Despite the astounding amount of foolishness found in the world of Facebook, social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter are absolutely essential to the building of your online platform. Don’t let the foolishness drive you away! Redeem it by using your Social Media outlets to connect people to life-transforming truths!
In this entry I will provide you with a clear strategy for establishing your social media outlets and using them effectively. This strategy will also be easy to implement because I will also give you step-by-step instructions. Once you get started, you are just a few clicks away from laying a solid foundation for a powerful platform.
But before you plunge into the world of social media you should know that the realm of social media can suck you in and suck the life out of you if you are not careful. It is important to be strategic, rather than haphazard. My suggestion is that you create a daily time allotment for using social media, and stick to it. As Michael Hyatt says in his book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, your social media outlets are important, but they are your embassies, not your home country. Your blog is your home country, but we’ll get to that in another post.
I would suggest beginning with what I would consider to be the two most important social media outlets for your platform: Facebook and Twitter.
Here are the components:
- Your Facebook Profile: Your goal is to connect a large number of people to the message that God has put in you. The good news is that, because of Facebook, you don’t have to start from scratch. Your Facebook profile enables you to go back as far as you can remember and connect with hundreds of old friends, family members, as well as new friends and acquaintances. But don’t try to use your profile to get your message out; simply use it to connect relationally with as vast a network as you can possibly build. At the same time, don’t just accept anyone as your Facebook friend. A friend’s request is often nothing more than a shell of a connection. You only have 5,000 spaces available in your friend’s list. Use them wisely; build connections with people, share appropriate pieces of your life with them, have a little fun, and keep them connected. Tip: take two minutes to say Happy Birthday everyday to the friend’s who’s birthdays appear next to the cake icon near the top of the right sidebar of your home page. This will put your face on the homepage of everyone of your fb friends at least once a year, and it’ll only take you a few minutes a day. If you don’t have a facebook profile, you can sign up for one here.
- Your Facebook Fanpage: To get your message out, you’ll need a fanpage/orgpage. Use your fanpage to communicate bite-sized pieces of meaningful content. You will use your profile to connect people to your fanpage, and you will use your fanpage to communicate 140-character installments of your message. Once you release your fanpage, you need to update your status at least once a day. This is important because it keeps people coming back. Once people start sharing your status on their profile, their friends will start visiting your fanpage and liking it. They in turn will share your status updates on their profiles, and their friends will start visiting . . . While your profile is designed to connect people to your life, your fanpage is designed to connect people to your message. This is important for piquing people’s taste for your real material, which you will provide in your blog. And, btw, the relatively short articles you post on your blog will pique people’s taste for the arrival of your book! It starts with a tweet and ends with a tome! You’ve got to draw people one step at a time! If you don’t have a facebook fanpage, you can create one here.
- Your Twitter Feed: What I recommend is connecting your Twitter feed to your Fanpage so that whatever posts to your fanpage automatically posts to your Twitter feed. This way you communicate with two different audiences at the same time. This is also why your fanpage posts must be 140 characters or less. Any more and it will be too long for a tweet. The discipline of writing them will make you a master of the one-liner! You will also need to supplement your Twitter feed from time to time with responses to tweets directed towards you. Also, Jon Acuff suggests live-tweeting (providing a running commentary of) a major event at least once a year. This will increase your flow of new followers and strengthen your platform. If you don’t have a Twitter feed, you can create one here.
The key to the strength of your social media platform is consistency. Update your status at least once a day to keep people connected. Set aside time every day for social media engagement, and try to stay within that time limit. The power of your platform is primarily in your content, not in your technology, so make a decision to provide meaningful content that encourages and empowers. Do this, and you’ll be on your way to building a powerful online platform!
