6 Tips to Make an Awesome Impact with Social Media

If you’ve begun your pursuit of success and fame via social media you’ve probably found yourself spending a lot of time on your social network of choice.

There is so much great information to read and so many connections to be made – where do you draw the line?

Can you really make an impact without spending half of your day commenting, interacting, and retweeting?

Very simply, yes. But, (there is always a but, isn’t there?) you need to be efficient. Luckily, with the use of some easy methods, online tools, and a hint of discipline you can take less of your time and make a bigger impact. Interested? I thought you might be. Here are some tips to help your online voice resonate with your target audience.

Tip 1. Researching your Audience.

You need to ask yourself the 6 W’s.

1. Who is your audience?

2. Where can you find them (what networks are they on)?

3. When are they most likely to engage in a conversation online?

4. Why should they connect with you online?

5. What do they want to know about?

6. How do they want information sent to them (Facebook page updates, an informal YouTube video, Twitter chat, etc.)?

If you aren’t sure where to start, Crowdbooster.com is a great resource to help you research your audience. Not only will you gain insight on how to make a bigger impact within your target audience, the tool will provide analytics so you can track how well you are doing.

Crowdbooster Dashboard

Tip 2. Establish a Plan and Stick to it.

Based on what you discovered in step one, establish a schedule to meet your audience where they are and provide what they want, when they want it. Part of your plan should include a time allocation. If you have 15 minutes a day to allocate, how can you use what you learned in step one to make the biggest impact?

If you are having trouble sticking to your time allocation, head over to the web store on Google Chrome and download StayFocusd (or LeechBlock for Firefox). This extension is a countdown timer for your Internet usage. Simply set how much time you want to allocate to a specific site and once the clock hits zero that site is blacklisted for the rest of the day.

StayFocusd (for Chrome)

Tip 3. Outline Specific Goals

Do you want to increase traffic to your website? Are you looking to increase the attendance at you next conference?

Once the focus of your goal is set, establish key performance indicators to track how well you are doing in reaching your goals. If you want to increase traffic to your website, how many new visitors do you want to be directed via social media? If you are looking to boost attendance, how many more seats do you do want filled? Crowdbooster, Radian6, Viralheat, and Google Analytics are among the many tools that can help you track your progress.

If you tend to fall down the rabbit hole, post something over your monitor to remind you of the goals you’re working towards.

Tip 4. Spend more Time Crafting your Content

With the amount of content your audience sorts through on a daily basis it is important to publish a great message that captures their attention. A throwaway status update won’t have the same impact as a well-crafted update. By focusing on quality over quantity your impact can grow exponentially. For example, if you have 5,000 followers on Twitter and you draft an average tweet you have the potential to reach 5,000 people. If you spend an extra few minutes to draft an excellent tweet you will be more likely to be retweeted by your followers (which exponentially expands the visibility of your tweet to all of their followers as well).

Tip 5. Multitask

Multitasking isn’t always the best way to be productive, but some activities lend themselves very well to multitasking. For example, using your mobile phone to interact with your audience while riding in cabs or waiting for appointments is a great use of your time. I’ve even been known to tweet from the treadmill.

Tip 6. Adapt

Technology is changing at a faster pace than ever before. To not adapt to change is to fall by the wayside. Tweak your methods and your investment based on the progress you make towards your goals and what your audience is looking for.

What other tried and true methods do you use to make an impact on your network without using your entire day? Any great social media tools that you couldn’t live with out? Let us know!

Guest Author: As the founder of Powerhouse Strategy, Kristi Daeda helps businesses nationwide create and optimize custom online marketing programs. Connect with her on Twitter @kristid

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Image By Armitage77

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