23 Aug Social Media Isn’t Scary
Success requires courage. Success requires that you do new things and move with new market conditions. We all know that new regulations keep hitting our space and we have to react. I think it’s time that we move as an industry on new initiatives that can actually help grow our business in new ways instead of being reactive. A good example of this is social media. This is literally a new frontier. It may be scary to some as they look to get started with social media but it doesn’t have to be. Here’s why:
In an article called “Starting in Social Media? The 5 Ps of A Perfect Program” by Taryn Erickson, the author says, “So you are new in this Social Media Revolution. You may or may not have been an innovator or early adapter – or perhaps you are still cautiously implementing social media into your business.”
The article advises that you:
PLAN: Social Media Strategy
Prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance. So, before you venture out, create accounts and starting posting – take a big step back and think about your strategy. Then, put it on paper.
- Establish goals (recruiting, training, client interaction, PR, branding, education, culture, etc.)
- Integrate social media strategy piece with your business plan
- Establish a content strategy based on your goals
- Budget for both time and resources
- Set a timeline for frequency of messages
- Implement HR policies and procedures
- Partner with your IT department
- Communicate your plan and engage your internal audience!
POSITION: What’s Your Point?
One of the best parts (and biggest challenges) in Social Media is crafting a clever (and memorable) message. So, what is your point? What are you trying to convey? Finding your voice will help you differentiate and dominate.
- Differentiate your content
- Become the expert in your industry
- Link, link, link!
- Get involved with group discussions
- Value before self-promotion
- Research what others are doing
- Talk about what you are already doing
- How personal do you get?
- Is there such as thing as sensitive information?
PLATFORMS: Tools and Tactics
Over 350 mediums for sharing online – how do you have the time for all that?! Make sure you are learning which platforms are best suited for your strategy. The Big 4 (5 with the new Google+ platform) are most utilized because of their impact and influence online. Finding tools to expedite your posts and content will help!
- Understand key social platforms and their purposes – with an integrated approach
- The Big 4: Facebook (500M), Twitter (200M), LinkedIn (100M), Blogs – and Google+
- 350+ mediums for ‘sharing’ online!
- Resource libraries (Wikipedia, etc.) exponential growth in use, high accuracy of content
- Photo and video sharing phenomenon (YouTube, SlideShare, Flickr, etc.)
- Others: Tumblr (3rd party), Foursquare (location), etc.
- Tools for managing multiple platforms (Tweetdeck, HootSuite, etc.)
- Link shorteners and trackers (bitly, owly, deckly, etc.)
- Tagging (@), hashtags (#), and other key tools
I’ll share the last two Ps next week, so stay tuned…