You started out your business, and you grabbed a Facebook business page. Over time, you’ve added a Twitter page, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest,Instagram. Holy crap do I need to Snapchat now? Oh yeah, and my LinkedIn page. What? I need a LinkedIn Company page now?

It’s overwhelming, I know it. I want to ease the pain a bit here today and give you permission to pick two or three sites that really resonate with you and with your business, and focus on them. You need not, and should not, be posting on 10 social media sites a day, at least not until you’re making enough money to get some help.

But that’s not why I’m here today.

When you’re an entrepreneur, a small business owner, a sales professional, marketing online can be VERY lucrative when done strategically. So while I don’t want you to be posting on each site every day, I do want you to HAVE a presence on each site, and here’s why.

Snag Your Vanity URLs

You never know how your Social Media Brand Strategy is going to evolve. Today your strategy may include Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but as you evolve, you may shift your focus to other sites. In anticipation for that, I want you to snag your branded vanity URLs NOW, wherever you can.

I’m in several business groups, and typically each group member shares the URLs for their social media sites so that the members can get to know each other. RARE is the occasion when you find someone that has personalized all of their URLs. It’s such a simple step to take, and adds serious credibility to the business when it’s done.

Ideally, you want to use the EXACT SAME handle on each site. Doing so allows seamless cross posting, for example, if someone tags your handle in an Instagram post and shares that post to Twitter, that “tag” will automatically carry over to YOUR Twitter handle if it’s the exact same handle. I use @karenyankovich on Instagram and Twitter, and I get double the exposure when I share across platforms with one post.

So how to you do that?

There’s no need for me to go into detail on each platform when they do it so well themselves, so I’m providing a link to each site’s help page that will take you through how to personalize your URL for each site. I’ve included links to all of MY branded sites, I’d love for you to connect with me all over the place!

Just a quick note about Google – Gmail, Google+ and YouTube should all be connected to the same account. Just doing that does NOT give you a vanity URL, so you still need to take these simple steps.

Facebook Business Page
Twitter Username
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Snapchat

When you’re done, you’ll have a list that looks like this:

Website: www.karenyankovich.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/karenyankovich
Twitter: twitter.com/karenyankovich
Instagram: instagram.com/karenyankovich
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/karenyankovich
Google+: gplus.to/karenyankovich
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/karenyankovich

Create that list for yourself and save it somewhere, it comes in handy! Of course, come connect with me.

A Consistent Brand Presence

This whole process will take you about half an hour, and will SAVE you a lot more than that over time as you figure out how to find your URLs. You’ll be able to easily send people you meet at networking events or at Little League games to your social media sites. Most importantly, you’ll be branding yourself, your business, and your social media to establish a consistent presence across all sites.

So go ahead. Grab your branded URLs for all of the sites above while it’s still available. You don’t have to actually be using the site right now, but I want you to be ready when the time comes to add a new social media platform to your strategy. Keep an eye out as new sites are started, grab your name, then file it somewhere and forget about it until you need it.

BONUS TIP! If you are not going to be actively using a platform, please don’t include a link to it on your website. Promote only what you have a strategy for. I want you to shine as an expert, and a promoted social media site with tumbleweeds on it does not support that expert status. Only share the platforms you are actively participating in.

I hope this was helpful! Please comment below and tell me what YOUR top 3 social media sites are for your business, and why you love to use them.

Photo credit: Jason A. Howie on flickr