Is Social Media Marketing Dead?
Wouldn't it be convenient to discover that social media marketing is dead? I mean, we would, of course, continue to share our lives, selfies, great news (and some of us even our drama) on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, and the myriad of other digital media outlets.
Entrepreneurs, including real estate investors, are busy people. You are scanning through this post, and I'm sure you are on your way out to another appointment or stealing just another moment to gain one more nugget of knowledge to give you that edge.
So, it would be a huge help to know that marketing - specifically "guerrilla marketing" where you use posts, followers, and interactions to drum up business instead of buying advertising - on social media really is dead.
If this is your hope in a busy, distracted world, I have bad news for you: Social Media Marketing is alive and well, and if you are watching it fly by you, you are leaving money on the table.
As an investor, think about who you want to reach: buyers, lenders, sellers, partners, and vendors. You want them not only to find you, but you want them to want to do business with you. You want them to "pick you" in a sea of other entrepreneur investors.
Do What Successful Companies Do
Geoff Weiss of Entrepreneur.com reported in 2014 that, according to a study by LinkedIn.com, 90 percent of the small and medium businesses included in the study that were in “hyper growth mode, meaning they report a significant increase in overall revenue compared to last year,” called social media effective in building awareness(1). I'll say it again: 90 percent that were in hyper growth mode!
Options: Do It Yourself or Hire Someone
Most of us have tight budgets, but there are fairly affordable options to hire out your social media tasks. It is also possible to complete your social media posts AND interact with people who comment, retweet, and mention you in only one hour per week.
The way we do it is by using Hootsuite.
6 Steps to Posting on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn in Just One Hour Per Week (2)
Before you begin, go to Hootsuite and set up an account (it's free, unless you want additional services, like we do). Link your account to your Facebook page, LinkedIn business, and Twitter account. Rename the main tab on your Hootsuite dashboard to "Scheduled Posts" and add a second tab, "Activity" or "Interactions." Add "scheduled post" streams for all of your social media accounts to your "Scheduled Posts" tab. Then go to your "Activity" tab and add a "mentions" stream for your Twitter account and "activity" streams for your Facebook and LinkedIn pages.
After your Hootsuite account is set up, schedule one hour each week like it's an appointment, and do the following during that one hour:
1. Decide how many times per day you will post and at what times (we post on Facebook and Twitter two times per day: at 7am and 7pm local time, and once per day on LinkedIn).
2. Write all of your posts for the week in list form in a document (we use a document in GoogleDrive). Include a link in each post. These links do not all need to be from your page. In fact, it is a good idea to use content from outside sources to show that your finger is on the pulse of the information that is more widely available.
3. Find relevant hashtags for each post and add them. We use RiteTag.com each week while processing posts; then once per month we do deeper hashtag research on other websites.
4. Prepare images for each post. Facebook and LinkedIn will grab images from most links. You will want to upload images for posts to Twitter and for Facebook and LinkedIn posts for which you want a different image to show up. Sizing the image and adding any text such as a watermark of your website, inspirational quote, or accent text, then storing the images together in a folder on your computer makes uploading them to your posts go much more smoothly and quickly.
5. Go to your Hootsuite “scheduled posts” tab of your dashboard to schedule posts. By using this tab, you can keep track of each one that is scheduled and easily see when the next should go out. Copy and paste from your list of posts.
6. Respond to people who have interacted with you. Go to your “activity” tab; reply to mentions and thank people for the retweets and other activity.
More Detailed Instructions, Including How to Set Up Facebook and Twitter Pages
For a step-by-step tutorial, we have a FREE webinar coming up. Please sign up early; when you do, you'll get a download right away that shows you how to set up your Facebook Page and Twitter account. Just click the link below for more information.
Good luck, and great success to you!
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(1)"This Is How Small Businesses Are Using Social Media"
(2) This is a very abbreviated and slightly revised version from the webinar "Social Media Posting in Just 1 Hour Per Week." The webinar provides much more detailed explanations and screen shots to clarify each step.
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