The Three Drivers for Building a Following with Social Media

In my eight step approach for Developing a Social Media Program,  Step III described how to develop a community with your social media program.  

This article discusses three drivers behind that community development.

These drivers are common across all social media apps and are the fundamental building blocks for a social media program.

Let’s begin by identifying and describing the characteristics of the three drivers.

Your content posts that you publish in your social media apps will be your first driver.

They are frequent.  They are evergreen which means they can be reposted for a time and will still be relevant.  They add value to your followers, are keyword driven, and are of high quality.  (In other words, don’t talk about what you had for lunch unless you’re a food critic or dietician.)

Your followers will be your next driver.  These are the people who have signed on to your social media apps to receive your posts.  Why have they signed on?  Hopefully, because they find your content relevant and helpful to their needs.

You will need to work continually to grow your followers with both active and passive techniques.  Your approach will need to be interactive because you can’t afford to take your followers for granted.

Relevance is the final driver and is a function of the first two drivers.

Posts need to address the needs and interests of your followers.  These posts need to be timely to what’s happening in the real world.  (For example, I wouldn’t be writing about DOS if I were running a blog on current operating systems.)

The characteristics of the three drivers are common across all social media apps.

All these drivers will work across all social media apps.  (Yes, I know.  We’re never supposed to say “all.”  But, I’m just hardpressed to find an app where these wouldn’t work.  Please feel free to send examples to me which prove me wrong!)

The lessons learned from these drivers are leverageable across all social media apps.

Cross promotion of posts across social media apps and solicitation of members from different is possible.

There are three steps to make these drivers happen.

First, programs need to be in place.

These are documented plans, checklists, and templates for each social media app being used.  These detail what’s to be done and what the outcome should be.

Second, timelines are needed.

These document what gets done when (and by whom) for each app.  Ideally, they are at a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

I recommend consolidating these into one chronological timeline where the social media apps can be secondary sort.

Metrics are the final step.

These lay out the expected results for the programs over the course of the timeline.

There should be a baseline as a starting point and a forecast for each social media app based on the timeline.

Finally, metrics should be reviewed periodically and not too frequently. (Ever wonder where “paralysis by analysis” came from?)

Where there’s a shortfall in performance look for root cause and evaluate at the next review cycle.  Likewise, if goals are achieved too easily, consider assigning yourself stretch goals.

In the meantime, thank you for following and reading my blog!

I look forward to any and all comments that you may have.  I will reply to any comments made to this blog post as promptly as I can.

Remember!

I do this for a living and if I can be of any assistance to either you or your organization, please feel free to call on me.  Our initial discussion will be of no charge to you.

I can also be reached at conpsweeney@someddi.com.

My Twitter handle is @conpsweeney.

Stay well!