Social Media « Stephan Iscoe

How to Avoid Social Media Bankruptcy

Posted by Stephan Iscoe in Social Media on Thursday

Let’s pretend you have a new business that you want to promote.
So you set out to publicize your new venture.

Would you start by drawing up a spreadsheet of every available newspaper, ad sheets phone directory, church bulletin and local and national glossy periodicals and magazines – then immediately sign up for ad placements in each and every one of them?

Unlikely.

What you’d probably do is go through a budgeting process to determine the marketing outlets which would give you the best return on investment (ROI) in your target market.

Imagine that your perfect prospect is high-income retired couple living in Sun City. You’d hardly expect to get their maximum interest with a full-page color spread in Rolling Stone.

Same principle applies to Social Networking.

Although joining hundreds of social networking sites can be done with virtually no cash outlay, your investment will still cost you dearly – and eventually lead to a sure social media bankruptcy.

Yes, we’re talking about your time.

And there’s no Interest-bearing account for Time. It’s like waterfront property – they aren’t making anymore.

As a result, you’ll need a social media action plan that provides a blueprint for investing your social networking time, much like you would plan your dollar spending on an advertising budget.

So restrain yourself from joining 127 various and sundry social networking sites. It will very quickly suck your social media budget dry.

Begin by picking just three – or maybe four at the outside – sites carefully selected based on your interests, goals and user communities.

You’ll quickly find that you’ll get higher return for your social media investment (time) if you focus on a few, highly targeted networks.

Trying to manage your presence on too many social outlets at once without the proper follow-through is a sure way to drive yourself nuts and alienate the very people you are trying to attract.