Social Media for Beginners, Part 3

Posted on 01/15/2009, by DMC

This is the third installment in the series on social media for beginners. In the first two we covered Facebook, MySpace, and Linked In. In the second we covered Twitter and blogging. Which brings us to the third and final chapter – what this all means for my business.

While it is fun to play around with these things on your personal account you can also put your business on the playing field in different social media circles. The first and easiest things to do, create a business Facebook page and Twitter account. Facebook will allow you to create a fan page, where people can become fans of yours and show you off to the world or you can create a group. However, it’s important to realize these tactics are for your business – we’re talking about your brand here. It’s important to separate your personal voice from the messages you want your business to communicate.

We recently went the group route and created Elevation Brand & Friends of Elevation, as a way of connecting with our clients, friends, and co-workers. When setting up a business Facebook page as Verizon has done here, one thing to be careful of which Verizon has not done is engage their customers. There is a discussion thread where people are talking about how much they hate the Blackberry Storm. Verizon should have responded and engaged it’s fans to talk about the issues people were having with it. They made it halfway there. But they have done a great job making the page engaging with videos, music, etc.

When dealing with social media the best way to look at it is to consider it as a business cocktail party that never ends (Mike Volpe’s analogy, not mine). You want to engage people, share interesting information about things that are relevant to you. E.g. If you manufacture rubber duckies, don’t always talk about your favorite beer on your business Facebook page and Twitter. Talk about/post links to a rubber duck that got news coverage, or your latest blog about the new non-lead based paint you developed that makes the orange duck bills more safe for kids. See what I mean?

Bottom line is this – don’t get involved in social media to directly sell your product. Get involved to build thought leadership and have people think of you when they need a new rubber duck. Bring something interesting to the table and people will look at your business in a new light, and engage, engage, engage. If you see someone talk about this great rubber duck or that one – jump into the conversation, not with ‘our duck is better’ but with ‘that’s great you love that one – why don’t I send you one of ours free so you can see if you like it better?’ That kind of action is great for two reasons – one – everyone sees what you’re doing, and two – that person will tell their whole network how awesome a company you are and how much you cared. Which leads into our next topic: ORM (online reputation management) and why you need it, coming soon!