The Social Media “Sweet” Spot

With thanks to Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book.

Yes, I know none of you are a corporation. Well, none of our community of pet bloggers. Other readers may find us via Google and come from a corporate culture. Regardless of where you come from, Debbie Weil’s post shared here is worth reading. She’s been in the social media world for a good long time, and she shares her experience and her advice openly.

I recently came across this post, “Do You Know Your Social Media Sweet Spot?” and felt compelled to share. Debbie describes the “sweet spot” as “where what YOU want to achieve using social media coincides with what your audience wants.”

Can you identify that? At BlogPaws we’re about social media education, networking, and giving back. Our sweet spot, if I had to identify it, would be in our growing community of bloggers who are so genuinely selfless they share thoughts, challenges, opportunities and more, every day. The fact that we have a conference once a year is just frosting on the cake.

Debbie goes on, in her article, to demonstrate what she’s talking about by giving examples. One example I think you might be able to relate to is the Pepsi Refresh project. Debbie says, “On one side is  the chance for content creation (a substantive proposal to improve your real-life community), recognition, validation, publicity, promotion and — possibly — a cash award. On Pepsi’s side is credit for being socially responsible, enhanced brand awareness and a saving of $20M or so not spent on Super Bowl ads.”

It’s easy to think you know what your social media sweet spot is, but are you asking yourself (and your readers) the right questions? It’s never about you, per se. It’s always about them – clients, readers, Facebook friends, twitter friends, people who read you because they find value in your writing. When you recognize the power of listening – without distraction – you will uncover your sweet spot and be able to move forward in 2011.

What are you doing to understand the connection between your goals and what your audience expects from you? Are you even sure you know who your audience is?

All the numbers shared by your traffic cop software program don’t necessarily have that answer. Are you reaching out, across the web, to talk to your audience, or are you hoping they’ll talk to you…in your comment section?

These are a few of the questions you should be considering. No doubt the questions you need to ask yourself are not the same ones I need to ask myself. I’m going to do a quick, Who, What, When, Where, and Why quiz for myself…and see if I come up with any answers.

• Who are you? Who are the people that read your blog?
• What are you about? What do they think you’re about?
• When should you be reaching out to touch them (online or offline)? When are you available for them to reach out and touch you?
• Where are you? Seriously – where are you? Are you at home, at work, at the mall, at Starbucks, traveling, napping? Where are they – here, there and everywhere? How do you know?
• Why are you doing this? Why are they reading? Why should you care? Why should they care?

It’s a start. Have I left something out? Share in the comments.