Have you ever heard it said that important tasks often get trumped by urgent tasks? It’s true. Every day we have a number of important things that need to get done, but when something urgent comes along, what do we do? We drop the important to take care of the urgent, regardless of how important the first task is.
This is just as true in web marketing as it is in life. Social media is an important part of building a web presence, but guess what I am most likely to put on the backburner? That’s right, my social media efforts.
Honestly, 80% of social media isn’t hard. You write a post and socialize it. But the remaining 20% of social media is what requires the most work and effort, at least for me and those like me. That’s the engagement part.
Engagement is arguable the most important aspect of social media. I know this to be true and even say it all the time when I speak or write about social media. But its usually the part of social media marketing that I’m least likely to do. Why? Because it’s not in my nature.
I’m much more of a task-oriented person. I create a list of the things I need to accomplish each day and set out to do it. “Engagement” doesn’t make for a good item to check off. It’s not something that you can just jump online, complete and move on. You have to keep it on the front burner and do it constantly.
That means you regularly have to be strolling through your social feeds and looking for opportunities to jump into a conversation, discussion or respond to someone’s comment. You can’t really do it for 30 minutes each day and be done. You have to do it throughout the day.
And it’s not something that you can do for a month or two and then stop. You have to keep at social media engagement, regularly being a part of the online discussion space. It’s not urgent, but it is certainly important if you want your online marketing efforts to be as successful as possible.
What’s the solution?
That’s up to you. Figure out a way to stay involved on your social channels. Take a five minute break every hour and post at least one comment, reply to one question and/or jump in on one conversation.
Find a way that works for you and stick to it. Be consistent. And when something urgent comes up . . . well, set that aside for five minutes and work your social media anyway. And most importantly, set goals so you know when what you are doing is working. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Keep at it and don’t give up on social media engagement. It will pay off.[/inlinetweet]