I am thrilled to have my friend and colleague Lara Wellman guest-blog for me this week. Lara is an expert in using social media to build your business online. As a relative newcomer to social media last year, I can say that it accounts for over 70% of my new business! In the following post Lara highlights the basics for those of you still struggling to wrap your head around this whole social media thing. Enjoy!
A Crash Course on Social Media
by Lara Wellman
Twitter. Facebook. Blogging. People keep saying, “you NEED to be involved in social media for your business”, but you don’t really understand why or – even more importantly – how.
What is social media?
We get bogged down in the term “social media” a lot. Social media is simply a way of grouping together a set of new tools, just like the terms publicity, print advertising, and public relations.
Social media, and the use of it in business, is about using the tools out there to create a presence online for your business. It’s also a great tool for building and maintaining relationships with your clients and potential clients.
Ultimately, it helps to think of social media as some of the tools to incorporate into your overall communications and marketing plans. These tools are termed “social media” because they allow your audience to interact and be social with you, unlike more traditional channels which are all about pushing out the message with no easy way to respond or reach out.
Why use social media?
The way people seek out information is very different than it was ten years ago. People first go to Google or ask friends on Facebook for recommendations and references when trying to find new companies to deal with.
In addition, fewer people are spending time with traditional media like television and newspapers. If you want to catch your audience where they are spending their time, being online is very likely the place to be. Spend your time and money where your audience is.
Where do I start?
There are so many tools and they all have different purposes. Here are descriptions of four of the big ones. Start by figuring out what your goals are and where they fit best, and then start there.
Blogging:
A blog allows you to create content on a regular basis on your own web site. This gives people a reason to continue visiting your site; when your content never changes people have no reason to come back unless they are specifically looking for your service. If you entice them to your space with interesting content then you can regularly remind them about your services and establish yourself as an expert in your field.
Blogs are also great tools for search engine optimization. The more often you have new content on your site the higher search engines rank your site.
Facebook Pages are a great place to regularly engage with your clients in their own space.
Think of your Facebook Page as a storefront. You’ve already convinced people they like you enough to care what you have to say, now you have to provide them with the kind of content they want.
People want value for liking a Page, so this is your opportunity to share Facebook-only specials, to give tips and tricks that help your audience, and give them reasons to keep visiting your web site with regular links.
LinkedIn is a the place to establish your professional presence. People will often search a person on LinkedIn before attending a meeting with them, considering them as an employee or a service provider. An easy start with LinkedIn is to create your profile, keep it up-to-date with a recent photo of yourself, and regularly connect to the new people you meet in your business dealings.
Within LinkedIn there are also opportunities to connect with people in similar areas through groups and discussion groups. LinkedIn is the channel that requires the least amount of regular updates to still have value.
Twitter is like a 24-hours-a-day networking event. Being active on Twitter is an opportunity to reach people in your target market and convince them that they want to know more about you.
However, just like a networking event you can’t position your content as marketing. You would never walk up to someone at an event who you have never met and loudly exclaim “25% off carpet cleaning this week only!” You would instead introduce yourself and converse in some light chit chat before moving on to what you do and how you could potentially be of service to each other.
Twitter can have a lot of value, but it does require time and commitment to engagement to get the most value out of the tool.
Take the leap
Social media isn’t going away. Take some time in 2012 to figure out how you’re going to get involved. Take a course or read one of the endless books or blog posts that help you figure out where to start. It takes some time to feel comfortable and build a following, but it’s well worth the time!
Lara Wellman - www.larawellman.com