The use of Social Media in business seems to be growing everyday! There is so much information out there; it can be a little overwhelming for those new to it or those who are just getting started. As a newbie to SM myself, I recently attended a very informative seminar on the topic, in hopes of getting educated on the topic. The Social Media Means Business seminar was hosted by WhizBang! Web Solutions LLC and Sales Sense Solutions, Inc. A very knowledgeable group of individuals with various areas of expertise presented information on this topic. From that seminar, and some independent reading and research, here is what I’ve gleaned regarding how to get started. Develop a social media marketing plan. Decide: who, what, where, when, and why. Who: who will be responsible for building your SM presence? Will you do it yourself, assign someone in your company, or will you hire an outside company to do it? What: what will your on-line presence look like? What is the main message you want a person to understand when visiting your online profiles? Do you want to give them information about a topic, show them your mission statement, tell them what you do, or all of the above? Your online presence should mirror that or your “bricks and mortar” brand. Think about what your online presence can say to get people to connect to you. If you’re using LinkedIn, what will make a networker want to connect to you? If you’re using Twitter, what can you say to make someone follow you? Take time in this step to be sure to send the right message, it’s important! Where: Decide which outlets you would like to target. There are so many different SM outlets out there it would be difficult to have an immediate presence on all of them. Start with only one or two. Look at some of the different outlets, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook, etc. and decide which would best meet your needs. This can be based on audience: who subscribes or participants in this outlet. What are the demographics? Do some key word searches on the site and see what you get. It can also be determined by the overall focus and intent of the site. For example, in my opinion, FaceBook is focused more on personal networking, such as sharing pictures of your family, what’s on your mind, and other fun, personal activities. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is more business focused. However, your presence on a site is what you make of it and many people choose to use FaceBook for business. Take some time to explore each site to see where you would like to have a presence.
Determine how much time you can spend on it.