Happy New Year! As I was cleaning out my inbox this past weekend, I came across a few great ideas worth sharing! So, I’ve combined all of them into this, our first blog post of 2012.
12 Social Media Resolutions for 2012:
1. Post more pictures!
Pictures, pictures, and more pictures! Share pictures with your status updates to increase your Facebook page EdgeRank score. Share more pictures on Pinterest – for fun or link to relavent content for your industry or audience.
2. Participate in the conversation!
No matter what anybody says, don’t ignore the conversations taking place about you or on your social network pages. Make an effort to answer every question within 24 hours. If you ignore those that post on your page, soon they will ignore your page altogether. Besides, it’s simply rude to ignore those who are reaching out to you – even if it is negative or public.
3. Update consistently!
One update on Facebook a day is no longer enough. Make an effort to post at least twice per weekday on Facebook, and reply to one person a day on Twitter. If you’re blogging, try to be consistent for the sake of SEO. (I need to get better at this myself.) Plan your day so that you are spending a few minutes posting consistently to the various social networks and groups that you participate in.
4. Bookmark Dictionary.com!
Spelling and grammar does matter – even on social networking sites. Occasional mistakes happen, especially when posting remotely from mobile devices (damnyouautocorrect.com is full of them) – but if you take just a moment to review your updates before clicking that submit button, you can save yourself and your company from embarrassing and careless mistakes. You and your company lose credibility every time you misspell a word. When in doubt, just use a different word.
5. Clean up the clutter!
From email hoarding to unused apps – from following too many on Twitter to a hard drive full of white papers – we are overloaded and under focused. Go through your RSS feed and eliminate those blogs that you no longer read. (<- This one is a note to self!) Delete those you’re following that haven’t tweeted in over a year.
6. Invest more time on LinkedIn!
Groups and Questions & Answers provide a ton of opportunities to learn, teach and share on a variety of topics. Try to spend a few minutes each day on LinkedIn – alternate between commenting on a group discussion and asking or answering a question. This will help establish your social credibility and build the community.
7. Change all of your passwords!
The beginning of the new year is the perfect time to go through all of your online accounts and change your passwords. Privacy and security are essential – and yet we’re often loathe to make this change. We get into our comfort zones and we don’t want a new password list! However, we need one. So decide on a couple of new passwords (one for social networks and one for your financial accounts) and start changing them today.
8. Try something new!
Have you created a YouTube channel yet? What about a Pinterest page? Subscribed to a new blog lately? Remember that Facebook isn’t the only place people are sharing online. Ask around, search on Google, look for a new place to learn and share.
9. Read one book that is out of the ordinary for you!
Take some time to change your perspective and give your mind a break. Learn origami or read a new sci-fi book. Open up your imagination and take some time to learn something new. You never know when it will turn into a new blog post or a whole new set of status updates for Facebook!
10. Be personable – be social!
Put down your phone. It’s okay! That message, text, status update or check-in will be there in 10 minutes. Take some time away from technology to reboot your mind and refresh your perspective. As a social media provider, I try to take time away from Facebook and Twitter on the evenings and weekends – it keeps me from feeling overwhelmed by Thursday!
11. Invest time into a social strategy!
Every company should have goals for using social media. Is it brand awareness? New leases? Renewals? Referrals? Customer engagement? Education? Every update you make online should be targeting the audience with a specific purpose. As long as you understand that purpose, you won’t be shooting in the dark.
12. Spend some time helping others!
You can be a mentor, a friend, or a thoughtful stranger – just do something that means something! Offer guidance to a new employee or member of your professional community. Share new ideas – even if you disagree with them! Spend some time being kind online in 2012. You won’t regret it!
What do you think?
Is there anything that ‘hits home’ with you or are you focusing on another idea? Please share your thoughts below in the comments.
