Social Media Is Not an Eating Contest

Post date: 2022-05-06 Category: Marketing

The way people talk about social media these days, you might think it's an eating contest -- to succeed you need to gorge yourself, to be become the Takeru Kobayashi of Twitter.
If you're a marketer or business owner dubious of this dynamic, don't worry. Social media is not an eating contest. Most people get sick when they eat too many hot dogs, and most businesses lose money when they spend too much time on Twitter.

But, wait -- isn't social media a foundational element of inbound marketing ? Isn't it something smart marketers should be experimenting with and embracing?
Yes! And, yes! But that doesn't mean you need to over-do it.

Twitter , LinkedIn , Facebook can be highly efficient new marketing channels for your company, but they shouldn't be your company's only marketing channel. Businesses also need to create content , do search engine optimization , collect leads , nurture leads -- and analyze the volume and conversion rates through your marketing and sales funnel.
So what's the right balance? Here are four simple ways to find the right balance for your business:
(1) Start With 10 Minutes of Monitoring a Day -- Don't try to do too much. Time-box 10 minutes every day to check the community sites that are important to your business. That isn't enough time to make a huge impact, but it is enough time to listen and see what's going on in your industry.
(2) Monitor Your Brand -- When you finish your 10 minutes of listening, respond to the people who have specifically reached out to you. For most businesses, this should be quick. If the volume builds, you'll have a community, so consider ways of empowering it to help answer questions.
(3) Pick Worthwhile Interactions -- Make sure you pick the right people to interact with. Reach out to the specific people who are likely to help your business. That means the people connected to the communities you want to reach, the people with the most reach themselves, and the people who are most likely to become customers. Use tools like Twitter Grader and Alerts Grader to do this.
(4) Pick the Right Social Media Channels -- Which channels are working best? Where are you getting the most volume? Where are you getting the best conversion rates? At HubSpot, we get the most out of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. You need to know which channels are driving conversions for your business.

How do you find the right balance? Are you stuck in a social media eating contest or do you have a healthy diet? Let us know in the comments?