Identify your resources and delegate

You have this idea that you’re ready to tackle this whole online blogging thing.. All by your lonesome.  If you’ve never written a single blog post, you’re probably a bit in over your head.  Do you know how long it takes to actually have a well-oiled social machine?  Do you know what SEO is or how you’re going to optimize your posts?  How about the amount of time it should take you to get the # of followers you think you need to be successful (do you even have that # written down)?   The answer varies.  It can be within a matter of months.  Some  success comes to companies who have been hitting the social bricks for a number of years.  Every company needs clear, consistent, relevant communication and customer service between their business and their clients and prospects.  Daily.  If you can do it on weekends, even better.  Customer Service never sleeps, and your client will thank you and recommend you to their social circles if you bend over backwards for them.

So before you decide to endeavor down this seemingly neverending road of socially engaging tasks alone, ask yourself, “how hard is it to actually get an intern?”  Not so hard, I’d say.  If your organization consists of just you, I’m not going to lie:  it’s going to take a heck of a lot of time to get you up and running and actually doing all of this properly, and once you do get too busy to handle it all because you’re getting calls left and right for business, you’re going to need to hire someone anyway, so why not prune someone for cheap to free?  If you already have a marketing department or a neice/nephew who has been/will handle these daily tasks, you can skip this part.  As I write this, most of my clients are entrepreneurs, so they could use all the cheap to free help they can get!

Find your dream intern from a college close by. Or maybe least a smart kid who lives in the neighborhood. You can start them young–just pay them in a laptop

The interns you should be looking for are primarily journalism, video production and communications students, but you can also hire within your vertical market as well… and if you look hard enough, you’ll find institutions who even have Social Media concentrations or classes.  Simply call up the director of internships (call the school directory line and they’ll hook you up), and ask for the paperwork necessary in order to get an intern.

It’s going to take a few days to get your intern up to speed with the ins and outs of your company, so be patient.  While you’re catching them up, you can learn all about everything you need to do in order to have a successful Social Plan (from me..).