Ian Cleary is currently one of the most influential social media bloggers on the planet. He is the founder of Razor Social, a highly influential blog on social media tools, which has been voted “Best Social Media Blog” by Social Media Examiner. Ian’s been named a “Top 10 Twitter Maverick” by the Huffington Post, and been featured in The New York Times and Venture Beat.
In the past few years, Ian carved a niche for himself in the crowded and highly competitive world of blogging. He’s also executed everything he does absolutely flawlessly. While there is a certain ease with which Ian executes all his undertakings, his success is a result of lots of hard work guided by some solid strategic thinking.
In today’s podcast, Ian shares the strategies and tactics he used to grow his blog and establish himself as a social media superstar.
Here’s some of what Ian shared with us about getting started with Razor Social:
- Competitive Analysis: Before he even wrote his first post, Ian analyzed the marketplace to identify where he’d make the maximum impact.
- Strategic Positioning: The fact that he was very global in his outlook (Ian is based in Ireland) helped him think clearly about his competitors and how to position himself.
- Influencer Outreach: Speaking of competitors, Ian identified the top 100 influencers on social media, went through all of their sites, and used the content they were focusing on as a starting point to create his own.
We also got to learn what Ian feels were some mistakes he made with this blog, and also the interesting ways in which he monetizes it.
Since we were speaking with a social media expert, we had to ask what his favorite social media tips and tools were.
Ian stressed the importance of going beyond merely having a presence on social media and actually measuring what works and doesn’t work for your goals. Also, in-built analytics on social media platforms are a great way to accomplish this. He also went over some great tools for Facebook and SEM like Fan Page Karma and Buzz Sumo.
What did we learn from Ian’s carefully thought out and executed plan to business success? Here are some key takeaways:
- Seize Opportunities: When opportunity strikes, recognize its importance and seize it. You don’t get anywhere by just sitting on the sidelines.
- Build Relationships: The best way to build a relationship is to begin by offering a helping hand. More times than not, people will reciprocate.
- Learn from Competitors: Through research, networking and collaboration, there is much that you can learn from your competitors. This knowledge can be applied to grow your business.
You can listen to the entire interview from your desktop here: