Startups: Social Media Chaos
When you first heard the word “startup,” you thought there’d be maybe a year or two of work, but not about the crazy, crazy chaos that would be involved. Every day the entire wheel has to be reinvented, and nobody is really sure what they should be doing. The social media is a huge, chaotic mess. Then again, there’s strategy. The “strategy” word brings up thoughts of high school chess club, the Civil War, and business plans. But it’s not nearly that bad, I promise.
Brain Dump
Start out by writing down all the things you can think of doing. Consider organizing those items into categories. These can be very large items. They might be by platform. For instance, “Come up with 12 board names for Pinterest.” Or “Create Facebook posts and images to go with them.” Can you feel your blood pressure going down as you do this?
Choose a Starting Point
If you’re the social media manager, then you’ll have to do it all, so consider picking a starting point. What is the most important platform for your audience? Start there. If you’re not very social media savvy, LinkedIn is the one that many people feel most comfortable using. Many people also feel comfortable on Facebook, since they use it to connect with friends. Once you have worked that first platform into your schedule, move onto the next one.
Set Aside Time in Your Schedule
For instance, I like to start my day on Twitter. I like to be online tweeting and engaging by 8 am. You might prefer later in the day. And you don’t have to read a bunch of studies ~ to be successful, come up with your own schedule! Your chances of success will be much higher if you balance your own rhythms with your work.
Drowning
Feel Like You’re Drowning?
You may have the feeling that you are drowning in too many unmanageable expectations. People may be giving you contradictory instructions, or your team may not give you any hint at what they really want. In that case, you will need to come up with your own expectations and what is reasonable for you.
Have You Emerged from Chaos?
If you’re trying to start a new brand’s social media, I’d love to hear how you handled the pressure!
Still in the process of building our new brand’s social but your articles have been tremendously helpful! My takeaway from the last 5 articles or so on your site: PLAN and FOCUS.
Immediately people want to see presence on all the major social platforms (twit/fb/ig/etc) instead of just picking one and making it stellar and THEN moving on to another. Definitely going to heed that advice… for the sake of the brand voice and also mostly my sanity.
Thanks Carol!
Hi Eric,
Thanks for all the great feedback. Well, your sanity and mental health have to come first. Even though I don’t talk about it a lot, that’s why I work out every day. That physical health helps my mental health because without a strong body and some balance there would be no tweets or posts.
Now I’m really curious about what you’re building, so I’m going to have to take a look!
You’re giving me lots of ideas for new posts here.
Thanks!
Carol
Hello Michael,
Isn’t HootSuite wonderful? I use it, too, not just to schedule but during tweetchats, and for engagement. That spreadsheet feature is pretty good, too, from what I’ve heard! Manually scheduling is a lot of work! Thanks for stopping in and commenting. I appreciate that!
Sincerely,
Carol
Yet another spot-on post about social media. Overwhelm and SoMe management seem to go hand-in-hand. Sometimes it feels like you’re stuck on a roller coaster ride hung upside down!
Will check out the HootSuite spreadsheet feature.
Carol, thank you for the great ideas to leverage posts, tweets, pins.
Hi Alyson,
People do very often feel overwhelmed by social media. And sometimes very afraid of it, too. You’re welcome for the ideas and I’m glad they’re of use to you!
Sincerely,
Carol