Day 15 - January Social Media Results

 If you don't like where you are, move. You are not a tree.

At the beginning of the month, I decided upon 4 social media marketing venues to grow my business - Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.

I already had a Facebook fan page and an account on Pinterest, so those were the two I've concentrated on the most. Plus, I felt that they would give me the most exposure since they are good venues for my on-line jewelry business.

The results are a little surprising.

Facebook:

• I started the month with 628 fans. I now have 716 fans.
• I gained 58 new fans from my Facebook ad, which means I gained 30 fans directly from Etsy or Facebook friends/fans.
• I have been posting 1 post each weekday and people are starting to engage more often with my posts. That's important as my posts will be seen more often if there is more interactions. At this time, I'm not comfortable posting more than once a day. That just seems spammy to me. :-)
• Here is one interesting statistic: The post that had the biggest reach by far, was my post showing my YouTube video. I've heard that facebook prioritizes posts with video and images, so this tells me that it's worth my time to create more videos.
• Etsy stats show 21 visits to my shop this month directly from Facebook. 
• Google Analytics shows 81 visits to my shop.

Pinterest:

• I started the month with 46 pins and 22 followers on my Theresa Rose Designs board. I now have 64 pins and 27 followers.
• I started the month with 12 pins and 16 followers on my Wedding Jewelry board. I now have 13 pins and 21 followers.
• I've been pinning 4-5 pins every weekday, with only 1 or 2 of those pins relating directly to my jewelry.
• Here's my surprising statistic: I've received more visits to my shop from Pinterest than from Facebook. Etsy stats show 46 visits to my shop from Pinterest. That's double than from Facebook!
• Google Analytics shows 123 visits to my shop. That's 50% more than Facebook.
• Pinterest was my #1 social media referral, according to Google Analytics.

YouTube and Instagram:

• I've just begun posting to Instagram and YouTube, so I don't have any interesting information from these two venues yet.
• I will say that I'm not sold on Instagram. I've read about people having a lot of success with this application, but I haven't fallen in love with it. 

So, this first month's results show me that Pinterest is a very worthwhile venue to pursue. I plan on stepping it up a bit next month and we'll see if my results improve even more.

I'm looking forward to February!

Day 3 - Social Media Plan

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

In order to grow your business, it's important to market in the right places and to the right demographic. To be successful, it's so important to have a social media presence. I currently have a facebook fan page and a pinterest account that I sporadically post to. Note the word 'sporadically'. This is where today's challenge comes to play.

I now am officially committing myself to developing and sticking to a real social media plan. The first step is to figure out which social media venues work best with your type of business.

The most popular social media sites I found are:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• Google+
• LinkedIn
• Foursquare
• Tumblr
• Reddit
• StumbleUpon

I am going to concentrate on 4 of these sites for the time being. It's easy to get sucked into the social media vortex and spend all day posting. While it's important to have a presence, there does need to be a balance. I will be sticking to the following 4 sites for my 100 day challenge:

• Facebook - Facebook Fan Page
• Pinterest - Pinterest Page
• Instagram - Instagram
• YouTube

Facebook Plan:

• 1 - 2 posts per day for the duration of this blog series.
• I've read a lot of opinions about the optimal number of posts one should make per day. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be one good answer. I hesitate to post too often for fear of spamming and alienating my fans, so I will review my results at the end of January to see if this needs adjusting.
• Current facebook fan count: 628
• I will post current count at the end of each month with my new fan count and average of posts per day.
• Change my cover page and profile picture once a week to keep it fresh.

Pinterest Plan:

• 4 - 6 pins per day for the duration of this blog series.
•  Maximum 2 pins for my business each day. Additional pins will include other boards that I enjoy: recipes, natural health, crafts, etc.
• Create Arbonne board and begin pinning.
• While the number of followers vary depending on the board, I will just concentrate on the boards that feature business:
• Theresa Rose Designs: 45 pins, 22 followers
• Wedding Jewelry: 12 pins, 16 followers
• Arbonne: 0 pins, 16 followers
• I will post current counts at the end of each month with number of pins.

Instagram Plan:
This is a new site for me so  I don't have a plan yet. I will be researching this option next week and this challenge starts in 1 week. I am committed to the following:

• Learn about Instagram.
• Develop a solid Instagram plan by January 17th.

YouTube Plan:
Here is my main social media challenge! I haven't signed up yet, but this challenge starts in 2 weeks. I am committed to the following:

• Create a channel.
• Post one YouTube video per week.
• Develop a solid YouTube plan by the end of January.

What are your social media plans for the next 100 days? What are your biggest challenges?