Social (when done right) can yield enormous benefits – turning members of your online communities to leads and ultimately, to customers because it operates like word-of-mouth, amplified.
So just how do time-starved entrepreneurs and small business owners carve out a space for themselves on social media? Here are a few tips and tools I’ve found to be helpful and that help take the guesswork out of sharing, posting and interacting with your online communities.
Subscribe and Scan
Any serious entrepreneur ought to be reading about or watching the latest developments and trends in their respective industries.
Take the headache out of aggregating all of that content online by creating your own virtual library (or magazine rack), with tools like Feedly.
A wildly popular free web-based and mobile app, Feedly allows users to subscribe to and aggregate all of their favorite sources anywhere on the web all in one place. So, that means: no more scrolling through bookmarks. No more typing the URLs of your favorite websites into your browser to see what the latest content is. No more fear of missing out on important updates and developments.
Feedly works off of RSS, so the content from your favorite sites is updated constantly and it acts as a content discovery site, recommending related content and websites similar to the sites you already subscribed to.
A small business owner’s day shouldn’t get eaten up with mindless social media and internet surfing. But part of your day should be devoted to finding a way to consistently show up on social media to engage your followers and share interesting, helpful content.
That’s why after you’ve successfully aggregated your favorite sources, you should take some time to scan them daily for any relevant or interesting updates you think your online community would appreciate or find helpful.
The important thing to remember about building a community, especially one full of engaged people using social media is that it will not happen overnight. That’s why it’s important to remain consistent. And consistency only happens when you make small investments each day.