I would love to issue a challenge to all the people out there who think what I do is easy. I would like to ask you to identify ten engaging topics for posts on a dental website. Not only ten topics, but a 200-word post that will keep people interested, and perhaps cause them to share that post on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. A post that will boost that dental site’s Google juice and bring that dentist new customers!
Then I could challenge them to do that every month for a year. I would like to do that, but I won’t because most people won’t take me up on such a challenge. Yet, when I offer my services, nine out of ten people will tell me, I can do that myself. I can blog, I can Facebook, I have a great assistant, he/she will do it.
If you really think you can do it yourself, then I applaud you. Because what Bill, Sam, Valentina and I do here is not just a job or a career, we actually believe in blogging and using social media as a way to get people to use your services. We BELIEVE in it…and to that end, we are happy to help you to do it yourself. In fact, we know it works, our customers tell us it does. Do you still want to do this yourself? Okay.
What can you do? First, go into whatever calendar application you use, Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, or another, and pick three hours each week where you will focus on trending topics. Not just topics about your business, but other topics which might interest your clients or potential clients. You will need at least eight topics for two posts per week. Three hours may sound like a lot, but trust me, it’s not.
Once you have the topics penciled in, block off another three hours for writing blogs about those topics. After you do that, join a photo archive like Fotolia, sign up for your monthly subscription, and purchase a photo or two that goes with the theme of each blog post. Block off three hours for that on your calendar.
We are up to around nine hours here, and we haven’t talked about finding engaging topics for your Facebook Page, or how to run a Facebook Ad Campaign. I can sometimes spend a whole day and not find anything I want to use. other times I find all kinds of things and have trouble staying on task. You see, I do this for several companies, so while I might be focusing on Home Health Care, I may come across several great topics for the Massage Therapist, or the Cosmetic Dentist. I get distracted and have to force myself to simply copy the links for my other clients to be referenced later, and get back to the Home Health Care.
You could just take a week off from your work and spend a day on each of these activities, then pre-schedule each of these posts to go out at regular intervals. That would work.
If your earnings from your company average at least $100 per hour, you just spent more than you would pay us to do it for you, and you aren’t even done yet. By the way, do you enjoy writing, are you any good at it? I forgot that part.
If you have questions, give me a call, I will help. Better yet, figure out what you make an hour, and see if it’s really worth doing yourself, then maybe you should give that job to us…
Social Cindy, over and out
