January 15, 2010

Set Priorities and Goals, Don’t Try To Do It All

Not all online conversations carry the same weight. Many will have no impact on your company and not every mention of your company or brand will require the same amount of attention. The trick is to understand what does and does not matter. While a discussion on the latest product release or customer feedback may be worth engaging in, other discussions may be trivial and will not require your participation.

While knowing what conversations are taking place and using the valuable insight gained from them is important, understanding impact will help you define the priority to the company. Just remember, you may not be able to do it all. The world of social media is rapidly growing and changing, focus on what will help you meet your goals.

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January 13, 2010

Communicate the Strategy, Don’t Allow for Confusion

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While you may have created a strategy and identified the spokespeople who will participate in online conversations, if you do not share that strategy with the rest of the organization it will lead to confusion. Social media turns everyone associated with your brand into a potential company representative. Whether you are a large or small company, the nature of social media requires specific guidelines for conduct. Read more >>

January 12, 2010

Take Time to Listen, Don’t Just Jump In

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The first step in putting together an effective social media strategy is to understand the dynamics of the landscape. With social media, it is more important than ever to listen to what is being said before participating. What are people saying, how is it being said and where are they saying it?

Using a comprehensive monitoring strategy, it will help you define your online corporate brand identity and help ensure you are engaging with these new platforms effectively.
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January 11, 2010

Identify Spokespeople, Don’t Dilute the Message

As with traditional media strategies, you must also determine spokespeople for your social media strategy. You wouldn’t pull just any employee to speak to the media and social media should be no different. Despite the informal nature of the conversations on some platforms, the person responding is still a company representative and the image of the company is reflected in those discussions.

Unlike traditional media, social media puts you in direct communication with the public and different company representatives may be better for these audiences. While your traditional media spokesperson may be the CEO, your customers and prospects may be best served by a company representative who deals with more everyday tasks and not the overall company strategy. Read more >>

January 7, 2010

Creating an Effective Social Media Strategy

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It’s undeniable that the new world of social media can have a dramatic impact on your organisation. All it takes is a quick scan of today’s headlines to learn the effects of successful (and not so successful) social media campaigns. While it seems that social media presents an endless amount of opportunities to build awareness, it also presents risk, which means that creating an effective strategy isn’t just nice to have – it’s an absolute must.

Creating an effective social media strategy is as much about what to do as what not to do. Before you jump in, it is important to develop guidelines to not only help you understand the current landscape but to help shape it. Read more >>

December 24, 2009

Linked In… To What?

Too many social media “strategist” have sorely neglected Linkedin for far too long. Let me tell you that understanding and utilizing Linkedin offers values and benefits that are incomparable to any other social network. Whether it’s job posting or hunting, building connections or establishing successful network groups, Linkedin is an essential business tool.


Current.tv took a humorous stab at people’s perception of LinkedIn

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December 21, 2009

5 Ways to Use Social Media for Customer Service

You may be aware of Twitter, the 140 character news and status channel where Twitterers around the world are over-sharing what they’re doing. Hopefully you’ve already set up a business account and are actively using Twitter Search to mine for product and service mentions, and taking advantage of the platform as a customer service resource. If you’re not, you’re missing a huge opportunity to connect with an ever-growing population of consumers and professionals who respond well to Twittering companies with a purpose.

Here are 5 additional simple ways, some obvious and some obscure, to help small businesses leverage social media to provide stellar customer service. The social web is a place for everyone, but with the right tips, tricks and tools, savvy small businesses can redefine the nature of customer service. Read more >>

December 15, 2009

5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

Social media marketing and the businesses that utilize it have become more sophisticated. More small businesses are beginning to understand how to best leverage online tools to build a community and recognize that engagement and interaction are the foundations of social marketing, but most don’t know what’s next.

What follows are five advanced strategies for small businesses that may already have small online communities and understand how to create an online presence, but don’t know what to do next. Read more >>

December 14, 2009

Why Your Business Needs to Be on Facebook

You might know Facebook as the social network that you use to keep up with your friends, colleagues, and former classmates. But thanks to a number of features that the company has rolled out recently, it can also be a valuable utility for attracting and interacting with customers. So how do you take advantage of Facebook’s features for businesses? Here’s a look at some of the recent developments and trends. Read more >>

December 11, 2009

How to Build Your Company’s Profile on LinkedIn

LinkedIn, through its networking, question and answer, and application features are already a powerful tool for maintaining and establishing relationships in the business world.  But it can also be an enormously valuable way to attract top talent to your company, especially if you use all of the options available to you.

While posting a job to LinkedIn is similar to any other job website – adding details about the position, skills, and requirements – where the site separates itself is with company profiles, allowing you to provide potential candidates with a lot more information about your company and the people that work there.  Here’s how they work and how to set one up: Read more >>

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