6 strengths are:
Harmony – I look for areas of agreement and try to find common ground.
Positivity – I have an enthusiasm that is contagious. I am upbeat and can get others excited about what I am going to do.
Activator – I can make things happen by turning thoughts into action.
Futuristic – I am inspired by the future and what could be. I inspire others with my visions of the future.
Restorative – I am adept at dealing with problems. I am good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it.
Empathy - I can sense the feelings of other people by imagining myself in others’ lives or others’ situations.

Powerful stuff huh?

If only more companies were interested in identifying their employee’s strengths. Imagine the impact a team could have if they were assembled based on their strengths rather than their position within the company. Hmmm…. what a concept, huh?

Do you know your strengths; those talents with which you were born with?
If not, then check out the Strengthfinder 2.0 assessment by Gallup – www.strengthfinder.com

I’m looking forward to future sessions of this leadership program with great anticipation!
I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

If you have any thoughts on the strengthfinder that you’d like to share, please post a comment.