Social media, meet my marketing plan

Yesterday I was a webinar panelist on the topic of social media for a group of women business owners, hosted by Women for Economic and Leadership Development (WELD) in Columbus.

It was apparent that social media was a source of angst and uncertainty for many. We talked about social media strategies, how to better manage the tools at our disposal, and making something meaningful out of all of it.

Are you at the end of your rope with social media overwhelm?

My goal with social media is two-fold:

1. Create conversations and meaningful connections, especially with my target market, self-employed women.
2. Encourage (through the value I provide) women to subscribe to my site, creating a high-quality community who may want my services at some point.

Because writing is one of my key marketing strategies, social media can be easily integrated.

Here’s my plan – pretty simple, and hopefully it sparks some ideas for you.

1. Go to where my target market hangs out. I use LinkedIn and Twitter consistently. I have yet to venture into Facebook, but plan to this year. I’ve found that these are the main places my market, women entrepreneurs, spend their time.  I’ve signed up for other social networking sites, but realistically I know I’m not using them and intend to scale back so I can make use of the ones I feel will make a difference for me professionally.
2. Block short amounts of time to spend on social media sites. I’m committing to spending 1 hour twice per week on LinkedIn,  short 10-minute bursts of time several days a week on Twitter, and 2 hours per week on high-traffic blogs (keeping it in between 5-10 sites). It’s on my calendar, and I’m setting a timer! I’m also committing to shutting it down regularly and working to remove that “nagging feeling” that I should always be online!
3. Leverage tools. For example, this blog is tied to my LinkedIn profile, and my twice monthly e-zine and online articles are tied to my Twitter account. I look for ways to tie everything together. I set this up one time, and it takes care of itself.
4. Remember the goals. When I get off-track, come back to the goals and re-focus my energies on why I’m out there in the first place.