Social media is one of the most measurable and engaging online compliments of marketing tools available. With that said social media is a rabbit hole that entire teams can dive down. It hurts your brand, it hurts your real world relationships and it wastes your resources. It’s time to get real about our habits.
Social media, particularly my blogging, Twitter and YouTube activity has brought me clients from three continents that include a number of Fortune 500 clients and major government organizations. So I’m a big believer, and this stuff works. Over the years here’s some things I have done that don’t work, things that many people can relate to:
- I have hit Twitter instead of writing a proposal, it was for procrastination and fun, not for business or community building.
- I have engaged in conversations that are off topic, not anywhere near my target market and spent hours on such conversations.
- I have written numerous blog entries with no real goal or over reaching theme.
- I have ripped, thumped and chastised newbies for their ignorance or blatant spam (which is also usually due to ignorance) and hurt my own credibility.
- I have started, stopped, started again and then quit on blogging and podcasting. This cost me readers momentum and business opportunities as well as trust.
- I have done another dozen things wrong at least (See Twitpics gone wrong part 1 and part 2)
Why do I share this? We’re all guilty of taking a good business tool and wasting time and resources. It can be cell phones calls for personal reasons, or business lunches that are really an excuse to cocktail it up etc. Executives and decisions makers are quick to blame the tools – the reality is we should blame the people, and blame management for not teaching and driving best practices.
Here are 10 hard questions you need to ask about your social media use:
- Have you started your social media marketing with a solid goal, plan, and monthly calendar that keeps you on message?
- Do you abuse your social media voice and constantly bash competitors or suppliers before you try less public options?
- Do you hop on Facebook or Twitter when there are more business critical and urgent revenue opportunities pressing?
- Do you have a well-defined target market that you listen to and talk with – or are you mass broadcasting and hoping someone will hear?
- Have you researched or been trained in social media use or does your company train staff before letting them run rough-shot with your brand?
- If you have several staff, have you assigned a junior in-experienced person to manage your brand online versus a tenured strategic thinker?
- Are you using multiple social media or just the ones you are comfortable with?
- Are you consistent with your activity and your messaging?
- Is your personal social graph putting you at risk (are there pictures, information or behavior that could hurt your brand?)
- Are you involving your whole team and opening up multiple channels for client communication or is your marketing department hoarding your social media voice?
These are just a few hard questions. There are many more. If you want to succeed and get an ROI out of social media you will need to ask these questions, and constantly check in to make sure you stay on the path.
What questions do you ask? How are you auditing your social media use?
by Shane Gibson
Shane Gibson is the author of three books (soon to be four) and a speaker on the topics of social media and sales performance, he has addressed over 100,000 people over the past seventeen years on stages in North America, Southern Africa & South America. He is quickly becoming known as one of the world's foremost speakers on the topic of sales performance and social media. As an author and speaker he combines a diverse background in sales force leadership, entrepreneur development and extensive sales and leadership coaching.
Shane Gibson is the author of Closing Bigger: The Field Guide to Closing Bigger Deals and the book "Sociable! How Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside-down.
Shane also co-authored the book "Guerrilla Social Media Marketing" (October 2010 release date) with Jay Conrad Levinson. Personally mentored by Jay, Shane is Canada's first and only Guerrilla Marketing Master Trainer.
He has been published in numerous publications on the topics of Leadership, Marketing, Sales, and Social Media in magazine, radio and television interviews, including CMA Magazine, the Financial Post, and the Globe.
He is also a certified Master Trainer and contributing author in the Complete Sales Action System™, and Managing Complex Business Relationships both published and produced by Knowledge Brokers International. http://www.closingbigger.net/
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