1. “I don’t know where to start.”
Goals are gold whether your objective is to make your first social media move, or to improve the process and payoffs of the social media
work you’ve already done. Answering these two questions will make your social activities more manageable, efficient, and informative to
the stress-reducing strategies to follow.
• What areas of your professional practice would you like to strengthen? Professional connections? Referrals? Methodologies? Marketing?
Collaboration and partnerships? If your answer is, “All of the above,” pick one or two areas that are most important right now.
• Within the areas you identified as priorities for strengthening, list a few specific goals under each. For example, professional connections
would be number one for me, so I would sub-divide that priority into, executive coaches, career coaches and wellness coaches.
2. “It’s overwhelming.”
It can be, if you let it. There are hundreds of social networking sites, but the vast majority of them aren’t for you. How many channels do
you have access to on your cable TV system? 100? 400? More than 1,000? Do you know what all of them are? Of course you don’t. You know
the channels that interest, entertain and satisfy you. You no more need to know every social media outlet than you do every cable station.
Now, take that list of your professional goals and find the social media platforms that seem most likely to help you reach them. Hint: they
are probably Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+.
3. “I don’t even understand how Facebook and Twitter work.”
Information helps us feel more in control, something that stress strips away. Information and answers also better equip us to make
decisions and progress, which is why getting some social networking smarts will help keep you calm throughout. Good news: teachers and
tutorials abound! Identify people in your personal and work worlds who can give you a Twitter and Facebook 4-1-1. Another hint: your
kids, or someone else’s kids, may be the best instructors. Libraries, schools and computer stores often offer classes. And of course the
web itself is a fine information font. First search for something such as, “list of popular social media sites.” Then, put those names in the
YouTube search field followed by “tutorial” to find videos that will take you through the who, what, why, etc. of each.
4. “I don’t have time to learn and stay on top of social networking stuff.”
By acting on earlier suggestions, you will have already reduced the time you’ll need to spend on your daily or weekly social media management. The
potential payoffs of social networking equal those of creating a website, attending conferences, publishing e-newsletters or reading professional
journals. If you’re spending time on one or more of those endeavors, then also commit to doing the same each day or week for your social media.
Put this commitment in your calendar at a regular time as you do with client sessions, teacher meetings and in-person socializing.
5. “You need an assistant to help you manage it all.”
Great idea and you’re in luck! There are a growing number of free social media management tools that double as stress managers.
TweetDeck and Hootsuite are two pioneers that allow you to schedule your posts, pick and choose which of your social media pages to
send them to, and quickly see who’s saying what on topics of your choosing. The dashboard interfaces of these tools will help you feel like
you’re driving your social media bus rather than just getting tossed around in the back of it.
You can also get an actual or virtual assistant, to help you get and keep a social media life. There are a lot of reasonably priced freelancers
who will create posts, connect you with peers, and keep you in the know about all-things social networking. This doesn’t get you off the
hook, it only gives you breathing room to focus on other priorities.
As you contemplate these strategies and build your social networking activities, keep a balanced, stressbusting perspective. Social media is only one part of your practice. In-person business development still
matters, and your work online is definitely a process.
Jordan Friedman, PCC, a.k.a. The Stress Coach is a global stress management speaker, trainer and former director of Columbia University’s
health promotion program. His Stress Coach U teleseminar is part of ICF’s Continuing Coach Education offerings, and trains coaches, educators
and other professionals to teach their clients and students stress reduction techniques to help make their work with them easier and more
successful. Jordan is the author of “The Stress Manager’s Manual” and co-author of “The Go Ask Alice Book Of Answers.” Jordan provides free
how-to videos, exercises and other resources for coaches, trainers and stress-relief seekers at thestresscoach.com
and dotcalm.me
Coaching World |
February 2013
15