Social Media How-to Guide: Getting Started
Yesterday, I was chatting with a friend of mine about the PR his startup had “fallen into.” They actually created a really cool iPhone application and people noticed. He was excited about the coverage, but while his company wants to be engaged with the media and users, he and his fellow entrepreneurs often find storytelling and driving the narrative around their brand takes a backseat to delivering product / shipping code. Product of course, is the right focus, but new social media tools are making the engagement piece of the puzzle a little easier.
LISTEN
Start by listening. Before you jump into the conversation, know your audience. In this case, know where people are coming from. Is your company being talked about? Start your social media engagement by knowing what is being said about your company online and in the media. Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) makes it easy to create a vanity search (your company name) and have news, video, web mentions, etc. sent to the email you choose. Depending on the industry, it may make sense to create similar alerts for competitors, industry news, key industry influentials, etc.
If that sounds like a lot of email, then consider collecting industry and competitive information via RSS feed on a website like Google Reader (https://www.google.com/reader). With Google Reader, you subscribe to your favorite websites and let new content come to you.
- For realtime mentions of your brand or keywords check out Twitter Search
- Get email notifications of conversations that mention you, your products, your company, anything! You can even keep track of who’s tweeting your website or blog at TweetBeep (more on Twitter below)
BLOG
It goes without saying that your company should have one or more blogs. There are very few exceptions to this one. Blogging doesn’t have to be a big job. Some of the best company blogs have several writers that all contribute to the same blog to share the load. Remember, this is your company blog – not your personal journal – so keep it professional, but show some personality. The blog should be a forum for “think pieces” about what is happening in your industry and at your company. Share tidbits and pieces of data that you’ve collected. Have an opinion. Along with having a blog, you should be reading and commenting on other blogs within your industry.
SYNDICATE
Is your blog RSS enabled? It probably is. Make sure people interested in what you are doing can follow you easily. RSS is a great way to do that. Another is to microblog. Twitter (www.twitter.com) is the most notable and while competitors are entering the space, it is still the best place to be. Create a profile for your company. You can use your company logo as your profile picture and link your blog to Twitter so people who follow your company get your receive your blog posts. This is another venue to engage in conversation with users of your site / product, share tidbits about your company and most importantly listen to what others have to say.
DIVE IN
Facebook now allows companies / brands to create what they call fan pages – a business presence to engage with your customers and “fans” on Facebook. Facebook users can express their support for your company by adding themselves as a fan, leaving messages, uploading photos, and joining other fans in discussion groups.
FriendFeed is another interesting two-way communication vehicle. It is much more immediate and direct, similar to Twitter, but build for threaded conversations on topics users create. If Twitter is a conversation at a party, FriendFeed is about stepping to the side with the people interested in a topic and discussing further. Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook can be great ways join the conversation that is already happening about your company.
This, of course, is a high-level view of tactics your company can and should be considering as you grow your brand presence online. There is certainly more that can be said about all of the above, but the sites / tools discussed are very easy and intuitive. I won’t take much to get going.
If you’re already doing much of what is listed above and are interested in what else is out there, take a look at the following:
- Mashable’s 35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action
- Chris Brogan’s Social MediaStarter Pack
- Marshall Kirkpatrick’s Social Media Starter Kit
- Jeremiah Owyang’s 50 Ways to use Social Media
And, before you go overboard with social media, check out this post on ReadWriteWeb, “Corporate Social Networks Are A Waste of Money, Study Finds.”
