“Out, out, brief candle! Social media’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” (almost) Macbeth Quote (Act V, Scene V).
You’re building a business, right?
That means you should be spending most of your time making your product or services as amazing as they can be. You need to focus.
Social media is one little piece of your marketing puzzle, so it shouldn’t be absorbing large chunks of your day, even if you’re a solo entrepreneur who’s running everything.
“But I’m getting alerts across my screen all day long,” you say.
In the immortal words of Chef Gordon Ramsey: Shut. It. Down.
If you truly are building a business, you must create space for innovation, planning, face-to-face contact with customers, and other things that take you away from a computer screen.
Tips for Putting Social Media Back in its Place
- Don’t let social status updates absorb time throughout the day. If you’re going to curate content, use scheduling tools like Buffer or Hootsuite, so that you can stay focused.
- Start your marketing planning with your actual business goals, not with a new tool you just heard about.
- Don’t get caught in the social media echo chamber. Be sure you read widely, on a variety of topics that support your business.
- For each social network you use, have a reason why you’re using it. And be sure that reason is related to your business plan.
- Stop saying social media is “free.” It’s not. Your time is worth money.
- Dedicate blocks of time to your social media strategy, and the rest of the time shut off the alerts, close the Facebook tab, and set your phone to vibrate. You really don’t need to see the notification that Joe and Stacy are talking about Zac Efron on Twitter.
- Remember that nothing is set in stone, particularly when it comes to social media tactics. Trust your own gut more than some “guru” who doesn’t know your business.
- If you have a choice between Tweeting a customer and talking on the phone, choose the phone. Better yet, meet for coffee.
Above all, keep it in perspective. It can seem as though everything revolves around social media, but your customers just want your fantastic product/service, delivered with a smile. Everything else is just “sound and fury.”
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