New Year’s Resolution For Social Media Professionals

Are you a social media person? Then at least one of these resolutions should be on your list for the coming year; making your coming year a tad different! To be in the social media industry means staying on your toes, set small objectives that will lead to positive changes in your life.
1- I Will Stop Automating
Tell yourself that you will make it personal this year and stop automating. This means getting rid of that Twitter DM (direct message) that everyone openly finds annoying and hates. A DM to new followers basically starts your relationship off on the wrong foot. You are saying, “You are just another Twitter follower in a sea of other Twitter followers so enjoy this meaningless message from me!”
There is nothing wrong with connecting your social network accounts so that one post goes to all; I mean we are only human! We can only do so much! But how you share shouldn’t be limited to one update, each social media account has a different type of community. Invest time in managing your social media presence.
2- I Will Use More Video
Social media professionals understand the power of YouTube very well, now is the time to finally start leveraging this tool. Reach the world with video, the kind of traffic You Tube offers is;

• Over 3 billion videos are viewed a day.
• YouTube’s demographic isn’t limited with the average age of viewers ranging from 18 to 54 years old.
• YouTube reach over 700 billion playbacks in the last year which means users are watching videos over again.

You can start a YouTube channel with your own professional content.
3- I Will Push Mobile
The hottest holiday gifts for 2011 were smart-phones, tablets and e-readers. You should recommend going mobile to all of your clients. Whether it is developing social media campaigns through mobile applications or adding social media integrations to mobile sites.
Your mobile site should look and function as closely as your website to ensure that you are making those mobile connections.
4- I Will Monitor my Social Footprint
If you haven’t developed this yet, take the baby steps now. Build your Google Alerts with Google Analytics; it is a very user friendly tool that helps build your ROI through social media.
A few other great tips for getting started: using bitly to shorten, share and track links because it also shows click-ability rates for each link you create. This allows you to monitor if your updates or posts are bringing enough of a call to action for users to actually make that click.
Use PostRank, a free social engagement aggregator that brings you data in real time. The tool was recently acquired by Google; a move that will hopefully only strengthen PostRank as an analytics resource for the Social Web.
5- I will be a Person!
Sometimes we spend so much time in the digital zone that we lose touch of our personal selves. This year, promise that you will commit time to getting out in the real world. Utilize your social communities as the middle man for facilitating new relationships outside of the Internet. Literally be social.
The irony in social media is how alienating it can sometimes be. Remember to experience every moment even if that means putting down your Smartphone. It may sound agonizing, but we can all do with some social media separation every now and then.
Cheers to a new social you in 2012!
Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/marymanzo/415106/5-new-years-resolutions-social-media-professional