My Personal Primer on Social Media for Non-Social Media Small Business
Over the last 4 days, I’ve had this conversation no less than 5 times. There are two benefits I got from this "presentation" of concepts; first – I got a really good internal understanding of the social media tools that I apparently value the most and will use the most.
It seems that Anita Campell has been on the same track in collecting summaries of what’s valuable and what’s a time-waster. Initially she had asked the question "If you could only choose one social media tool, which would it be." This is what really got me thinking about what tools were most important and for what purpose.
The next thing that’s happened is that several more traditional business people had asked me to help them make sense of social media and how they might use it.
The first thing I did was create an analogy that seems to work for me and incorporates some comments and comparisons I’ve heard along the way.
Analogies to Help you Relate
I look at my Address book, like my house. Only people I know and trust end up in there.
LinkedIn is my next level out — this is like a Networking event where you start hanging out with people you know and then they introduce you to someone they know – and you grow the relationships you have that way – through introduction. My personal rule for managing LinkedIn is that we need to know each other well enough so that if I call you and ask that you call me back you will call within 24 hours.
Facebook is more like a cocktail party. There are people you know professionally, and personally. You might chat business, you might chat personal. You might include people who are friends of friends. You might include people you know only superficially. It’s a lot more casual and friendly – where LinkedIn is way more professional.
Then there is Twitter. Twitter, to me, is a combination of a bar and a newsfeed. So far, I’ve been using twitter as a way to meet and learn from marketing professionals – mostly in interactive marketing and media. But I’m also following "entrepreneurial moms" and some other people I think are fascinating and can provide me with creative ideas.
Start Here
Here are some social media tools and some quick notes to hopefully give you perspective and get you started.
1. Your address book – whether you use outlook or a web mail – almost all the social media tools have a function to get into your e-mail and search out all the contacts that are already using that tool. Use it. I always automatically invite anyone that is also using the tool. Then I go through the list of people who aren’t using and pick the ones that I think might benefit from using them.
2. www.linkedin.com – This is mostly a professional site. My rule of thumb is to know everyone on LinkedIn – very well. So if I called them they would call me back within about 24 hours (assuming I asked for that) LinkedIn is about 90% professional and less than 10% personal. It’s mostly like a referral tracker. The users tend to be older, more mature (whatever that means) I think it means that the average age is just higher than the other sites. Linked In does have some groups – this is new and I’m just exploring it.
3. www.facebook.com – Facebook is more casual. It’s about 30% professional and 70+% personal and casual. It’s a great way to get to know people on a more personal level. There are lots of professionals on facebook – and the other nice thing is that you can join groups that are very specific on just about any topic.
a. Business Benefits of facebook
b. Who benefits from Facebook – by Chris Brogan
c. All the Facebook articles on www.smallbiztrends
4. www.twitter.com – Twitter is like an online newsfeed and bar all wrapped up into one. Participants are asked to constantly answer the question “What are you doing†in less than 140 characters. The value of twitter – you’ll have to decide for yourself – read these:
a. How to use Twitter- This is the article that got me hooked
b. Benefits of Twitter by ProBlogger – this one says it all
There are lots of other sites, but I’m finding these to be my mainstays. There are some big branding issues here that I’ll have to point out –
· To get results, you have to be consistent and persistent- it’s better to do nothing than to start something and drop out.
· Content is king – so whatever your differentiation and positioning – people will need to “get†that from your posts and from your “conversation†– every conversation is a presentation –
· Carefully think about what names you use and display. I use my blog name as a username on twitter – because that’s what people see – my picture and my blog name. I also use the SAME picture (not a professional shot – but a casual personal shot) because it’s better than a logo – it’s the same picture so that people will be able to recognize me and see the “real†me – not some prettied up version.
That’s just the way I’ve made sense of this – hope it works for you.
This is good stuff Ivana. I really like the analogies you’ve pulled together.
Thanks Todd – I’m sure this will change as time goes by – but there it is so far. I’m curious about how the rest of you define social media for yourselves.
My definition of social media is broad, perhaps to the point of irrelevance. I talk about it as an umbrella term to describe the various activities that integrate technology and social interaction. I think I picked that up somewhere, but I can’t recall where.
I’ve used a neighborhood analogy to explain blogs. When you publish a blog, it’s like moving into a new house. You can’t just open your doors and expect people to come parading through, you have to interact with your neighbors and invite them to come over.