Practical steps on building your social media strategically and intentionally

How to build your network strategically and intentionally

They say stay in the loop, know everyone and post every day. You do this day after day, week in, week out. Then suddenly one morning you wake up and you hate social media…

Perhaps we need to acknowledge that it is time to think about things a bit differently. It is often a daunting task to simplify social media in order to get results.
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If you don’t have a huge following, are a celebrity or well-known as a thought leader, that is not going to happen.⁠

Let’s go through a practical list that will help you use social media practically and with purpose, getting feedback and response, whilst growing your presence organically.

Two of the most important factors in social media are connectivity and consistency. Start with a plan to focus on these two and commit to this for a minimum of 90 days, you will definitely reap the results of your efforts. Let’s unpack this a bit more:

Connectivity

Turn your 30 minutes a day on social media to 30 minutes of purpose – it will pay off I promise!

People engage with other people they know, like and trust.⁠ I was tired of growing my social media presence with more people but not getting results, so I decided to change up the way I connect with them and show them what value I could give, without expecting (the results came naturally because it was an intentional connection).
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How do you start connecting intentionally?⁠

Choose 10 people to connect to. You will be working with these people for the next 30 days. The idea is to connect with them online, offline, showing up without expecting, and encouraging them. People like nothing more than having someone really care. 

Start engaging in these 10 people’s social interaction – their content, promote them and you will see the increase in your engagement. ⁠Leave a comment on their post, congratulate them, give your insights to affirm their thoughts. If they have written a blog, read the blog and comment on what stood out for you or what you enjoyed. 

Be real. If you are not the writing type, don’t write essays. Give your true thoughts, be kind and be real.⁠

Relationships take time, there are no growth hacks that lead to anything real.⁠ What I did learn from doing this exercise myself was that people started noticing what I wrote, suddenly I had views (from their followers) to my profile and connection invites started trickling in. You see, these 10 targeted connections will typically be my ideal client, so their connections would then also be my potential client, making the steps to connecting to new clients much easier going forward. I would rather get referred by people than spend money on trying to advertise everywhere – it’s like throwing that pasta and hoping it sticks. It doesn’t….

What did this do for me after 30 days?

• I had an increase of 600% of views of my profile
• Because I connected intentionally, these people started commenting on my posts more intentionally too. Whatever they said, showed on their profile too. This increased my brand awareness substantially. This value cannot be underestimated.
• I learnt how to really read comments and blogs, extracting valuable information and showing people that I listen to what they say. It was a hard lesson, but a skill that I can take forward, which will benefit me in the long run.
• Refocusing causes you to cut the noise. You start skimming on what doesn’t (and shouldn’t) take up your time and focus on providing value to your potential and existing market.

What does this look like in practice? I was intentional in commenting on at least 5 of the 10 connections’ posts/blogs weekly. That meant that a person would hear from me at least once every second week. That ensured it didn’t look like I stalked them and I could take the time to make a valuable comment on their posts. Out of the 5 people that I connected with on that week, I looked for 1 article that they posted and shared that on my network, highlighting what stood out for me that week. I tagged them and thanked them for their insights. Their network showed it, we all got exposure and they felt important. They were important, after all, I chose to spend 30 days focusing on them.

If it was a small business owner, I would go like their company page on LinkedIn. A small step that made a big difference.

Here’s another tip I have used with great success: Your takeaways for the week. In the times that we are right now, people will be looking back and try to make sense of how they handled a pandemic. Write down what you learnt this week. If relevant, you can tag that person in your post (if you found that they have perhaps taught you something that week). Tell your general audience what stood out for you. Share your genuine thoughts. And watch the magic happen. The people you have intentionally connected with, will connect with this post and start commenting. They will reciprocate the initiative. That is connecting with intention.

The last (and most important) note on connectivity is this: connect back with your connection. They will start responding. Be sure to respond with a thank you and/or another comment. This will get communication going. This is exactly what the goal of this exercise was. To connect.

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Consistency 

Connect regularly. If you follow the steps it means you connect with 5 people a week. I found that to be manageable. 

Here’s what you shouldn’t do:⁠
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* (just) Like⁠
* (just) Share⁠
* Say “I’m open to new connections”

Stay the course for 30 days. It is a wash, rinse, repeat kind of situation.

If you leave a comment on 5 people’s posts a week, that means once a day you need to comment/read/respond.

These are recommendations to follow, they might or might not work 100% for you. The basics are the same and you can adjust it according to your industry and your potential client base on LinkedIn. It needs tweaking as you move along in this process. Knowing and understanding your audience will come in handy here, it is wise to do the exercise of analyzing your base and knowing your ideal client. Stay the course and you will reap the benefits. 

If you need to chat to someone to understand how you can personalize this process to suite your needs, please reach out.