Week 16 - Post A - Creating My Strategy

Wow, the semester is coming to a close. I really enjoyed walking through the paces of learning about social media. A co-host of mine is a social media and e-commerce guy and he would always ask me, "Mary, where do you want to play and who do you want to play within your business?"

It took me a while to understand the concept but, now after this class, I get what he means. Going through the assignments and trying a few of the platforms it was interesting to note which ones would work for Go With Your Gut and Catholicism is Cool. These two topics are based on podcasts, books, and online courses so I don't feel they are as strong for Instagram because they are not as visual. I can make memes to complement my content and that will get some attention but, typically I stick to recording a podcast, transcribing it for a blog post, and posting on my site and iTunes. With that said, FaceBook and Twitter seem the logical sites for now. I can see the Zoom interviews and other videos of my content to reactivate my YouTube channel. I like YouTube, too.

I would choose to boost posts on FaceBook as a strategy from the class. My ad on Twitter didn't yield anything but, I don't really have a strong enough presence for that. I like Twitter for some weird reason and will continue to dabble in that.

I remember really liking analytics when I had my MomsTown company. I like getting in the weeds with data. Even when I send my newsletter out I like to see how many clicks, opens, bounces, etc... and I've noticed when I send the newsletter with specific headlines I'll get a 50% open rate, if from nothing other than curiosity. Full disclosure, I don't send it very often. Mostly to my vacation rental guests and I include a podcast, local events in town, and special rates. I do get click-throughs on the podcasts and always get a booking for my rental. Hmmm, why don't I do this more often?

The biggest take away from the class was that I need to incorporate social media as a strategy on a consistent basis and that needs to be thought out and scheduled.

If I plan to batch content and schedule it to go out I believe I could spend a portion of one working day to do that and be done for the week.

Record a podcast. Transcribe it. Edit for a blog post. Post to FaceBook with a link to the podcast. Post to Twitter with a link to the podcast. Send a newsletter once a month with a podcast.

One other thing I know from past experience is to engage each subscriber as much as possible. For instance, when someone signs up for my newsletter I should reach out to them with a simple "Hello, thank you for subscribing." Also, what is effective is a shout out on my show. That worked really well to ingratiate listeners.

Thank you for a great class.
Mary