TeleTom

When it came to building my business with social media, I lived by the motto, “More is better.” I applied every social media strategy I learned, stacking plan after plan and idea after idea.

Then I read Tim Ferriss’ new book. And everything changed.

With Tim’s 4-Hour Body, I realized I was a sucker to yet another myth in my head just like I was when I was little and my mom used to tell me I couldn’t swim for an hour after I ate or I would lose my lunch.

In his book, Tim talks about a concept called the minimum effective dose. He says the minimum effective dose is the smallest dose (a.k.a. activity) that will produce your desired outcome. In real-life terms, it’s that sweet spot that is exactly enough, no more, no less, that gets the results you’re after. It’s that place where you can achieve the most dramatic results in the least amount of time possible. Anything beyond that point is a waste of your time.

Tim uses the example of boiled water. Boiled water is boiled water. There’s no such thing as “more boiled.” Make sense? Or if you go to the beach and you spend 15 minutes in the sun, you get a tan. But anything beyond those 15 minutes and maybe you start to burn. Once you pass a certain point, you actually can create setbacks. Essentially, doing too much can trip you up.

Then it hits me: with social media marketing, more is not better. In fact, more is worse.

Whether you are using social media to gain greater exposure for your blog, build awareness for a product or sell your services, it’s natural to want to do all you can to get results. But did you know that when you do too much, you could actually halt real progress? In fact, when you try to do too much, it can mess up your momentum and cost you profits and valuable relationships in your business.

How does this relate to your success?

To apply the minimum effective dose to your social media efforts, you first have to realize what may be a dirty truth: you’re trying to do too much.

At some point, we’ve all been there—we try to be everything to everyone and make promises we can’t keep, schedule meetings on top of meetings and start new projects that never get finished. It’s human nature. The challenge is that when we take on too much, there’s no time to think things out—and you begin executing in a bubble, ignoring your intuition and making decisions that lack creativity and strategy.

The problem scenario: the social media junkie

One of my most recent clients was a self-proclaimed social media junkie. When it came to online networking, she did anything and everything to boost her online exposure. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, YouTube, FriendFeed, shiny new social apps, networking gadgets, widgets and tools, you name it, she was all over it. And if a new social media strategy was discovered, she was ready to implement at any time.

Not only was she overwhelmed, confused and stressed, but also she was not seeing results. After a few coaching sessions we discovered that her audience was not using Twitter, and rarely checked into their LinkedIn accounts. She instantly quit wasting her time on these networks.

Also, although she loved making videos, and hated writing blog posts, she was producing several written blogs posts a week because she thought the “hard work” would pay off. Since she was not confident with her writing, each post would take her three to five hours. The misconception that she needed to post multiple times a week was costing her time and money. After monitoring her blog we learned that her audience responded better to video blogs vs. written blogs. She stopped the written blog posts immediately and now posts videos multiple times a week, each taking her about 30 minutes to record, edit, and post.

She was doing too much and was completely sabotaging her success. When she took a step back and stopped “doing,” she was able to see what was working and what was a waste of time. This insight was not clear until she finally stopped “doing” and stepped back to assess the situation.

The solution: create more white space

Harvard Business Review recently published an article called, This Space Intentionally Left White. To get an edge on the competition, the author suggests we “slow down to see more.” She goes on to say that we need to “radically alter a small moment of time each week—to schedule a time for doing nothing but thinking—and pay attention to what emerges in the absence of the noise of our normal activity.”

When you slow down and think about your next steps, things get a lot clearer. You are able to see the pockets of opportunity—and that is where your sweet spot, that minimum effective dose, starts to become more apparent. Setting time for the white space allows you to uncover the areas where you are doing too much and wasting your time—and easier, more strategic opportunities come to the surface.

Spacing out

Are you mired in too much? Make it a habit to find two hours a week where you do nothing but think, not do. No multi-tasking, no emails, no cell phones, no journaling. Just you and your thoughts. Think about where you come up with your best ideas—in the shower, or listening to music in the car—it’s when you’re likely doing an automated activity that allows you to just think.

And next time you get that overwhelming urge to take on yet another project, remember this myth buster: more is not better, it’s just more. Choose your best dose instead—the minimum effective one.

As a small business owner, it’s important to keep essential aspects of your operation in-house whenever possible, logical, and cost effective. Social media outreach is one element more and more small business owners feel comfortable handling themselves.

But whether you’re taking on the responsibilities yourself or delegating them to other members of your team, it’s important to keep your strategy simple and straight forward.

But be warned, simple doesn’t mean easy. Irregular, haphazard, or lazy social media efforts will not be rewarded. Don’t waste your own time. Take your strategy seriously, and be consistent.

Below are a few basic guidelines to help you carve out a simple and effective social media presence. Keep your strategy limited to just a few key points, so that you can maintain focus.

Tell Your Story

Telling a compelling origin story or branding story to help ground and personify your business. Letting your customers know where you’re coming from and where you’re moving to (through narrative) will make your company more approachable, more trustworthy.

Engage with Content not Product

Content creation is the easiest way to keep your Fans interest. Here are a few rules of thumb:

1. Quality over Quantity (no more than one Facebook post every three to four hours, use Twitter and other avenues for more rapid fire engagement)
2. Less sales speak, more content marketing (offer useful information to your readers and they will come back for more; you’re sharing and teaching first, selling second)
3. Less self-promotion, more engagement (limit half of your Facebook activity to promoting your own content and products, and focus the rest of your time and energy on facilitating discussions and responding to other people’s posts)

Be Deliberate

Whether you’re selling or engaging, your calls to action need to be purposeful. Think about this when designing your Facebook page and planning your outreach strategy.

Organize your goals: first and foremost you want to grow your Fan-base, secondly you want keep them engaged and interested with relevant content, coupons, and contests, and finally, you want to eventually make a sale.

To do all this your Facebook page needs to be simply designed (less clutter, so your brand shines through), the calls to action (Like this, read this, share this, etc) need to be apparent and easy to follow, and your content needs be consistent and compelling.