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Social Media Is Not an Eating Contest

 

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The way people talk about social media these days, you might think it's an eating contest -- to succeed you need to gorge yourself, to be become the Takeru Kobayashi of Twitter.

If you're a marketer or business owner dubious of this dynamic, don't worry. Social media is not an eating contest. Most people get sick when they eat too many hot dogs, and most businesses lose money when they spend too much time on Twitter.

But, wait -- isn't social media a foundational element of inbound marketing? Isn't it something smart marketers should be experimenting with and embracing?

Yes! And, yes! But that doesn't mean you need to over-do it.

Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook can be highly efficient new marketing channels for your company, but they shouldn't be your company's only marketing channel. Businesses also need to create content, do search engine optimization, collect leads, nurture leads -- and analyze the volume and conversion rates through your marketing and sales funnel.

So what's the right balance? Here are four simple ways to find the right balance for your business:

(1) Start With 10 Minutes of Monitoring a Day -- Don't try to do too much. Time-box 10 minutes every day to check the community sites that are important to your business. That isn't enough time to make a huge impact, but it is enough time to listen and see what's going on in your industry.

(2) Monitor Your Brand
-- When you finish your 10 minutes of listening, respond to the people who have specifically reached out to you. For most businesses, this should be quick. If the volume builds, you'll have a community, so consider ways of empowering it to help answer questions.

(3) Pick Worthwhile Interactions -- Make sure you pick the right people to interact with. Reach out to the specific people who are likely to help your business. That means the people connected to the communities you want to reach, the people with the most reach themselves, and the people who are most likely to become customers. Use tools like Twitter Grader and Alerts Grader to do this.

(4) Pick the Right Social Media Channels -- Which channels are working best? Where are you getting the most volume? Where are you getting the best conversion rates? At HubSpot, we get the most out of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. You need to know which channels are driving conversions for your business.

How do you find the right balance? Are you stuck in a social media eating contest or do you have a healthy diet? Let us know in the comments?


Want to learn more about monitoring social media?

I'll be speaking about some of the ideas in this article and more during a live webinar this Wednesday, March 10 at 1 pm, ET. Sign up here.

 

Photo: Feastoffun.com

Posted by Rick Burnes on Mon, Mar 08, 2010 @ 07:30 AM

COMMENTS

This is a PERFECT analogy. When I was new to the world of social media it was quite intimidating... just think... one bite at a time. GO!

posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 at 7:36 AM by Jill Fratianne


Enjoyed the concept of getting overstuffed - creating less noise and excellent value will prove to be where Social Networking makes a difference, particularly for small businesses.

posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 at 7:50 AM by Cindi Schultz


I don't know... There are still a lot of people tweet what they are eating for dinner.

posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 at 7:51 AM by Kyle James


I trust your take on this. But can you please expand upon conversion rates? Converting followers into customers?

posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 at 8:22 AM by Kathleen Pierce


Kathleen -- That's exactly it. Converting social media followers into leads and sales.

posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 at 8:25 AM by Rick Burnes


I think everyone at the beginning feel like the eating contest, and after a while is too much and you really have to have a plan. I have in my agenda a schedule of what to check each day of the week. For example, Mondays and Wednesdays are for LinkeIn, and Tuesdays I dedicate it to my blog. That doesn't mean I don't check those other days, but if I don't, it's ok because there's a day in the week that I will get to it.

posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 at 9:42 AM by Vanessa


Great post! We have been putting a lot of effort into our social media campaign as well as campaigns for our clients. Sometimes it is hard to find the balance on how much time to spend working it. Do you have any suggestions for ways to improve your "twitter grade" and what not?

posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 at 10:08 AM by Stacey


Excellent analogy, however, I don't think it's really possible to check three social media sites in 10 minutes, even with programs like hootsuite that put them all in one place. I see the famous "10 minutes" all over the place: "Do this in 10 minutes and that in 10 minutes." 
 
For example, I'm doing a blogging challenge to make my blog better and the challenge yesterday was to take 10 minutes and to interlink some old posts. Well, I got two links in 12 minutes. Sure, two links are something but they aren't much. I'm just griping that everything seems to be made simpler and faster than it really is.  
 
Sorry to be the complainer today; just couldn't take another 10 minutes. :)

posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 at 10:30 AM by Jessica Ojeda


The question has never been about the WAY to find customers. The question is, where are they? Once you've answered this, the way becomes much clearer. Hint: it may NOT necessarily be via social media, as heretical as it might seem.

posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 at 11:06 AM by Stan DeVaughn


Why is it so hard to find customers.can anyone answer that for me and how do i go about finding customers,i do blog,email,word by mouth,flyer,and free adversting.

posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 at 5:35 PM by Rosa Slaughter


Great post! It does make sense and we need to know how much time we are spending in these places or it gets overwhelming. Although I would have to say 10 minutes may not be enough for some companies.  
 
Also Rosa Slaughter - As 10 minutes might not be enough time for 1 industry, your industry may not use social marketing as much. For instance with my expertise in Website Design - many people involved in social marketing do not need this because they are already involved. Although it is good for me to use social marketing as a tool to keep in contact with my current customers. Read Stan DeVaughn's comment, you might answer your own question by answering his.  
 
Thanks for sharing!

posted on Tuesday, March 09, 2010 at 2:24 PM by Sabrina Whetham


Time blocking is so important. And if we take one bite at a time, we can eat the whole elephant.  
 
I wonder if there are #s anywhere on how much time the average person (not marketer) spends on social media. Like Nielsen for TV?? 

posted on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 10:36 AM by Kenny MacCarthy


Comments have been closed for this article.