How to Avoid the “Sweet Meteor of Death” Managing Your Social Media

Does social media feel like a heavy soul-crushing obligation? You’re not the only one with those sentiments.

Sweet Meteor of DeathHere’s a testimonial snippet from an attendee of a recent speaking engagement:

“Most of the time we’d walk out of the talk feeling a heavy obligation hanging over our heads like the sweet meteor of death, eager to crush our souls. Melody made [social media] sound like fun and doable, instead of an arcane process involving ritual sacrifices.”

That’s right: social media can be fun and is doable! No meteor of death necessary.

 

Tools Aren’t Just for Carpenters – or People Who Work on Space Stuff

For the sake of this blog post, I’m assuming you already have a social media account somewhere, be it Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn or one of several others.

Now your job is to learn a few tools so you can manage your social media. There’s a learning curve, of course, but once you get them figured out, your social media life will be easier. All of these have free versions that work just fine for the beginner, and when you’re ready to advance, there are paid versions to help support you.

HootSuite

HootSuite Owl in Spacesuit
HootSuite Owl in Spacesuit – Perfect!

This tried and true social media management tool has been around a long time and remains a great way to manage multiple accounts. Over 10 million people use it. You can manage Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+, Foursquare and WordPress blogs using one dashboard.

You don’t have to give a hoot about some kind of death by meteor.

Buffer

This is another tool to manage postings to multiple social media accounts. You can manage Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ pages and Pinterest (only with paid versions). As they say on their About page: “You add updates to your Buffer queue and it will be posted for you well spaced out over the day – and at the best times.”

That’s right. They’ll do the heavy thinking. They’re buffering you from that meteor. Yeah, I went there.

Canva

With today’s visual-intensive online environment, you must include graphics in your social media marketing or miss out on engagement opportunities. Along comes Canva. It’s easy to learn for those who are not graphic artists and has a variety of free templates and graphics to use in your designs. You can look like you know what you’re doing.

And if you wanted to create a graphic using the “sweet meteor of death” – you could. There’s no judgment on Canva.

LibreStock

freeTo help make your Canva experience go smoothly, it’s best to have a source of free-to-use graphics beyond what they offer. LibreStock has a great tagline: “Search the best 47 free stock photo websites in one place.” They’ll do the searching for you.

Just from a statistics standpoint, it seems reasonable that at least one of those 47 sites has a meteor photo or graphic. And ponies. And serious business people doing serious business things. You can find anything there.

Feedly

Feedly is a content curation tool where you can add websites that relate to your industry in one place. Just log in and you can easily see the latest postings in the dashboard without having to move all over the internet looking for your fave sites. It even integrates with Buffer to make it extra-easy to share relevant content with your audience.

We like extra-easy – because death meteors aren’t. They’re difficult.

Give yourself the gift of tools and the gift of time to learn these tools, and I promise you’ll avoid the sweet meteor of death caused by the overwhelm of social media. You can be meteor-free and socially successful.

What tools do you use to make social media easier?How to Avoid the “Sweet Meteor of Death” Managing Your Social Media | Melody Jones

 

Melody Jones, Your Social Media AspirinMelody Jones is Founder and CEO of Social Media Management Services. Melody is your Social Media Aspirin, here to take the pain away so you can go about your business. Visit her list of services to learn about her programs, upcoming workshops, and coaching services.

 

 

Reset Your Mindset About Social Media

 

Twitter
Twitter

As an author, small business owner, or entrepreneur, you’ve become acutely aware of the need to be present on social media. Do you find that you are reluctant? Overwhelmed? Think it’s not working? You need to reset your mindset, my friends.

Mindset: Social media is separate from everything else.

Reset: Social media is part of a cohesive whole.

  • Social media works best in synergy with your entire author or business platform. It is part of your marketing, not all of your marketing, so when you are planning your strategy, make sure social media isn’t shouldering the whole burden. It won’t work, and you will feel frustrated.

Mindset: I have to use all the major social media platforms right away.

Reset: I will begin with one social media platform and learn to use it correctly.

  • There is absolutely no need to begin using every platform at the same time. Start with the one where your target audience gathers. Learn about it. Become proficient at it. Then add the next one and do the same thing.

Mindset: Social media is overwhelming.

Reset: Social media can be managed with personal investment and the right tools.

  • It’s true that social media CAN be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. If you are serious about success, you must invest in yourself. That means you take the time to learn how to use your chosen social media platform, whether through self-education, classes, or one-on-one coaching. You must also learn the tools needed to streamline social media, such as HootSuite or TweetDeck, and time management techniques such as planning calendars. Your early investment will make incorporating social media MUCH easier.

Mindset: The only reason I use social media is to sell my stuff.

Reset: I use social media to create relationships, share valuable information, and build a loyal fan base.

  • Folks, we are here to sell our books or products, yes, but the world has changed. Gone are the old days when we talked at our audience with ads asking them to buy something. Now, we have conversations with our audience, building relationships in an authentic way that shows fans we’re real people with interesting stuff to share. And we happen to be authors or business owners, too.

With a few mental resets, you can incorporate social media into your life more easily. It’s worth your time to invest in yourself because in today’s world, authors and entrepreneurs must take care of themselves!