Social media is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration

To paraphrase Thomas Edison, “social media is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”.

It’s easy (and fun) to take the plunge into social media. You begin with lofty visions of millions of fans hanging on your every tweet. Then reality sets in, and you realise it can be hard work staying on the social media treadmill.

That’s why you need a social media activity schedule and some old-fashioned perseverance.

Inspiration: Developing your social media strategy

The inspiration is the exciting part. It’s here that you work out who you’ll be creating remarkable content for, which social media tools you’ll be using and which online communities you’ll become a part of. This is an easy yet important step.

You see others who have soared to the heights you aspire to reach, and you’re keen to get involved!

Perspiration: Implementing your social media strategy

Once you decide to embrace social media and you share ambitions of building your social media clout, you realise you’re going to need to knuckle down and start doing the work.

Producing remarkable content is important and it takes time and practice. So how do you make it a habit? The answer is to create a social media activity schedule.

Social media activity schedule

You should draw up an activity schedule that includes what you will be doing on a daily, weekly and fortnightly basis. For example, you might decide to reply to Facebook comments on a daily basis, and upload YouTube videos every fortnight.

There are other questions you should answer when designing your schedule. How frequently will you blog and what topics will you discuss? Who should you connect with on LinkedIn? Who will you follow and start conversations with?

Documenting this plan with deadlines and milestones you can tick off is crucial to giving yourself the framework to succeed. However, even drafting this social media activity schedule is relatively easy.

The hard work starts when you commit to implementing it. It requires discipline and patience but the rewards are there if you stick with it.

How to get 60,000 followers

David Meerman Scott, author of the bestselling book The New Rules of Marketing and PR, has over 63,000 Twitter followers. He insists there is no secret formula other than simply “doing the work”.

Over four years, Scott has tweeted 6,000 times, written 414 blog posts, published five books, created four free e-books, given 126 presentations, recorded 100 podcasts, given 150 interviews and filmed 125 videos.

Every social media activity that delivers quality will help you build your influence, gaining you a handful of followers at a time.

There’s no secrets. Just 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

It’s simple, but not easy.