Lessons Learned: SMM Won't Work - Unless You're Social and Marketing

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This week taught me a good lesson.

Social media marketing (SMM) does not work if you aren't using it properly.

I did some really good things last week.  I gave a couple of talks and helped within another class (part of a 5 session series on WordPress), but I forgot to do some things that I was doing right.

Last month was a really good month for my blog.  I made several blog posts that captured a lot of people's attention.  I deserved it, because they were good.

However, I deserved it for an entirely DIFFERENT REASON.

I marketed what I did, but that was not the only thing I did.  I was also social while I was marketing.

Things That Worked

• I was writing blog posts about topics that would really help a lot of people.
• I was marketing these posts--mostly about LinkedIn Tips--to people within LinkedIn.
• I posted several topic-specific posts to people within topic-specific groups.
• I responded to people well, and I personalized (most) of my responses--going the extra mile and catering to something that I saw on their profile.
• I sent personal messages when someone offered something particularly insightful or uniquely encouraging.
• I commented on other people's posts.

 This last point is exactly what I did wrong during the last couple of weeks, but that was not all.

Here is what I was doing wrong this past couple of weeks, especially this past week.

Things That Did NOT Work

• I was posting in many different groups.  (still unsure if this is good or bad--haven't decided, yet)
• I was posting my own stuff--but not responding to other people's posts.
• I was not consistently adding things every day--sometimes missing several days in a row.

This list is much shorter, but it takes fewer things to throw a marketing campaign off track than it does to keep it right.  Worst of all, I know better, but I still did these things incorrectly.

Like I commented within my first point, I'm not sure whether I am smarter to post my material to many groups or post my material to a select few and hope that they are shared by influential people.  The second way provides me with less control, but I noticed that I still am getting traffic from a post that someone else shared on my behalf.  I am trying to understand my risk/reward ratio here.

The other two points are critical, though!

First, by posting my things without responding to other people's things, I no longer was any different.  I became one of the many SHOUTERS using these social media platforms.  SHOUTING is not being sociable.  In fact, it's actually ANTI-social behavior.

So I was being anti-social on a social media platform.  Does that should like a great long-term strategy to you?

Besides that, it's just plainly impolite.

Lesson #1: Share--don't SHOUT!  (You always have time to contribute something and be polite.)

Second, people have a lot of distractions on the Internet.  They need to be reminded about you.  I'm not referring to bombarding people with ads or other things that scream, "Me, me, me!"  I'm talking about constantly sharing things.  We're always learning as we go through life.  Sharing our lessons should not be that much work, especially now that so many people are using social media channels.

You might be the greatest at doing something, but if you only do it once in a while, what are the chances that people will notice that one moment of greatness?  Now if you're always doing something, at least, pretty well (if not as great as your best), what are the chances that someone will see you at some point?

Probably much better, right?

Lesson #2:  Doing something well often is better than doing something perfectly once.

It is easy to make this mistake, especially when you KNOW that you are able to do better than "that."  Careful!  That thinking will paralyze your willingness to take action as often as you should--and could.

Ask me how I know that one?

I'm pretty new to social media and will continue to make mistakes.  For now, it seems like my biggest challenge is to find ways to balance my non-social media activities with my online social media activities.  They're both really important, and I cannot afford to neglect one--at the expense of the other.

Any suggestions?

What lessons have you learned recently?

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