One of the most perplexing things about social media marketing is wrangling all the social sites you’re on and knowing what, when and how often to share content. I received this question from Trudy Van Buskirk:

How many times a day do you have to post to get visibility?

It’s not the first time I’ve been asked this question over the years. A decade ago it was “how often should I post on my blog?” Now, it’s “how often should I post on [insert social networking site]?”.

[Listen to the post if you prefer audio]

The first thing to get out of the way is that there are no rules and everyone has an opinion. There is no “right way” or right time to post. It’s tempting to want to follow someone else’s formula, and that’s great for a guideline and setting up your initial schedule. Ultimately, though, you need to test and experiment to find what works for your followers AND what you can comfortably sustain on a consistent basis. Then you have to tweak and test some more.

The second thing…you need to be clear on your goals for social marketing and the outcome you’re looking for as you build your visibility on the Web. All this depends on what’s happening in your business: are you launching a new product or service? Are you building your list? Do you want people to register or buy your thing? Or, are you in a phase where you primarily want to build awareness for your business?

Finally, the third thing is that building visibility is about more than posting (your own and curated content) on your social networks. What is going to help you stand out is how much you engage on with the people in your networks.

Do you reply to comments? Do you read, like, comment and share the content of others? If you drop a link into a status update, move on and never return, you will not be visible for long and your community will move on.

Let’s get back to Trudy’s question: how many times a day do you have to post to get visibility?

Trudy doesn’t ask about a specific network and each one has it’s own flow and character. I could be flip and simply say, “It depends” but I’ll take it a little further and tell you what I generally recommend when working with my clients on this question.

1. Decide how much time per day you can commit to spending time on your networks. 30 minutes is a good place to start.

2. Pick 2-3 networks where you know your ideal audience spends most of their time. Survey your list or social contacts to find out.

3.  Focus most of your time on those 2-3 networks, even if you’re active on more. To build awareness you need to be consistently offering value and rather than flit from site to site, focus on a couple for a month or two, then add another layer.

4. To make things simple, use the 80/20 rule. For example, if you post 5 times per day on Twitter, 4 tweets should be sharing others people’s content (OPC) and 1 tweet your own content. Track how many comments and retweets you get on the posts. Do more of what works. Use a tool like Hootsuite or Buffer to manage your status updates.

5. When sharing your own content, think about how many ways it can be repurposed and shared: a blog post can be shared on all networks as a link; create an image for your blog posts and share on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google+; excerpt a couple of quotes from your article to create a new round of tweets and status updates with a call to action to read the full article. 

There have been hundreds of studies and analyses about the best frequency for posting. When I did a Google search on the question: how often you should post on social media, I got back a whopping 11,900,000 results. This question has been asked and answered a lot! 

 I reviewed a few of the recent articles and found the post by Kevan Lee on the Buffer blog, The Social Media Frequency Guide, to have good info referencing a lot of studies.  I recommend reading the entire post to get the reasons why, but if you just want to skip to the Takeaways at the end, you’ll have a place to start your own experiments.

I also ran across an infographic that lays out a plan for How to Rock Social Media in 30 Minutes A Day. When you look at the infographic, look at it through the lens of your business and refer to my suggestion #2 above: pick two or three social networks that match the demographics you want to reach and start with 10 minutes a day on each one.  And, as Kevan Lee says in the image above, “always be testing, experimenting, iterating, and improving.”

Embedded from Pardot

One last thing. It takes time to create a visible presence. You can’t “set it and forget it.”

How often do you post on the various social networks and are you getting the results you want? 

Do you have a question about online visibility or social marketing that you would like answered? Click here to send me a message with your question.

Related Reading

How Do I Start Building My Platform?

The post How Often Should I Post to Get Visibility? #AskDenise appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

But what if you blog about a topic that’s not inherently visual (like food, art, interior design, travel, etc.)? 

What kind of Pinterest Boards can you create if you don’t have a visual business?

The infographic below gives you 142 Pinterest Board Ideas. There are easily dozens you could use in your business…

Infographic created by Launch Grow Joy.

 Still not sure what kind of boards to create for your business? Join me for Adventures In Visibility where I’ll be chatting with Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound, about how she uses Pinterest to rank #1 on Google (and she doesn’t use pretty images) for one of her top keyword phrases.  Click here to RSVP (free).

Follow me on Pinterest! 

To get reminders about when Adventures are scheduled and when replays are posted, you can get on the list and follow me on Google+. Be sure to let me know you want to be added to my Adventures in Visibility Notification Circle so you get the invitation directly through Google+.

The post 142 Pinterest Board Ideas for Your Business appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

Note from Denise: I LOVE Google+ and I’ve met many smart, generous people on the social network. Stephan Hovnanian is one of them. I’ve hosted three Hangouts with Stephan to introduce you to his brilliance and to the power of the G+ community.  After you study Stephan’s infographic, scroll to the end to learn about two training webinars I’m presenting to help you get started on Google Plus.

UPDATE: Stephan has published several Kindle ebooks on Google+ Pro Tips, including one on How to Get More Visibility on Google+.

Ten Visibility Tips for Google Plus

You joined Google+ because everyone is telling you what an amazing platform it is to make an impact, to stand out and be recognized for the authority you have (or are building) in your field of expertise.

 

10 Tips for More Visibility on Google+

1. Understand Your Audience Reach
2. “Hand out” your hovercard (it shows up more than you think)
3. Engage in Comments first
4. Reimagine your content (here are 12 creative ways)
5. Use Social Listening techniques (here’s a real life example)
6. Use citations and attribution (it’s like a blog trackback)
7. Hop into “What’s Hot”
8. Ask Questions
9. Be Yourself! Be Genuine! (Jaana Nyström says it best here)
10. Take time to understand the platform

Using these techniques will help you grow the reach of your profile. Be sure to put a focus on post quality so people always expect your name (and comments) to be synonymous with excellence. It’s a tall order, and of course you can let your hair down once in a while, but you came to Google+ to use it as a platform to make an impact, and these tips will help you on your way.  

 

To get started using Google+ to boost your online visibility, join me for two on-demand training webinars: 

 

Boost Your Presence and Build Your Online Platform with Google+

• Google+ 101: 7 Steps to Rock It on Google+
• How to Set Up and Present Your First Live Hangout

Click here to get started now!

The post Ten Visibility Tips for Google Plus [#infographic] appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

How much time do you spend on social media (for your business) every day? Do you wonder where the time goes and then fret that you don’t have enough time to create content or products or learn new strategies and tactics to grow your business?

The “I don’t have time” complaint has been addressed by me and others many, many, many times. And after seeing the infographic below, let’s look at it again.

Yes, social marketing takes time. All marketing, social or otherwise, takes time.

Yes, it’s about consistently marketing your business so you get the traffic, leads, gigs and opportunities to grow your business.

And, it’s vital to have a strategy so you don’t fritter away your day on social media. It’s got to work for you, not against you.

Can you really “rock social media in 30 minutes a day”?

I’m skeptical. Only 6 minutes to engage, promote and share each day on Facebook? Really? I don’t know about you, but to craft a decent status update and include a relevant image or quote and a call to action, takes me a bit more than 6 minutes and that doesn’t account for responding to comments and questions from previous posts. Or commenting on other people’s posts.

Then, there’s creating content for your blog, your primary real estate. That’s not included on the infographic, yet in my opinion that’s where you need to put the most effort and time in order to build your reputation and provide your readers and fans to easily share your message with their networks.

So what do you do?

The infographic provides a good initial road map.

• You start by identifying the social channels your clients are active on.
• Create a simple strategy for publishing long form content on your blogsite that tells your story about who you are, who you serve and how you do it.
• Identify the tactics you want to use to get your story out into the stream, in front of the right eyeballs.
• Automate where you can and schedule time that is realistic for your objectives. It may be 30 minutes a day, or it may be more.
• What tasks can you outsource and do you have the resources to do so?

My advice – that I share with my clients and students – is to [pullquote position=”right”]budget a minimum of one hour a day for your social marketing, including attention to the content on your blog[/pullquote]. That’s a total of five hours a week which is really not very much at all. By focusing on your content and getting it amplified around the Web, you’ll be able to create more paths to your virtual door and let in more connections and opportunities.

Below the infographic is a sample visibility schedule you’re welcome to download and adapt for your business.

Check out the sample Visibility schedule below. It’s a word document so you can modify it to fit your business and schedule.

[wpdm_file id=6]

I’d like to hear from you on the time and social marketing issue. How much time do you spend each day using social media to market your business? Do you think the suggested scheduled on the infographic is realistic?

The post Social Media in 30 Minutes a Day – Is It Really Possible? [Infographic] appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

The trend towards new ways to publish and build credibility and visibility with your work, is one reason Ellen Britt and I launched The Future of Ink last year. It’s also why we’re presenting the inaugural Digital Publishing Online Intensive (DPOI).

The Keynote Speaker for DPOI is Guy Kawasaki, author of the new bestselling book, APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur – How to Publish a Book. Guy is the perfect choice to kick off the event. If you’re the least bit interested in how you can capitalize on the self-publishing trend to get your message out to the world, then I recommend you pick up a copy of APE (or get it as a bonus when you register for DPOI!).

If you’re not convinced self-publishing is the way to go, maybe Kawasaki’s infographic below will change your mind…

The post The Top 10 Reasons to Self-Publish [Infographic] appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.