Chantal

When I first learnt about Twitter, I heard about how a number of celebrities where using it and how they were telling the world about the mundane things they were getting up to during their day. Interestingly, they were building up large followings, so obviously a lot of people did want to know what they were up to.

Being a curious marketer, I started using Twitter in 2009 to see what it was all about and so I could report back to my clients. Yes, there were (and still are) a lot of people who use it for non-business purposes; the number of people using it for business was also on the increase. In 8 years of publishing this newsletter, my mailing list of readers has grown from zero to over 1000. I reached that same number of followers on Twitter in just 8 months. This means that there are a lot more people out there who now know about me, my business and what we can do for them. Some of my followers also subscribe to my newsletter; the majority don’t ? not yet, anyway! If we only relied on the newsletter, we wouldn’t be able to reach such a wide audience. If you want to follow us we’re at @TopMarketingTip.

I first signed up to LinkedIn about 5 years ago, when not many people were using it. Since then, it’s become much more widely used, so I’ve started using it more proactively, looking for people I’ve met in the past and yet haven’t spoken to for a while. It’s an easy way of tracking down old contacts and re-opening lines of communication. It’s also brought us two great new clients ? one through someone I went to University with and hadn’t spoken to in 15 years; and another referral from someone I met at a networking event 8 years ago. In both cases, my name came up on their LinkedIn pages as someone they might know ? we connected and got talking. My LinkedIn page is here.

My next social media adventure is into the world of Facebook. Until I went to the recent presentation, I thought Facebook was just for people to share their photos with their friends. I see now that it can be used for business and that it’s another way to reach new contacts who might not find my website, blog, Twitter account or LinkedIn page. It’s another tool to add to my marketing mix. Our very new Facebook page is here.

Do You Still Think Social Media is a Waste of Time?

Social media is a form of marketing.

You could look at it as just another range of marketing tools ? like networking, giving presentations, updating your website or cold calling. So it’s not about having no time to do it or seeing it as a waste of your time. It’s about finding the time to do it, to help you grow your business. You have the time to do all your other marketing activities, so now you need to find the time for social media. You might not be able to fit all of it into your day; you might not be able to manage it all, alongside all your other marketing; think about what works best for you and focus on that.

If you’re starting out with social media, pick one area and get to grips with that first, before moving on to others. Learn how to do it properly so you don’t waste time not getting any results. Look at your marketing strategy and see how and where social media fits into it; then do what can be done in line with that strategy.

Taking this planned, focused approach will help you use social media much more effectively and efficiently.

Convinced? Not convinced? Click here to answer my LinkedIn question and share your views.