“Yeah, but who’s going to actually spend time doing this?” a client recently asked me during a discussion about the opportunities that social media engagement presented for his business. “Are you? Am I? Because, I’ll tell ya, I got enough to do as it is.”

He’s right. Finding the time to plan, then strategize, then analyze the social media and SEO inclusive marketing of your business can very easily seem to overwhelm your schedule. For those of us who love it, social media and SEO can be like a networking house party that never stops. Always a new connection to be made, always a new idea to be pondered, surprises around every corner. It’s for these reasons however, that many people, including the heads of many organizations, have decided against even walking up the sidewalk and ringing the doorbell.

There have been many helpful posts written about how to responsibly add Social Media to your workflow. One idea I hear over and over, and I might be guilty of parroting myself, is this: with scheduling tools like Hootsuite, or Sprout Social, you’ll be able to check off this social media nuisance after just 15 minutes every morning. While social media schedulers and dashboards are fantastic tools, if you try to force all of your social behavior into a box this small, it’s safe to say that, when it comes to your ROI, you’re leaving both money and opportunity on the table.

Here are 5 things to keep in mind when your company or organization gets started with social media.

1. If your logo could talk, what would it sound like?
   Friendly? Authoritative? Helpful? Does it have a regional dialect? Is it laced with slang? Laden with emoticons 🙂
2. Remember it’s SOCIAL media, not just media.
   When someone says something nice about your organization or product, thank them publicly. When someone contributes to the discussion, make sure you engage the contribution. Frequently remind people to keep following you because of the great content that’s yet to come…
3. Develop a strategy for answering queries and complaints
   Let your team know to expect to answer questions from time to time on social media, or to quickly let you know so you can get back to followers who have asked you a question. When a complaint comes in, be as service-oriented as you possibly can be. 
4. Be open to surprises
   One of the greatest things about social media analytics is learning how you went wrong in your predictions about what your audience would find most helpful or interesting. Keep learning from the content that your audience both “likes” and shares and cook up a plan to expand on it. 
5. Enjoy yourself
   Don’t forget that humor and personal care can go a long way. Learn to trust yourself with these tools, and you might even WANT to check your company Twitter feed on a regular basis…
7. What have you learned from creating an company voice on social media? Where have you found success that you wouldn’t have predicted? What have you found to be the biggest challenge? What do you think it will take to turn your ROI to 11?

About Haddon Kime

Haddon is a web developer, a filmmaker, a social media manager and a composer/sound designer. His passion is to work alongside creative and innovative minds in telling great stories. He holds a degree in writing music for films from Boston's Berklee College of Music, and is an experienced web designer/developer and social media manager. Haddon is a proud husband and father and currently lives in Atlanta, after having been lucky enough to spend most of his life in Tucson, Boston, and NYC. Learn more at www.haddonkime.com

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