Creating Real World Results with Social Media: Focus on Real World Goals - Guest Blog Post by Jacob Weiss

Artists, non-profits, and small business owners who are pressed for time sometimes ask how they can be successful with social media while spending only a few minutes a day on Facebook and Twitter. My initial response to this question is that social media isn't a magic tool for instant success. Social media provides one more opportunity for you to work hard to build relationships and achieve success in your goals. 

Rather than trying to minimize the time spent on social media, I prefer to reframe the question as follows: "How can I be successful in my real world goals by using social media as efficiently as possible without wasting time that could be better spent in other marketing and networking efforts?" This question explicitly clarifies that the individual actually does spend time and effort on marketing and networking and is not seeking to achieve success with only a few minutes a day of any type of relationship building. 

My response to this rephrased question is more straightforward: Focus your social media efforts on complementing and enhancing your real-world relationships and goals. Anchoring your social media plan in your existing priorities will reduce the risk of spending time in activities that don't move you towards your goals. By leveraging your existing momentum, social media does not have to add significant time or energy to your efforts. 

So what does this mean in practice? Below are three strategies that you can incorporate into a social media plan without getting overwhelmed:

1. Connect with individuals and networks whose goals align with your goals

This includes people who have the ability to help you achieve your goals, as well as individuals and groups who you can help using your own abilities. Is your goal to increase your publicity and presence in your local media? Follow and build relationships with local journalists and reporters. Does your art or business target a specific audience such as children and families? Use social media to connect with non-profits that support this audience in your community.

You don't need 10,000 fans and followers to be successful with social media. Keep your time focused on targeted subsets that align with your specific goals and audiences. And don't wait for them to discover and follow you-actively seek out and initiate the conversation with them.

2. Listen

Participating in conversations and building relationships still can take significant time and energy. Simply listening to online conversations, without actively participating, can help keep your time spent on social media efficient and targeted. Do you want to find other artists to collaborate with on new projects? Search Facebook and Twitter for specific keywords and geography filters to discover people and groups to follow and/or approach. Do you want to discover opportunities to publicly showcase your work in a specific city? Setup another search with keywords for the city and terms such as "event," "tickets," etc. (think creatively and iteratively to develop the best queries).

Services such as HootSuite and Google Alerts can help you keep track of multiple searches over time. Developing your online listening skills will create a foundation that helps you discover the key people with whom you want to spend more time building relationships.

3. Add your real world contacts to your online network

Simply being connected to your existing contacts through social media, even if you don't actively interact, has several benefits. For example, your connections on LinkedIn determine your ability to reach and connect with people through searches and recommendations. When you create a Facebook event for a performance or event you are promoting in a certain city, you can invite your Facebook friends who live in that region as their current city or home town.

Who do you know in person that you have not connected with online? When you meet with someone in person, follow up with a connection on social media. Have you added your old college friends and classmates? What about your fellow artists and collaborators, or new colleagues that you meet at a professional conference or community event? Who else do you know that remembers you fondly?

These loose ties with whom have interacted in person can be activated at appropriate times, without adding a significant every day commitment.

If you add one connection on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter every day for a year, your network will grow steadily with just a few minutes a day. You already have put in the work through your face-to-face networking and relationship building, and adding these contacts to your social media networks is a simple extra step.

How can you ensure that your social media plan moves you efficiently towards your goals? Learn to listen in order to discover the key people and events that are most in line with your efforts, and think of building your social media network as supplementing the relationships you are building in the real world. Of course, there are many other ways to use social media successfully, but if you are looking to get started without getting overwhelmed, these strategies can help you simplify and target your efforts.

About Jacob Weiss
Jacob Weiss is the founder and director of Playing By Air Productions and High-Wired Communities. In addition to developing theatrical circus productions for performing arts, special events, and corporate meetings, he works with artists and non-profit organizations to develop plans for community building through social media and local networking.