Blue Helm

What is your target audience? Cater your posts to your niche.

Why do you use Twitter, Facebook or a blog? Are you trying to reach a specific niche, like business people, moms, teenagers or social media experts? Who do you want reading what you post? These are questions I recommend you ask yourself often to keep the correct perspective before posting different social messages.

Sometimes, as a social media professional, I find myself tweeting less of the things I find interesting (articles, videos, etc) because they’ve already been shared online by millions of people. For example, just look at the Mashable home page and you’ll see that hundreds and sometimes thousands of people tweet Mashable’s content regularly. I find myself less motivated to tweet this popular content because it seems like everyone has seen it already. But this is false! Just because I’ve read or seen a piece of content doesn’t mean the people who follow me have encountered it too.

In reality, it doesn’t matter if you post a piece of content someone may have already seen. The point is to post content that is interesting to you, and what you believe your audience will appreciate. I don’t care if some social media person sees my profile and thinks, “I’ve already read that.” Why? Because they’re not my target audience. My target audience includes the people who don’t read all of the social media blogs. They don’t have time to read the hundreds of interesting posts out there, so they come to me to read the ones I feel are the best. Why do they care? Because I consistently post things they like.

The moral of the story: no matter what industry you’re in, don’t forget that your target audience comes to you for updates. They’re not visiting all of the sites you’re visiting. They rely on you to sift through what’s good and what’s not.

Cozy up to social media more often.

Using social media all of the time can get a little tedious. When you’re using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blog, or other forms of social media, it’s easy to get bogged down. You get wrapped up in making sure you post to your blog, that you tweet or that you check your Facebook News Feed. These online activities are all important (particularly for your business), but you need to make sure you’re having fun with it!

Take a few minutes today to rekindle your love for one of your social networks. Get on your blog and write about something different and exciting. Go on YouTube and watch some videos that make you laugh (click here and here to see a few of my favorites). Get on Twitter and try to connect with someone in your industry. Don’t just follow them, connect with them. Log onto Facebook and really get in touch with an old friend. Actually message them and start a genuine conversation. If you’re only seeing their updates from time to time, then you haven’t really re-connected with them.

Have fun, do something meaningful, renew your love!

What do you do to keep your social love affair going?

It’s amazing the kind of power a celebrity holds. Conan O’Brien joined Twitter at the end of February and he already has over 630,000 followers. Okay, that’s no big deal. Conan is a celebrity. The real story is in what Conan has done to 19 year old Sarah Killen.

Here’s the short version of the story: On March 5th Conan decided to randomly follow one person on Twitter. He chose Sarah Killen, a.k.a. @lovelybutton. She immediately went from a few followers to almost 25,000 in six days…crazy. Click here to read more.

So what? Good for Sarah, no big deal right? Wrong. If Sarah is smart she will do something with this unexpected fame. If you watch this ABC report, you’ll see that she got a few things for her wedding. She is even encouraging people to donate to a cancer fund. That’s wonderful, but she needs to do something more. This is an amazing opportunity!

So Sarah, here are a few ideas on what you could do with your new-found fame:

1. Start a blog: You already have thousands of people who are listening to what you’re saying on Twitter. As a result, you would get thousands of hits on your blog. You already have people sending you free stuff for your wedding, just think of how many people would pay you to have an ad in the sidebar of your blog. You could generate a pretty good income just from advertisements. Make sure your blog has focus and isn’t just a diary of your life. Make it about something of worth and it will grow instead of fading out when all of the hype dies down. If you’re not a good writer then take a writing class ASAP!
2. Start a business: What do you like to do? What are you good at? Start a business and use your audience to help it grow.
3. Become an unofficial spokesperson for a good cause: Pick a topic or cause that you’re passionate about. Maybe it’s helping to cure cancer. I’m sure the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation would love your help and support, and may even pay you to be an official spokesperson for them.
4. Connect with other celebrities: You could try to connect with other comedians or celebrities. They may be interested in getting in on the joke. As they connect with you more people will follow you, which would increase your ability to influence.

Please be smart, Sarah! Do something more than just tweeting random stuff. You could do so much. Of course if you want more advice let me know!

Sometimes it’s easy to fall behind and ignore your blog. Do any of the following statements sound familiar?

My week is too busy… My clients come first… I need a break… I don’t have time… Tweeting is so much faster… I don’t know what to write about… Isn’t LOST on right now?

Blogging on a consistent basis isn’t easy. There are many good excuses and even more bad excuses to avoid updating your blog. Regardless, the excuses do not out-way the importance of keeping a blog for your business. If you need convincing of why you need a blog for your business, click here, or go pick up David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR.

I have a confession. The last few months have been super busy with clients and I have slacked off in posting to my company’s blog. In fact I’ve only posted once since a week before Christmas. I know…I’m a horrible person. I need to repent.

Repentance is not an easy process. I have fallen into bad habits and need to break them. So what do I need to do? Here is the blogger’s repentance process according to Chad:

1. Admit there’s a problem: If you refuse to admit there’s a problem, then you won’t repent. Stop ignoring that nagging feeling in the back of your head and admit you need to post to your blog! Stop making excuses and get to work.
2. Re-commit yourself: Why did you first start blogging? What got you excited in the first place? Was it a book you read? Did you see another company have success with their blog? Did you have a young employee who got you all excited about starting a blog for your business? Whatever it was, revisit what got you excited.
3. Set a goal: If you don’t set a goal, then nothing is going to happen. If you set a goal then you have something to work towards.
4. Tell someone: Tell someone at your company your blogging goal and ask them to keep you accountable. Sometimes we humans need a little extra motivation. If we know someone else is going to keep us accountable for our actions then we tend to perform a little better.
5. Set apart blogging time: Blogging takes time. Sometimes writing a blog post seems like an insurmountable task because it’s going to take you a few hours to research, write, edit, and post an entry. You may not have a large block of time to blog, but you probably have 30 minutes a day to do something. You can get a lot done in 30 minutes if you put your mind to it. Set apart that time at some point in your day and develop a habit.
6. Don’t sin again: The most important part of repenting is not falling into your bad habits again. Your readers and customers need consistency, they need to know what to expect. When you are inconsistent, your reader or customer will be inconstant.

So I will repent of my heinous blogging sin and commit to posting at least once a week! Keep me accountable!