Building a social media presence is much more a marathon than a sprint. There’s plenty of content to develop, place and promote, and there are lots of relationships to build. The social media marathon requires commitment, persistence and lots of patience, the type of mental endurance needed to complete a 42 km race.
Commit to do whatever is necessary to succeed, and pace you, so that you don’t injure yourself or get burned out during the process. This principle is behind most great achievements.

“Start off slow and taper down.” Bob’s mantra counters our natural tendency to come “out of the gate” at full speed and keep running — our human egos at work. How does all this translate into long-term social media success?

Here are seven ideas to help you develop the mindset of a marathoner:

1. Make a serious commitment to do whatever is required to attain your social media or web marketing goals. This is an absolute prerequisite.

2. Get yourself a mentor. As I now like to say, “The ultimate shortcut is doing it right the first time.”

3. Don’t wait until the conditions are perfect for launching your campaign. I’ll always remember what some one said, “You don’t have to get it right. You just have to get it going”.

4. Join one business networking site at a time and take the time to master it. Social networking sites can be intimidating at first. Learn a new feature, practice it, and go on to the next.

5. Start out blogging once a week. It’s hard to begin, especially if, like me, you’re not a professional writer. You can increase your posting frequency later.

6. Realize that there’s a steep social media learning curve. Do not quit. So many people join Twitter or Facebook or begin blogging and quit shortly thereafter.

7. Don’t forget about the “social” in social media. Get to know a lot of people and have a blast!