This is a guest post by Cassidy Davis.
In an effort to follow through on my New Year’s resolution of getting fit, I recently obtained a new gym membership and personal trainer. Spending an increased amount of time at the gym in combination with working in the field of communications, I have found that there are several concepts about working out that can be applied to social media.
Quality Counts – Plank and crunches won’t get you any closer to rock hard abs unless you are doing them the right way. Cheating exercises may make the pain intensity more bearable, but in the long run it prohibits you reaching your fitness goal. The same concept can be applied to social media interactions. In order to keep and grow your followers, the quality of statuses or messages must continue to engage and interest your audience. Quality communication may include offering tips, advertising benefits/promotions or even making them feel valued by asking their opinion. Low quality posts are those considered “junk” which includes repetitive content or excessive self-promotion.
Stay Hydrated – Staying hydrated is an essential part to a healthy and productive exercise session because of the loss of body fluid through sweat. If the body is short of fluids, it fatigues faster and if ignored for too long, could potentially result in more extreme problems including cramps or heat exhaustion. Staying hydrated with the most current social media news and information is just as important too. As with any technology, social media is always evolving, transitioning and emerging with new features and changes. Staying informed about these changes will ensure that you continue to communicate with your brand consumers the best way you can.
Consistency – One of the main factors that determines progress to your overall fitness goal is consistency, or how frequently you exercise during the week. Exercising one, maybe two days a week for six months and skipping entire weeks at a time will have very little effect on your body in comparison to working out four days a week for six months. Consistency may also be applied to your social media goals. If your goal is to use social media to raise sales or increase your fan or follower count, posting and fan engagement must happen on a consistent basis.
Variety – Someone who goes to the gym looking for weight loss but only does sit-ups will likely see very little difference. Overall weight loss requires a combination of diet modification, cardio, and weight/strength training among other things. Variety is also important in social media. Followers or fans will likely be put off or even unfollow you if you only post self-promoting messages or repetitive messages.
Motivation – Staying motivated can be one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome in reaching your fitness goals. There are just some days when the couch and TV sound better than the treadmill and water bottle. For consistency purposes it is very important to stay motivated with social media. It may seem like a drag in the beginning to post to your Facebook and tweet on Twitter EVERY SINGLE WEEK, particularly when you have very few followers or fans. Keep it up! Engagement is the only way to grow your followers.
As displayed, even things as random as working out have relevance to the exciting and ever-changing world of social media.
Question: What are some of your experiences at the gym that may be applicable to effective online communication and engagement?
Another good one: Don’t try to lift too much at once, as a slip-up is embarrassing! Planning is key to any good social media strategy! Keep up the quality.
Evan VanDerwerker
http://www.vanderwerker.com
James, though all posts may not meet the same standard and some will inevitably be more interesting or engaging than others, the important thing to remember is that quality posts take consideration and thought.
James,
I think there’s a balance you have to find between posting high quality content and consistent posting. If we all tried to write the perfect post, we’d never post anything. At the same time, you do want to make sure your content meets a certain standard, while attempting to maintain a consistent schedule (for blog posts).
Personally, I’ve had times (such as the past few weeks) where I’ve been to busy with work to have time to write something decent, so I decided not to post anything at all. For me, I’d rather some blog silence than putting my name to work I’m not happy with.
Lydia
I agree with @cassidy_davis ‘s advice. I stirfe to post entries of good quality on Parliamentum, but inevitably they will not all meet the same standard.
The Twitter birdie is sweating! lol