What is Social Media and how can I use it in my Business?
Posted by Scott Dunn on April 20, 2008
This blog is a follow up to my speech last week at the Greater North Fulton Business Expo. Thank you to all those who attended not only the Expo, but my speech. The Expo was a huge success and I would like to personally thank all the committee members and volunteers. Thank you!!!
An overview of my speech is this: ”Social media describes the on-line technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other.” Wikipedia says social media is about utilizing technology to communicate, connect, join a conversation and/or a community and it is about collecting and categorizing. Most importantly though, social media is about change!
What it is not is a message channel to bombard me with messages or ads that I do not care about. It is not about pitching me. It is about building a relationship with me utilizing mediums I CHOOSE. It’s not about the application. The application is useless if you do not find value in it and ultimately, use it. Determine what it is you want to accomplish, then choose the application that helps you accomplish your goal.
Social media allows us the ability to collaborate on a global scale with like minded people. You don’t believe me? Then why is it that the last time you purchased something on-line you took the time to read the comments about the item? I don’t know you and you don’t know me….right?
It allows me, the consumer, to communicate directly with a corporation. If I like your product or service, I will communicate it. If I do not like a product or service, I will communicate that as well. Social media makes me the R&D arm of any company. Is your company willing to join the conversation?
Lastly, don’t let the pendulum swing too far. Daily I pick up the paper and read that another company is taking large percentages of their ad budget and putting it into social media. That is fine as long as you continue to use traditional mediums and integrate social media with them. Also, don’t try to be the jack of all trades. Pick a handful of applications. You don’t have to use every single social media application just because you receive an invite.
Some of the barriers companies face with social media are: cost of development when joining a site, losing control of what is being expressed, scalability and the time commitment it takes to converse. If you want to develop a relationship, it takes time.
For a list of twenty-five social media sites to explore, click HERE. This guide not only gives you the hyper-link to each site, but provides you page views with a short synapses of each application.
As usual, I look forward to your comments and questions. Take the social media challenge and join a conversation, with me or someone around the world!
On a side note today 4/22/08 I received an email to the link below. HMMMMM coincidence? I think not. How many of these same C’s did I cover in my lecture? Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/5jl98z
April 23, 2008 at 6:38 pm
After reading this it absolutely made me realize the valuable asset of social marketing. As always thanks to Scott for bringing this to my attention.
April 25, 2008 at 10:37 am
Marc,
Thank for reading my blog and I am glad I could share information with you. I look forward to your new blog and working with you on other projects.
May 3, 2008 at 3:11 pm
It’s interesting that the more open we get with all of these social media venues the more closed we get to marketing intrusions. Just this morning I received an email from someone saying they had found me on LinkedIn and then proceeded to throw a pitch at me.
People need to remember that before you try to sell me we need to connect somehow, then you need to build trust, then you can pitch me. The social media sites make it easy to connect. Building trust or credibility takes longer. It requires that you provide proof in some form. This may be based on how I perceive you when we talk or meet, it may be through testimonials or endorsements, or it may simply be the language that you use in a profile. It could happen in an instance, but likely is going to take time.
I’ve posted an article over on my LinkedIn blog at about this email and ways you can build credibility and trust.
Blogging is another way to do so because you are providing value to others up front.
May 8, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Sean,
Great comments about what social media is, why it is useful and how to use it to build relationships. I could not have said it better myself.
I look forward to your book on linkedin and know that it will add value to anyone trying to figure out how to use linkedin as a tool to build business relationships.
Thanks again for your comments and see you around the social media sites!