Getting Started in Social Media Can Be Overwhelming – Plan it Out!

Getting started in social media can be really overwhelming.  With all the posts out there with top 5 things to do for this, and top 5 things not to do for this, and the top 10 apps for iPhone, etc, it can just be difficult to find a place to actually start.  This is true for myself as I just started digging deep into the whole social media aspect of things about 7-8 months ago.  I have been blogging for over 2 years, I’ve been  doing SEO work for about 2 years and have been managing affiliate programs and PPC campaigns for about the same time.  But one thing that I didn’t catch onto was using Twitter, Facebook (my profile is not up to par yet – still working on it) and LinkedIn to name a few to my professional advantage.  It wasn’t until I attended Affiliate Summit East 2009 in New York City that I finally got the memo.

I sat through Getting Noticed Fast panel, which was the first session of the conference for me.  I was blown away by this.  I had a Twitter account, but had pushed out maybe 5-10 Tweets at most and had no idea about half of the things that they were talking about.  Hell, I didn’t even understand the concept of a re-tweet, DM, or mention.  They started talking about this TweetDeck thing, which at the time made no sense to me, now I can’t go a day without it.  I had about 5 pages worth of notes from this first session, there was still about 6-7 more to go.

Later that night I decided that going to the networking parties weren’t for me.  I had a million things that I just learned earlier that day that I needed to get done.  I decided to buy two domains that night, the one you are reading now, Chris Stocker Inc. and my other blog about my diabetes, The Life of a Diabetic.  And right after that I said, ok now what?!?  I took a deep breathe, went for a quick walk through Times Square, grabbed a Starbucks and took out my notes and made a plan.  What did I want to accomplish and how was I going to do it were my two biggest concerns.  I decided to create two brands, but co-exist within each other.  It was all so overwhelming, and I must admit it, at times it still is.

What makes it even worse is that with my current working conditions, I am not able to monitor the web and Twitter and run my business the way I would like to from 9-5 at this time.  So it forces me to handle all of this from 7 p.m. until about 3-4 in the morning.  If you are in this same situation then you must, must, must read Crush It! byGary Vaynerchuck.  This book will motivate you to the point where you probably won’t sleep for about a week straight and you will accomplish a lot of work.

Finally, my ending point is, don’t get discouraged.  If you are just starting now, you may be behind the ball a little, but no big deal, with time things will come.  The traffic to your blog will come, your customers will come, but don’t rush it.  Don’t be about promoting yourself.  One of the first things that I learned in the Getting Noticed Fast panel was to re-tweet 10-15 of other people’s stuff for every one thing you put out about your  self or company.  Also, screw your analytics at the beginning.  Have it set up, but don’t analyze it day to day or even week to week.  You can read more about this in Gary’s book as well.

Some people that I have followed closely to help me get started and move along.

Chris Brogan – @chrisbrogan

Geno Prussakov – @eprussakov

Gary Vaynerchuck – @garyvee

Ted Murphy – @tedmurphy

Jay Berkowitz – @JayBerkowitz
photo credit: thefreshpeel via photopin cc