Valuable content is the key to getting and keeping people interested in your social media sites. You can put endless amounts of time and effort into creating your social media profiles, but if your content is lacking, so will your following. And, your social media is an extension of your brand so it needs to be representative of who you believe your firm is. Here are 7 steps to prepare for the development of consistent and valuable content:

1. Take 1 hour and go through pre-approved or pre-written content available to you (or have a staff member do this) and create a list of potential topics for inclusion into your social media.

2. From your list, determine priorities based on the timeliness of the topics and the potential interest level of your target markets.

3. Determine how often you should release the content you have listed – Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? Set specific dates for release.

4. Segment off time on your calendar each month to write, compile and edit your content. 1-2 hours a month should be sufficient to write 3 paragraphs if you already have the content in mind.

5. Get compliance approval for the use of the materials in your social media.

6. Post your written content based on the dates in #3. Use a social media dashboard like www.HootSuite.com to post content in multiple places from one site and monitor your results.

7. Monitor and discuss the analytics of your social media sites (at least monthly) to see if people are interested, reading, passing along, and following your posts. Based on your analytics, make adjustments to continue growing and enhancing your relationship with your followers.