Social Media: Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone - Adpearance

Social Media: Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone

Step out of your digital marketing comfort zone in 2014 with a social media marketing strategy tailored to fit your company’s unique needs.

I recently made the decision to move from sunny Southern California to Portland to accept a job offer here at Adpearance. This was a huge move for me, as I had lived in SoCal for the last 10 years of my life—I definitely had to step out of my comfort zone to take on this new adventure. It’s been a scary, but successful ride so far and I can’t wait to see what life has in store.

As I reflect on the past two months, I see multiple similarities between my move and developing a social media strategy for a business. I know, sounds strange, but bear with me here as I explain.

Take the Plunge

It would be a lie for me to tell you I didn’t have worries, fears, and anxiety about my entire move. Where will I live? What will my coworkers be like? Will I make friends? All of these questions and more were on repeat in my head.

Similarly, I’ve found some businesses are overcome with fears and anxiety when it comes to navigating marketing on the Internet, especially social media marketing. Whether their fears are related to the legalities involved, content creation, unhappy customers, or simply just embarrassing themselves, it can sometimes stop them altogether from taking the plunge into social media marketing.

I’m here to tell you that it will all be alright. It’s likely that even if you’re not on social media, one of your competitors is or will be and will outrank you in search and likeability because of it. Don’t let this happen. As Nike would say, “Just Do It!” Social media isn’t only for a certain type of industry—there are so many ways to target specific, relevant audiences through social media marketing.

Test Various Social Sites

Before my move, I flew out to Portland for a quick 24-hour trip to look at various places to live; I had about 5 hours to tour as many as possible. I made an effort to diversify the places I was looking at by location, style, price range, etc.

Just as I had to cast a wide net for all of the places I wanted to tour, companies must do the same when testing various social media platforms. Digital marketing is an ever-changing world, with new social hubs sprouting constantly, and with all the social media noise out there, it can become very overwhelming to choose just a few social sites. 

Because of the many insights and analytics available to Internet marketers now, testing is the number one way to figure out what works for your business. But testing will only work if you’re willing to step out of your comfort zone and create a worthwhile presence on social sites that are unique and relevant to your company’s audience.

Find What Works for You

Going into my 24-hour trip, I had no idea how I was going to feel after looking at each place. I thought I might come out of the weekend starting from square one. But I didn’t. Because I put in the long hours of research ahead of time, I was able to come out of the weekend with a weight lifted off my shoulders because I had found my new home. As I was touring, it became obvious to me where I felt most comfortable, so I went with my gut.

If you complete the due diligence of testing various social media platforms for your company and measuring metrics like engagement, click-through rates, “likes,” mentions, and others, the best sites for your company to build a presence on will become apparent.

Don’t Forget to Explore

Even though I’ve found a new home I love, I don’t want to become a “homebody” and let all these new and exciting opportunities and experiences pass me up. I can’t afford to miss out on building connections that could shape my life for the better.

Similarly, now that you’ve found the best social media sites for your business, a word of caution: don’t let all this work you’ve done and what you’ve learned go to waste by hiding in your new comfort zone of the social media sites you’ve deemed to work for your company. Part of social media management means exploring new social opportunities so you’re not left behind.

The moral of the story? Step out of your digital marketing comfort zone—you’ll never know what success is out there waiting for your business until you do.

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