1. Know Your Target
When fishing it’s important to know what species of fish you are going after. This not only helps in lure and bait selection but for narrowing down where you will be fishing as well. Knowing the type of fish you are targeting and what they eat can help increase your odds of catching something.
The same can be said in social media. Where is your audience located and what do they expect from you? Creating an ideal customer list can help you understand who your audience is and this can help you determine what they want and expect from you in terms of content.
2. Know Your Habitat
When fishing it’s good to scout out location. Looking for places fish may hide for cover, deep holes where the big fish may be and for any obstacles your lure and boat could potentially get caught up in.
With social media you are need to understand the location you are “fishing” in as well. Are you on Twitter? You should be aware that you only have 140 characters to work with. On Google+? Conversations, big images and longer form posts can be successful. Pinterest? Big long images tend to get noticed easier. Instagram? All images must be square and hashtags are important. The point is toknow where you are and know the rules to increase your chances of connecting with your audience.
3. Be Willing To Change It Up
Sometimes you will find that even on the most perfect day in the most perfect conditions the fish just aren’t biting. Nothing is happening. Every lure and bait combination you try does nothing for you. Until you do something unexpected or a little different. Maybe throwing a top water bait or reeling faster or slower just to change up your presentation. Or maybe you target a new species.
The point is if your tactics aren’t supporting your strategy you have to be willing to make the best of the situation and maybe switch things up a bit. Have you only been posting link updates? Maybe try an image or a text update. Try including an image in your next tweet or using Twitter Cards. Try a longer post on Google+ with an image if you’ve only been sharing smaller link shares. Or try posting more or less or at different times than usual. You won’t know what works until you try it out.
4. It’s Called Fishing For A Reason
If you caught something every time you went to the lake it would be called catching and not fishing.
Not every post you create, not every image and not every video or podcast you pour your time and energy into is going to go viral. It might not see thousands of shares or receive thousands of comments, it might not even see one. You know what? That is OK. Each time you publish a new piece of content it’s a chance to learn, to grow and to experiment. Keep on creating content your audience wants and keep thinking in the long term because that is what will help your business and your brand find the success you are after.
5. Chucking One Lure Won’t Catch A Fish (Probably)
When out fishing chances are you don’t call it a day after only casting once. And chances are one cast won’t catch a fish. While I have been lucky enough to catch a fish off my first cast, it’s rare and doesn’t happen often. I also didn’t catch one and pack it in for the day.
In social media chances are you aren’t going to publish one blog post, one podcast, create one infographic or image and hit everything so perfect that it takes off and makes you internet famous. Again it’s happened but it’s rare. Instead you need to get into the trenches daily. You need to create, publish and share great content on a regular and consistent basis. Engage with your audience, engage with others in your industry and keep moving forward. Even if you do catch that “fish” on the first try it’s not time to give up. It’s time to dig deeper and keep working to create and build your audience, grow your brand and build awareness of what you do and what makes you special.
