Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to finally start using social media? Have you waited until January 1st to dive in? Well now it’s here, and you’re not entirely sure where to start. Lucky for you, we’ve created a 60-day plan for social media success.

Using this plan, you’ll learn how to effectively leverage social media and get the most out of your social interactions. We have personally used and found success with these techniques.

Of course, before you dive in, it may be best to review the basics and set your expectations and goals.

Set Your Expectations The first thing to know is that you must dedicate sufficient time to your social media. You get what you put in, so not much will come of 10 minutes per day. But put in the time, dedication, and fully immerse yourself, and you’ll be able to drive traffic to your website, create leads, and sell more policies.

Social media isn’t easy.

It’s actually a lot of work—some of it fun; other parts, not so much. But the effort you put in can certainly be worth it if done properly. Watching your website/blog gain traffic, links, rankings, and positive feedback is just the start. Gaining new clients, reaching more prospects, increasing customer retention, and earning more referrals is even better!

Prepare First You’re not sure what all of these web and tech words mean. Get started by learning a few basic terms here.

Next, you must have a couple of things in order first for this plan to reach its maximum potential for success:

  1. Website: In today’s technology-driven world, a website is like a business card—it is expected that you as a professional have one. If you don’t, get one TODAY! There are many companies that can and will help you set up a customized website, which is the best option long term. But even a “canned” website with basic content is better than having nothing. -For more information on initially building your web presence, click here for 5 steps to get started.
  2. Blog: It is strongly recommended that you incorporate a blog component into your website. This is the easiest and quickest way to add valuable content to your website and move up in the search engine rankings. To the search engines, content is king. And the newer the content, the better. In some cases, newer content is deemed more relevant by search engines than old content. Search engines also add value to content that is interactive (read: “social”). This is why social media and blogs have become so prevalent in the last several years. -Here are a few tips to get your blog started.

Purchase or build a website, set up your blog, and incorporate tracking analytics. Then pay your dues, put in the time, put in the effort, and learn the nuances of social media. After you’ve gained a firm foundation and understanding of how to use it and more specifically, how to use it for your business, you can turn it over to someone else.

By knowing and understanding what needs to be done and why, it makes hiring a third party or training an employee in the future that much easier.

Then you can turn your attention back to other areas of business.

We will officially get started with “Phase 1” of the “60-Day Plan for Social Media Success” next week. Be sure to check back here for Steps 1 through 19.