I often talk to businesses about what they are worried about when they are thinking about using social media to market their business and promote their brand. Almost without exception, the main concerns are the amount of time and resources that SM is going to take. This is completely understandable, we are all busy people.
One way of making better use of your time on social media is to reuse material that you have already created. However, it is important to consider each audience.
I have a number of different audiences that I connect to via social media. I have subscribers to my newsletter, connections on LinkedIn, followers on Twitter, fans on facebook and I also connect using other social networks including 4Networking, womens business club, etc. There will be some overlap of connections between applications, but there will also be people following me exclusively on a particular application.
Bearing in mind that I need to keep the language appropriate for each application, I can reuse material.
For example, in my June newsletter, I talk about a partnership with Ignition4Business.
In my newsletter, I can tell people about this partnership in a good sized paragraph.
In my facebook page, I have 420 characters to talk about Ignition4Business
In my LinkedIn update, I have 160 characters and can also include the LinkedIn company profile link for Ignition4Business
In my Twitter update, I have 140 characters and can include #IG4B (Twitter hashtag) and a reference to @IG4B (the Ignition4Business company username)
In 4Networking, I can contribute to a forum discussion about Ignition4Business.
In my blog, I can talk about Ignition4Business and what makes the company different
This has now got the message out to all my newsletter subscribers, my 200 LinkedIn contacts, my 2500 Twitter followers, my 70 facebook fans, everybody in 4N and all who read my blog. Each has got the message in a way that they understand.
What do you think? Is this something that you do?