I am going to go deep now into the world of Business Social Media Managing for those of you who want to do it yourself.
We have already decided that to write 3 business blogs a week will take approximately 6 hours of your time for a monthly total of 24 hours. Hypothetically speaking if your time is worth $30 an hour, blogging for yourself could cost you $720 a month.
In order to use some of the other social media tools available to you, meaning Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+, you may need to spend another two hours a day on the internet. Hypothetically, we can say that during a 20-day month you will spend a total of 40 hours.
Spending time blogging and using a few social media tools could very easily "cost" you +/- 64 hours a month. And, at $30 an hour you could spent just shy of $2000 a month and a whopping 16 hours a week. Depending on how many hours you spend on social media that could easily result in 2-3 days a week being social.
But that is not all there is to do to be an efficient social media manager. To go deeper we need to substitute the idea that Sun Tzus "Art of War" is the best way to do business, and change our thinking to the idea of the guild system.
The Art of War ideology is that one that states there is competition within the corporation and with the competition. The guild system is a helpful association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The National Association of Realtors is a good example. Do not get involved in specifics in this discussion or you will miss the point entirely. Hang on with me here.
There are three places yet to visit in your social media hunt for clients.
- One is to choose some of the best social media bloggers to follow on a daily basis. You can pick two a day if possible. Take the time to read what they have to say, learn the latest on social media, and be sure to leave a positive comment at the end of the blog. This way you build up your knowledge, made friends with the writer, get backlinks and make friends with others who are active on the site.
- Now comes the next part and the guild idea. Find your competition on the web and look for their blogs. Read at least one blog from your competition a day and read daily from different companies if you have that much competition. Do not make a negative remark. Find something you can say positive about the blog.
- If you do this and become friends with your competition, also through Chamber of Commerce, BNI or other associations, you will find that they will send you clients that they see are a good match for you and you will send them clients that you see are a good match for them. In working together, both of you will gain instead of losing dissatisfied clients who complain to their friends about you and their experience.
How long will adding these blog readings take a week? That depends on your ability to do the job and leave the computer. The minimum is probably an average of an hour a day which is 5 hours a week. So you are adding another 20 hours to your month. That is the equivalent of almost another full day a week and you are already spending almost two more days. Lets say if you work 40 hours a week, you are spending 24 hours of the week on the computer. Thats over half your work week. Monthly that costs you $2888.00.
You have now spent your own time and your value creating a strong social media presence, but you need to ask yourself when are you going to work on your own job? That's were BroadVision Marketing can help by taking on as little or as much of this work as you are willing to outsource.
Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can Like him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.
Related articles
- Business Blogging Beginnings (broadvisionmarketing.com)
- Four points for filling your business blog with great content (broadvisionmarketing.com)
