Dipping a toe in the social media pool
The hottest social media tools will come and go. Their impact — namely the ability to converse directly with your key audiences — is here to stay.
Clients frequently ask if they should get into social media. We believe they should, but only by adding social media tools to the mix of their overall communication strategy.
It’s essential to take a step back, understand how each tool works, and map out a strategy before diving in by creating a Twitter account or setting up your company’s Facebook fan page.
Bill Seaver, our friend at MicroExplosion Media, has a three-step model for venturing into social media that we think makes a lot of sense.
- Monitor. Learn about the different social media tools and find out how people are using them to talk about your company, your competition, and your industry. Are other companies you admire using Twitter to interact with clients? What are bloggers saying about you, and which ones are influential enough to affect opinion? Observe how people interact with one another and the brands that you want to model. Also observe how frequently people post, tweet, comment, etc. so you can assess the time involved.
- Participate. With a better lay of the land, you can start joining the conversation by commenting on blogs, posting messages on forums, or writing on a Facebook wall.
- Create. Now you’re ready. Creating involves possibly starting your own blog or launching a Twitter account. You may even decide to host your own social network. At this stage you’ll want to continue monitoring and participating, because new tools—and new conversations—are being created every day.
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