I was sitting at a local business networking meeting recently. There was a collection of businesses in the meeting representing a broad range of both B2B and B2C products and service providers. The leader of the group suggested to the networking group that they get more involved with the social media marketing of the group. The leader asked if social media marketing was something that the group might want to hire my company for. I liked the direction this was going until the owner of a local Lawn Service provider spoke up and suggested, “we don’t need him (my company) for this.”

Wow…I held my gut response back. My mind told me I can mow my own lawn too.

Social media marketing is so much more than a post to a Facebook. It requires discipline and strategy and a commitment. When combining these elements, Social media marketing becomes a bit of a chore that many small business owners consider a waste of time.

To have a great lawn, it requires discipline. Fertilizer must be spread at strategic times of the year and repeatedly on a regular schedule. Water must’ve applied and increased or decreased base on the climate and seasonal conditions. The blades on the mower must be sharpened and the height should be set correctly on the mowing deck for a carpet like cut.

I can do all of this. I am more than capable, however, mowing the lawn takes a back seat to the kid’s baseball practice. Rush hour traffic steals away valuable time that I could use reseeding the shady spots of the lawn.

For many small business owners, there’s a million tasks that quite often take precedence over a social media marketing strategy done right. My lawn looks so much better when I get the leaf blower and weed eater out. It’s about doing it right.

Consider these tips when when executing a social media marketing strategy…

• Set up a calendar and schedule your social media posts to fire off when your target audience is most likely online. If your audience is primarily professionals, there’s a good chance they want see your company’s posts when that audience is at work. Ask yourself…when will my audience most likely be sitting down and spending time on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.
• Don’t spam! A couple of posts per week is enough. Start a conversation with your audience. Don’t pitch them. Show some personality. Ask the questions that you think they might be curious about. Provide educational information. Dialog is the key.
• Use your website, blogs, email, print collateral and social media platforms to drive traffic to each other via links, QR codes, etc. Comment on and repost other facebook posts, and tweets. When setup correctly, this leaves back links that lead back to you. Google also indexes these back inks and your search engine visibility will improve.

Quite often, it’s not the difficulty of the task at hand but the execution of it that is hard. A persistent social media marketing plan that’s well executed can be a daunting task to small business owners.

On occasion, I like to mow grass. It’s pretty easy too. Mowing the grass every 10 days and doing it right can be a challenge. That’s when I call a professional.