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9_22_Social_Focus_PinterestFacebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, blah blah blah.

I’ve been trying to figure out a strategy on how to use all of these sites in my marketing. In an attempt to come up with such a comprehensive strategy, I’ve been actively evaluating programs like Social Oomph, Hootsuite, Buffer and a few others.

Although I feel like I have a solid grasp on how to use them effectively, here’s the truth – Ain’t nobody got time for that!

I’m an entrepreneur, and as an entrepreneur I need to work on building my business in a way that helps my audience accomplish their goals while accomplishing the goals I’ve set for my business.

Here’s what I’ve come to realize – because I’ve been trying to dominate everything, I haven’t really been dominating ANYTHING.

Why am I surprised? Did I think that because I quit my job to do this full time, I’d have all the time in the world to make EVERYTHING happen?

Maybe I did, and you know what? If so, I was wrong!

As a result, I’ve come to a liberating decision. It ends here.

For the rest of 2014, I’m committing myself to intentionally ignoring every social media site except two.

I know, I know – they are all great for getting exposure for your blog and your online business.

Yes, I know that there are many bloggers who have had tremendous success driving tons of traffic using these sites – and you know what? I don’t care, at least not for now.

In fact, I’m going to intentionally ignore all their advice regardless of how awesome it may be.

Yep, I’m focusing on just two.

How I decided on the two

This was actually very simple. As I’ve said, I’ve been doing a pretty mediocre job on all of my social networks. However, I’ve definitely had traffic coming to my site from these sites.

So I decided to hop over to my Google Analytics account to evaluate how my social media efforts have translated to direct traffic. Here’s what I saw:

Analytics

As you can see, the top 3 social media sites that have been driving traffic to Become A Blogger are Facebook with 4,292 visits, Pinterest with 1,251 visits, and Twitter with 1,122 visits.

Using those numbers, you’d be inclined to think that I should focus on Facebook and Pinterest. However, if you look at the time spent on the blog, Facebook visitors spent an average of 2:40, Pinterest visitors came in at 37 seconds and Twitter visitors at 3:15.

So, although Pinterest sent slightly more traffic than Twitter, visitors from Twitter spent over 5 times as much time on the blog.

The decision was clear – First Facebook and then Twitter.

Side note: I’m starting to love making decisions based on data, as opposed to my feelings. It makes me feel like what I’m doing actually makes sense.

So what’s my strategy?

I wish I could tell you, but I can’t and there’s one simple reason – I don’t know yet. In fact, this will be more of an ongoing experiment where I collect data and report back on it.

However, there’s one thing I do know – I’m actually going to be starting off by really building on Facebook alone and then adding more Twitter into the mix.

FacebookLikeI just finished listening to an amazing interview with Holly Homer on the Social Media Marketing Podcast where she spoke about how she grew her Quirky Momma Facebook Page from 7,000 fans to more than 530,000 fans in only 8 months.

Here’s the thing – she didn’t use Facebook ads or any crazy gimmicks, and now she has a loyal following that’s ridiculously huge. In fact, I just checked out her Facebook page and it currently has 824,896 fans at the time that I’m writing this (and probably more by the time you read it).

Now, Holly doesn’t know this but she has just become my Facebook mentor (whether she likes it or not, lol).

Between my Virtual Assistant (VA) and myself, we’re going to be going through the videos she has posted on her Youtube channel about what she has done with Facebook, coming up with a strategy for the Become A Blogger Facebook page, and then implementing that strategy.

I already know this – this won’t be a one size fits all strategy. Our strategy won’t be identical to hers, nor will it be the perfect strategy for you.

It will be one that we’ll come up with based on the goals I have for Become A Blogger and what my audience resonates with, but I will also be sharing it here with you.

Why?

Because I believe that you will be able to learn from the strategy we come up with and adapt it to your goals and your audience.

P.s. Connect with me on Facebook 😉

So what about Twitter?

TwitterI can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m actually starting to really love Twitter, but not for the reasons most marketers talk about.

It’s not that I’ve been having a ton of success driving traffic back to my blog. In fact, I think I’ve been doing that pretty poorly.

It’s because I’ve been interacting with people just like you on a one on one basis. Every so often, I get a message throughout the day from someone just checking to see how I’m doing.

That’s AWESOME. I work alone now. There’s no office with coworkers.

However, with Twitter, it’s starting to seem like the world is my office.

Here are some examples of some convos that I’ve been having over the last few days:

That last one even led to a Skype date. Don’t worry – both our spouses are ok with this kinda thing 😉

So for now, Twitter will be kind of like my extended office. It’s the place where I’ll be simply interacting with and engaging real people. However, once we have a solid Facebook strategy outlined and fully implemented, we will start exploring ways of being more effective on Twitter. P.s. Follow me on Twitter 😉

What about everything else?

Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+ are all great sites that can all drive a lot of traffic to my blog. I won’t be deleting my accounts, and when I have a new blog post, I will be spending approximately 1 minute to broadcast my content on those sites.

However, I will NOT be trying to grow anything on those sites. I will NOT be looking for new strategies. I will NOT be doing any interviews with experts about those sites.

In other words, I will not be active on those sites.

***HUGE . . . WEIGHT . . . LIFTED***

I can almost feel myself floating in the air because of how free I’ve become. Ok, just kidding on that last part.

At the beginning of 2015, I will reevaluate my social media strategy based solely on the data I collect over the next 4 months and make a decision as to whether I will add another Social Network or just continue with what I’m doing.

What’s your Social Strategy?

Are you the kind of person who tries to be everywhere, or have you picked your top 1 or 2 social networking sites to dominate?

Contribute to the discussion in the comments below.

About the Author Leslie Samuel


Leslie Samuel a business coach for high-performing entrepreneurs. As the host of the Leslie Samuel Show, he teaches how to build an online business. "Changing the world one post at a time” is the mission he strives towards. As a former university professor, he has a passion for education. He's the founder of Interactive Biology, a blog and YouTube channel dedicated to making biology fun for students and teachers. As the head of training for the Social Media Marketing Society, he helps social media marketers get the training they need to stay on the leading edge of social media.

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