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Some Social Media How-To
The biggest things to understand about social media are the risks and opportunities, and the work involved. How you engage community can do a lot to build your brand, but doing the wrong thing can also disrupt things quickly. Be genuine and helpful - Use the tools to reach out and learn. Engage - don't lecture. Turn off the one-way sales and marketing and use the tools to reach and understand your followers. Social media can take your product or service quickly to a broad audience, but it demands you connect with sincerety and creativity.
Being effective with social media demands time. You stay in the mind of the audience by regularly adding fresh content; Recent activity keeps you "relevant", so don't take on too many channels if you cannot make the time. Enlist others in your organization to contribute, if you can.
It should be noted that these web applications do not really replace the older technology in your toolbox. While there may be "private channels" within these tools, their primary usage is really for broad messaging, and lots of people are listening. When you are talking to the broad audience, remember not to simply be chatty or your audience may become annoyed; Some feel compelled to explain things their cat did that day, or that they have a boring layover at the airport... Remember why you are here and stay on point.
Do pay attention to license agreements and costs. There are many great free tools; Some tools are free but limited, or they may include advertisements. Some may be have different cost structures for individuals, groups, non-profits, public services, and commercial organizations.
Finally, don't let the technology marginalize your most important relationships. If you have personal messages or things to share with a small audience, personal emails or text messages make more sense. And for the truly personal touch, phone calls, hand-delivered notes and and hand-written messages still stand out. Meeting for coffee or lunch is still necessary to really build and maintain deep connections.
More and more employers are hiring through social media. LinkedIn is the standard tool for creating a professional presence where employers can find you. It also represents one of the primary places for researching job opportunities.
In addition to outlining your particular skillset and employment history, you can establish content to support that expertise. LinkedIn profiles can host your presentation decks on SlideShare, your blog, your current reading list, events you are hosting or attending, and more. You can participate in professional discussions through LinkedIn Groups and pose or respond to questions in your particular domain.
Add a professional photo and LinkedIn becomes a solid mechanism for engaging community and sharing your brand. If you own a consulting business or work freelance, you can set up a further presence for your business. LinkedIn is where you differentiate yourself and connect to the market.
Seattle ISPI has its own LinkedIn group, Use it to ask the group questions, to post events of interest for our members, or to watch for other events.
Facebook reaches a very large part of the younger generation and a large population that has yet to join LinkedIn. There are businesses and professional groups here, as well as artists and political causes. While it is not so much for professional networking, you will find many students and social groupings here. There are cautions here however. Facebook security has been scrutinized a few times, and the tool is typically more for personal engagement than business. Staying in touch with old friends and family, party pictures, and other personal information are more prevalent than sharing of real professional content. If you are a job hunter, employers often look at Facebook to uncover personal habits and cultural mismatch. LinkedIn may find you a job - as long as Facebook does not lose it for you. It is best to be cautious in sharing things you would not want seen by business prospects and potential employers. You may want to keep the two personas separate, but caution is still appropriate.
If you have a business, professional group, or cause, Facebook does represent a way to find followers and promote your group or event. If your audience ius there, you can set up a fan page or a business presence. Just as in LinkedIn, you can share links and events and more.
Seattle ISPI hace a Facebook fan page at XXXXX(Coming Soon). Check it out.
A recent addition ot the social media domain, Twitter is a "micro-blogging" tool. SInce you can only share a limited amount of text in each "tweet", you should learn how best to use it. Your audience or "followers" see your short text-based messages, which can be used to promote your events, blog entries, or web addresses you thought interesting; And of course, a concise profound message also can help entice.
Your messages have to be concise, so you may want to take advantage of URL shorteners to point followers to other web content. This may be a story you read or a blog entry you posted. You can also use "Hashtags" to associate your message with certain topics or events; These are essentially keywords used to group related events, filtering out all unrelated content. If you see a message you like from someone else you are following, you can choose to "re-tweet". And you can actually have conversations with followers.
URL Shorteners
Internet
addresses often get long. To simplify the
amount of typing - or to fit a link into a short message - using a "URL
Shortener" can be just the
thing. You may have the opportunity to make
the URL more readable as wel. Some you can add to your browser toolbar
so that they are always at the ready. Blogging & Content Management Systems
Blogs are essentially your own running series of dated articles made available on the web for review and commentary. You can submit very rich content, including formatting, images, videos, links and more, and the blogging tool will halp you with organizing content and inviting comments. Blogs can be a very powerful branding tool and they are often use like a continuing newsletter online. Readers can subscribe to your updates through RSS feeds using a reader mechanism, which can aggregate the various blogs one wants to read in a single tool.
Content management systems are ways of driving a
range of topic types
to the web through a single website. You may include a blog, a discussion board,
static content, and other mechanisms. Content management systems are
meant to allow for easy contribution without having to be very
technical, but they can demand a little help to get set up.Both of these approaches are best used with some modest customization. Coming up with a logo, and some idea on how your prefered "look and feel"(i.e. fonts, colors, layout, etc.) are important considerations.
Email Marketing
When
you run workshops and events... when you gather
business cards and capture email addresses... One of the primary
opportunities available is email-based announcements or newsletters.You
can establish an ongoing stream of useful content, announce seasonal
pricing and events, and introduce new services and team
members to your clients through attractive email messages. These may
point to further content on your blog when you want to expand on that
email content.Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Anytime you post to a blog, a website, a LinkedIn profile, a discussion board, or a content management system, you are usually also putting content in the path of search engines. If you want your content to be found, choosing ideal keywords can go a long way to that end; But there are other techniques also - Cross-linking with other sites, especially the popular ones and the ones that resonate with your message. The more interconnected your site, the more likely it will move up the rankings. Its a competitive landscape and moving up can be challenging - but if you establish your brand well and differentiate yourself in the market, it can add a lot of opportunity.
Forums & Commenting
Discussion boards have been since before the modern browser. Setting up conversation area for special interests is a great way to create ad hoc conversation without actually calling meetings. Ideas and commentary can simply accumulate in their own time when people are available.You can share ideas to a broad set of local and geographically remote individuals. Chances are good that most of your interest areas already have such groups online. Some common technologies include Yahoo and Google groups, forums on SharePoint, and others.
Survey Tools
Questionnaires are a popular tool for improving your services, shaping your message, and crafting your next offering. Getting a feel for your market or audience, their thoughts and preferences, and their concerns need not demand a captive audience. There are a number of online tools, some of them free, which allow reaching out with different kinds of questions. Common tools include SurveyMonkey, QuizSnack, KwikSurveys.
Online Meeting Mechanisms
If you need to meet with remote individuals and teams, either by audio or combined video and audio, there are many tools available. Different tools allow sharing of desktops for slide presentations, sharing a camera video feed, Q&A and chat mechanisms, interactive whiteboards, simple surveys, and recording. Popular tools include Skype, Microsoft LiveMeeting, GotoMeeting, and others.
Slides, Videos, and Podcasts
The web need not be a reading exercise. Getting your content in front of people can include a range of media types. An ongoing set of podcasts, slide decks, video, and stream content are solid delivery mechanisms easily consumed. Tools include YouTube, Slideshare, Vimeo, UStream, and more.
Additional Resources
Books
Social Persuasion: Making Sense of Social Media for Small Business, Robbin Block
Content Strategy for the Web, Kristina Halvorson
Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, Dan Schawbel
30 Days to Social Media Success, Gail Z.Martin
The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business, Tara Hunt
Note: Seattle ISPI does not endorse any specific tools. These are products and brands among many, and you should do your own research before taking on any particular tool. Ask your peers how they are using tools and ask for tips. Technical help is sometimes needed, but usually easy to find - among friends or perhaps from CraigsList if you want a seasoned freelancer. Remember privacy concerns and be careful with sensitive information. Pat attention to privacy settings. These tools are well-received in the market, but use careful judgment in choosing and using such tools.
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2007-2011. Seattle Chapter
- International Society for Performance
Improvement. All rights reserved.