Over-Analyzing Your Social Media Game Plan: Part 1 of 2 – Obsessing About What You’re Going to Do

Giving serious thought about how you want to approach social media as a solopreneur is important. Getting too caught up in analyzing what you’re going to do and then how well you’ve done it, however, will debilitate you.

Today’s post will zero in on the first trap…

Part 1: Obsessing About What You’re Going to Do

Every small business owner has a different degree of intuition than the next when it comes to using social media networks. But regardless of how naturally (or not so) interacting on them is for you, the dynamic character of them demands some ability to “go with the flow”.

Although setting a schedule for using social media can keep you on track and hold you accountable for maintaining your presence, pre-planning every topic and post might be too rigid. What’s hot today, might be barely lukewarm 3 weeks from now when a pre-planned post will go live. Post daily if you can, while maintaining your sanity by taking advantage of scheduling tools like Hootsuite and Bufferapp.

Some tips for staying agile in your posting:

• Keep plenty of good content resources on hand through Google Reader or some other RSS reader. Seek out quality blogs relevant to your industry and niche and tap into them daily for up-to-date info that your audience will find useful.
• Create your own content via a blog, videos, images, and podcasts. Nothing demonstrates your understanding of the business you’re in than you sharing your smarts.
• Friend, fan, follow and connect with lots of other businesses with expertise in your industry. Check out their posts and actively share them when they’re a good fit for your own friends, fans,followers and connections.

Rather than planning too far ahead, your efforts will be better spent in near real-time with a focus on content that will appeal to your target audience in that moment. And you’ll draw more of your target audience into your social circles that way, too.

Stay tuned! Next week, I’ll follow up with Part 2: Obsessing About How Well You’re Doing It

How do you manage your social media posting? How do you balance planning with spontaneity?