Start out by identifying what you want your end result to be. More subscribers? more sales? more people asking for your services?

Then when you’ve identified your ideal end result, you need to look at which networks your audience are on.

If you can, say, identify two I would then start participating in social media but track your efforts religiously. I do this in an Excel file. Only by tracking your data will you see what works.

For example, if you tweet a link to your blog 5 days a week and never get traffic, perhaps there’s something wrong in the way you’re pitching the tweet? Or maybe you’ve not got the right people following you?

You’d then tweak your strategy to see if something else works, and when you’ve discovered what does you concentrate your efforts on that.

I would suggest spending at least 30 mins a day to begin with. But you’re not going to see results for at least a month if not considerably longer.

Every step of the way you have to evaluate your data and tweak accordingly.

A great idea, if you’re worried about where to put your efforts, is to compare how Google/SEO initiatives convert compared to social media campaigns.

Only by trial and effort, and studying your data, will you learn the best practice for you.

My question to you is how much time and energy should be invested on building audience? It is not easy and one can really hope to outrace the search engines? It is indeed frightening as Martin also said…

So to follow your advice on “nurture your contacts, work hard to get people to link to your site and individual posts. Perhaps enter into agreements with other bloggers to help each other build links. Get social.” …I would really appreciate if you’s link back to my site. The social buttons are accessible on my front page.

Also, those friendly, welcoming social “texts” that you mentioned I guess in another article of yours are really working. I’ve just clicked your RSS subscription one. Looking forward to hear more from you.

Martin