REtechSouth

After every conference and seminar, there comes the real challenge… implementing all of the VERY cool things I’ve learned, while living in the real world. Setting up client searches, responding to inquiries, dealing with the family, making sure everything that should be on track is on track… they all get in the way of rolling out 3782 changes to my websites and social networks.

I have found that I need to take a little time… and then I need to dive in. Diving in comes next. I have pages of notes, some vendor material and a list of websites and ideas. I have mind-mapping software on my computer… and it needs to get used.

For the last few weeks, I have been unhappy with much of my web presence. I have a great IDX, but I am not getting the most out of it. I have good Page Rank, but I don’t have the level of conversion I feel I should have. My traffic is decent.

And I focused on the sessions at REtechSouth that I thought would help me fix that…

Plenty of sessions to focus on, too…

If you weren’t at REtechSouth, you should have been.

In addition to the incredible information that was presented, the connections that were made and the fun on the exhibit hall floor… there was also the opportunity to hang out with my friends. There are a lot of folks I have been lucky enough to meet from all over the country. And there were some that I was able to meet (in person) for the first time.

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• Where do we go from here? (lanebailey.info)

During our hour or so, we talked about several aspects of a broad Social Media Plan, from strategy to measurement.  As promised, here is the outline with some bonus information added…

Social Media…

Define your Goals…

1. Meeting people – That is how we do business…
2. Increasing brand recognition – Keeping our brand in our customer’s mind…
3. Reputation management – Google Alerts and other tools to see what people are saying.

Develop your Strategy…

1. How are you going to engage? – Lurk and Learn
2. Where are your clients/customers/prospects? – Match site and consumer demographics to find the right places to be.

Deploy your Tactics…

1. Which sites will you leverage?
   1. Twitter… Like a broadcast media mixed with a giant cocktail party.
   2. LinkedIn… The button-down professional site. Online resume.
   3. FaceBook… HUGE social networking site with over 300,000,000 users.
   4. FaceBook Fan Pages… Create a FREE presence on FaceBook.
   5. Blogging… Centerpiece of a social networking strategy.
   6. Flickr… Photo-sharing and syndication.
   7. Local Forums… Possibly one of the best ways to interect with a target market.
2. What tools can you use to streamline your social networking time?
   1. AtomKeep.com – Profile management tool on multiple platforms.
   2. Posterous.com – Interface that allows content syndication on multiple platforms.
   3. Tweetvisor.com – Twitter interface that allows toggling bewteen Twitter accounts.
   4. TwitterLocal.net – Tool allowing you to track a location based feed in Twitter.
   5. TwitterFeed.com – Pushes Blog posts and other automated content to your Twitter stream.
   6. Twellow.com – Search tool for Twitter allowing users to be found based on interests and location.

Determine your Effectiveness…

1. Analyze your results…
   1. GetClicky.com
   2. TwitterAnalyzer.com
   3. Google.com/Analytics/
   4. FaceBook Business Dashboard
2. Compare your results to your Goals…

Tweak your Strategy and Tactics…

If you haven’t heard the statement, it is summing up the “Ready, Aim Fire, Aim Fire, Aim” menality.  Basically, spending forever making the plan, and then never following through and actually “doing” the plan.

And then…

There is the opposite side of the coin…  “Ready, Fire, Aim”.  That doesn’t work, either.  You can’t do the plan before you make the plan…

But in the middle…

There is a balance where we analyze AND act.  And this is about the analytics.

We all have our favorites.  I personally like Clicky Analytics for my website.  I like the way the data is presented.  They have a free level, and it is a great alternative to Google Analytics.  And GA is a great option as well.  In either case, the idea is to see where traffic is coming from, what search terms are being used and tune your content accordingly.

Another great tool in the box is HitTail.  It is a site that you can use to track your searches and see what material might be good to write about in the future.  In fact, it even offers a “To Do List” for future blogs, based on the previous search volume.

And you are likely to be surprised…

I know that I am often a bit shocked at which posts gather the most attention.  On ActiveRain, and LaneBailey.com, on LilburnDwellings.com.  in each case, I see posts that I don’t expect have great traffic.  I see other posts that are never stellar… until looking at 30 days, or even 90 or more days worth of data.  I have a post that has over 10,000 views, but it is never on my most viewed list for the day… or even the week.

Other posts have to be looked at OFF the grid.  I have a post that garners a reasonable number of views, and few comments… but people call me about that post.  Obviously it speaks to them.

So…

• Plan
• Write
• Analyze
• Adjust
• Write some more
• Analyze
• Adjust
• Repeat.

And don’t worry that your plan is different than my plan, or Midori’s plan or even Mike’s plan.  We are all different people.

from GwinnettGarageGuy.com