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Filed under: Tip of the Day
 From Counselor’s May 2011 issue article Social Outing:
If you think you need to devote every waking moment to social media to be successful at it, Jay Wilkinson has news for you. “I will tell you, if you’re spending more than 15 minutes a day on social media, you’re wasting too much time,” says the founder and CEO of Firespring, a marketing consulting firm based in Lincoln, NE.
Wilkinson suggests that distributors should undoubtedly add social media to their marketing mix – but it shouldn’t be so much of a focus that it ends up taking more time than necessary. His message: Focus on a couple of social media sites, like LinkedIn and Twitter, and use keywords and search engine optimization to maximize your time and efforts.
Here, Wilkinson offers four advanced strategies (think 301 courses in college, not the 101 variety) for how distributors can succeed with social media.
- Become a HootSuiter. Since you ideally should spend no more than 15 minutes a day social networking for business, speed up your productivity by using HootSuite.com, a tool that allows you to connect to multiple social networks from one website. “By using HootSuite’s dashboard, you can schedule updates to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wordpress and other social networks in just a few clicks,” Wilkinson says. Plus, if you use HootSuite, you’re in good company – The White House, Martha Stewart Media and Zappos all use this handy tool.
- Use Google Wonder Wheel. To learn how people are searching for pens, mugs, decorated apparel or any other type of promotional product or service you offer, Google Wonder Wheel (www.googlewonderwheel.com) is a below-the-radar, free tool that you can use to see how people are actually searching for your wares. “Once you know how people are searching, you can embed those keywords on your company website to increase traffic to your site,” Wilkinson says.
- Collaborate in the cloud. If your distributorship has a very hands-on working relationship internally and with clients, try using project-management programs like Basecamp, iTeamwork or Mingle, which allow for collaborative work between employees, as well as between a firm and its clients.
- Integrate your website. Drive traffic to your website from your social media pages, instead of making your Facebook or LinkedIn page an isolated destination. “It must start with your website,” Wilkinson says. Get a programmer to embed your Twitter and Facebook feeds onto your website to get double the impact.
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