I define social media publication as: original blog posts, tweets, updates on Facebook and discussions in LinkedIn groups that you originate
The other social media is social media engagement: replies and retweets of tweets , comments on blogs and Facebook and contributions to group discussions in LinkedIn originated by others
As a business owner or stakeholder in an organisation you may have worried about what constitutes a reasonable amount of social media publication. Are you doing too much or are you doing too little?
Do too much and your intended audience may become frustrated at having their feeds and timelines flooded by your input. There is also a danger that important stuff will be missed in the blizzard of information. Do too little blogging and tweeting and you’ll disappear from view – lose your ‘player’ status – and your neglected audience may be stolen by competitors.
I wouldn’t like to prescribe the publication of a strict number of blogs, tweets, Facebook updates, LinkedIn discussions per day, week or month. I do however recommend setting a minimum and a maximum. A minimum will keep you in the game, and a maximum will stop you being seen as a pest (and, as a useful byproduct, force you to focus more clearly on your central aims).
Become the reasoned voice, not the chatterbox.
Original tweets per day – Min:1 Max: 2
These can be alerting followers to a blog post etc, events, new initiatives or even simply questions/polls. Any more than two a day may be regarded as a pest.
Blogs per week – Min: 1 Max: 2
The blog post, social media in its longest form, is a product of considered thought around a specific issue, event or initiative. If you’re organisation has more than one or two of those every week then maybe you’re dividing your energies too much.
Facebook page updates per week: Min: 1 Max:2
If you do as I do and concentrate on a blog Facebook page is a good place to post links to blog posts.
LinkedIn discussions to any one group per week: Min: 1 Max:1
Starting too many discussions in LinkedIn can make potential respondents suspicious. If a subject is worth examining through debate then its worth giving it some time to develop.
Engage all you like!
Of course the max and mins detailed above refer to social media publication. Social media engagement can be limitless. You can and should respond as much as you like to replies to your original tweets, reply to the original tweets of others and retweet interesting things you might see in your feed. Likewise answering comments on your blog posts or commenting on the blog posts of others is essential to building your social media audience – ditto Facebook and LinkedIn.
Further reading:
Oversharing: How much is too much social media?
Social Volume: How much is too much?
Managing a social media publication calendar
Getting and keeping your social media publication programme on track can be made easier using a social media dashboard platform such as Hootsuite. You can post simultaneously to several social media networks simultaneously either immediately or at a scheduled time delivering the optimum impact. The likes of Hootsuite also enables you to easily monitor responses to your social media publication and also the publications of others that you may want to engage with.
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