Call us nerdy, but last night at dinner my husband and I were amusing ourselves talking about the abundance of abandoned corporate blogs and Twitter accounts that are littering the Internet. You know the ones: They have introductory posts making grandiose promises about the purpose of the blog or social media account and then…nothing. It's particularly a shame when you find a blog with lots of activity, but then realize the top post you're reading is from October 2008.
I would love to see a statistic on how many of these accounts have been abandoned. Many more than are active corporate accounts, I'm sure.
The reasons for giving up on social media are many:
- "I have no time!"
- "I have no idea if what I'm doing is working!
- "I've run out of things to say!"
- "I lost the password!"
Some of those excuses are valid, but none are true obstacles to your social media efforts. Try these tips to help make sure your company blog and other social media accounts stay dust and cobweb free:
- Set realistic goals: Can't post every day? That's fine. Shoot for three times a week or once a week. Try to update your accounts once a week, at a minimum.
- Watch the metrics: Unsure of what kinds of content work best for your audience? Take a few minutes each month to study the numbers behind it. How many clicks did one Twitter post get over another? How many times was it retweeted? What's the most read blog entry this month? Which post received the most comments? It's OK if you're unsure what kind of content would be helpful for your blog or Twitter account. If you pay attention to the metrics, over time, the answer will become clearer.
- Make a plan: Just like your business plan, your social media efforts need a plan, too. Who will be posting? And when? Will that responsibility be shared? What will be posted? Instead of scrounging every morning to find something to post, keep a running list of potential blog posts. The more you blog (or post to Twitter), the easier these ideas will come to you.
