Social Media: How to Make it Work for Your Company, Part 1

by Beth O'Hara, Technology Support - April 2010

Social Media is key to creating a successful online marketing strategy for almost all companies. At the same time, it can be overwhelming. Which social media networks do you choose? How do you keep it updated? Who does the work? And most importantly, should I even use social media?

If your business is anything more than a mom and pop store built on only word of mouth marketing, then the answer is a resounding YES! Social media is a free and easy way to market, make client connections, and build customer relationships.

If you are using social media for marketing and outreach, there are many options and new sites constantly emerging. I recommend you start with the networks that currently have the most users. Facebook and Twitter will give you access to the most people the quickest. FourSquare is quickly becoming popular for locations with physical storefronts that sell tangible goods and services like restaurants, bakeries, salons, etc. Google Buzz is a very new social network that is also quickly becoming popular. Pick one or two social networks to begin with, and then branch out to others as you incorporate social networking into your marketing strategy.

Social Networking can take a lot of time. Many business people I interviewed for this article stated that they spent a minimum of 1-2 hours daily on social networking. How do you maintain your social network without hiring a new person? If you are a sole proprietorship, then after you create your networking accounts, choose a social networking tool. TweetDeck allows you to monitor and post to Facebook, Twitter, and others with one login. You can download mobile versions of Facebook, Twitter, and others right onto your phone and update your networks in 2-3 minutes segments throughout your day, whether waiting in line, waiting for your computer to reboot, riding public transportation...There are many ways to build it into your day. Just don't tweet and drive. :)

If you own or work for a company with employees, engage and train your employees/coworkers to assist you. Social media experts Chris Brogan and Peter Shankman recommend that all companies have a social media policy that is simple, straightforward, and encourages employees to facebook, tweet, blog, and socially network as much as possible. Yes, even on the job. We're talking about free, highly effective marketing here. In the tele-conference class Social Media: The Next Level, Shankman stated "I wrote a massive social media action plan for a giant company and it basically came down to – 'say things that are true to your heart, don’t be libelous, don’t be slanderous, don’t be talking about financials, don’t engage in arguments. But talk about our company; say whatever you want to say, and we’ll back you up on it. If you have any questions, ask us first before you post it.' And as soon as they posted that to their interweb, they got close to 50 people (it was like a company of 3000) emailed rather timidly their superiors, their bosses, who said, 'Hey, I blog every day at home. I’d love to help grow this company. I love where I work.” And now they have their blogging team; people who are interested and want to do this.'"

Whether your company is adept at social media or just starting, stay tuned for more ways to use these continually evolving tools to market your business.