Posted on

Tips for Working With Your Social Media Manager

If you’ve invested in a social media manager to help you establish and grow your social media presence, you must work in partnership with them for the most success. Don’t just throw your manager out there and hope things will go the way you expect. Client partnership is key!

Tip for Working with Your Social Media ManagerWhat responsibilities do you, the social media client, have as a partner with your manager?

  • Be available. I can answer simple fan and follower questions on your behalf, but you are the expert. Fans and customers can and do ask questions I cannot answer, so I need a way to contact you and get an answer quickly. For many, it’s email. Some may prefer texting. One person I know keeps their Skype account up and running and prefers contact that way.
  • Send me links. Anytime you see a website, blog post, video, or newsletter containing information related to your expertise, send it my way. I always appreciate new information I can use as part of your social media strategy.
  • Send me photos. Fans love to see the real person behind the social media profile. Keep it simple and fun. Maybe you went on a hike, spoke at a conference or met the President of the United States and shook his hand. Get those to me post haste.
  • Keep me updated. If you have an upcoming event of some kind – book signing, speaker at a conference, ribbon cutting – tell me AHEAD of time. If you wait until the last minute and then are frustrated at the lack of social media response, you unfortunately just caused your own issue. You’ve got to give me time to work it.
  • Understand social media basics. You invested in me, your social media manager, to provide the expertise needed to make each platform work to best advantage. But it is helpful for you to understand that social media is not about selling, selling, selling. It IS about building relationships, being authentic, being consistent, telling your story and being interesting and of value to your fans and customers. As such, I am not going to scream “Buy My Widget” every other post.
  • Create new content consistently. The easiest way to do this is to keep a blog. Start small, like once a week, but be consistent and do it every week. Giving me high-quality content to work with will better establish you as the expert in your business.
  • Keep your scheduled communication appointment. In my social media practice, I speak directly with each client at an agreed-upon time (beyond email) by phone, video chat, or in person when feasible. This allows you to ask questions, ask for changes, mention new information, develop or enhance new social media strategy, and the best part – we get to know each other better.
  • Pay on time. Please. I want to spend my time working diligently on your behalf rather than on tracking you down for a late payment. Plus that creates hard feelings unnecessarily.

Of course this is only half the equation. Watch for another post on exactly what a social media manager does for you, the client. Some of those responsibilities are also mentioned in another post titled “Create a Partnership with Your Social Media Manager.”

What other tips would you add to this list? Post a comment below.

Would you like to receive my monthly newsletter All About Social? I’ll keep you updated on the latest social media trends and news, give you simple tips and tricks, an occasional joke or funny picture, and updates on the latest social media specials, programs, and trainings I have coming up. Just let me know via my Contact Melody Jones tab above.

Posted on

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!

Posted on

Why You Must Unfollow on Twitter

 

So there you are on Twitter gleefully following everyone you can find who may be remotely related toTwitter-Bird-256 your expertise, your book genre, your hobby, and maybe your city. You do this with every confidence that these people will follow you back, if not immediately, at least by next week. Right?

 

No, dear reader, not right. There are those you already know will not follow you back like Oprah, the Dalai Lama, and NBC. That’s okay. We all follow those types of accounts on Twitter for a variety of reasons.

 

I’m talking about everybody else. It just seems like common courtesy for authors to follow authors and readers of thrillers to follow thriller writers. You are, of course, tweeting regularly (right?), retweeting every day (correct?), curating interesting information (aren’t you?), and not talking about yourself too much (can I get an amen). If you are doing all of these things, then you’re doing it right and those accounts don’t know what they’re missing.

 

Here’s what happens over time. You end up following many more accounts than follow you, a situation  viewed negatively by Twitter. Soon Twitter caps how many new people you can follow stating that your account needs more of its own followers. What’s a Twitter user to do?

 

Unfollow, my friend. Kick ‘em to the curb. Get rid of the accounts that don’t reciprocate or don’t offer high-value information. This lessens the clutter in your Twitter feed, and the Twitter gods like you better because there is less discrepancy between your “following” and “followers” numbers.

 

Make it easy on yourself and use an automated program that unfollows for you. A note of warning: Twitter doesn’t like it if you unfollow too many people at the same time, so don’t go crazy.

 

I recommend ManageFlitter. This site creates a report with useful information such as “not following you” or “inactive” and more. You simply click on the account you want to unfollow, and they take care of it. Also, do a Google search on unfollowing Twitter accounts to find other sites offering similar services.

 

And hey, I’ll follow you back. Follow me @SocMediaMelody and Tweet me so I know it’s you. We can have some Twitter fun.