Social Media 101 Rules of Engagment: Rule #1
Rule # 1: Do your homework, do your research!
Thinking of using social media as a tool to market yourself as a brand or market your business? Good! It’s a great tool or should I say groups of tools.
Now STOP.
I beg of you DO NOT PROCEED without creating a social media marketing plan. Your plan should include some if not all the following basics to start: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MailChimp (or email program equivalent), and a Communication Hub (e.i. Blog, WebSite, Facebook company page).
But first… Do your homework! Do your Research.
Research each social media option. Just be a fly on the wall for a while. To be a fly you will first have to open accounts for each social media network. Do not use the email account that you will using for your future marketing – open a Gmail email just for research purposes. (www.gmail.com) so when you are ready to kick off your social media plan you can use the proper email address. Do not upload your computer’s email database. Save your database uploading for your “real” social media accounts not the ones you will be using for research.
Now start. Listen to the conversations. Explore. Find the differences of each social media network. Don’t engage right away, just listen to the conversations. Engage slowly. Learn social media “speak”, what acronyms & abbreviation like “@” and “RT” mean, how they are used and what they can do for you.
When you are ready to carry out your social media plan, be ready to set up new accounts for each media. To get your best return on investment (ROI) you will want a good name & icon as well as a great description (profile) of you or your business. In most cases you will be able to make edits, but not in all cases, so it is best to prepare. If you decided to use your company logo be ready to reduce the size of it so it reads correctly in the icon box size. Do you have a photo, one to is right for your branding? You will need one. You will also need to decide if you are going to customize your background when possible, twitter for example. Don’t forget to continue your personal or your company’s branding with your social media. Make this part of your plan.
To get you started:
Twitter acronyms & abbreviations by Tom Duong http://bit.ly/cXP9yi
The Ultimate Glossary -101 Social Media Marketing Terms Explained by hubspot.com http://bit.ly/9wFe2c
Next: Social Media 101 Rules of Engagement: Rule #2 Creating Your Social Media Plan
Social Media, it’s about the content. 6 Steps to making original content a priority.
For real estate its location, location, location. For #SMM Social Media Marketing its content, content, content.
If you want to get the most out of your social media marketing efforts spend time deciding what social media outlets to broadcast from, but spend equal if not more time planning what you are going to say (share) – develop your content.
Sharing other’s original content is a great way to start. It’s a natural part of the social media experience however creating your own content is a better option and takes some planning. Original content will go a long way in positioning and branding you or your product.
6 Steps to making original content a priority
1) Decide on a list of content topics that will speak to your target audience(s)
2) Layout a rough content plan a month in advance
Decide how often you will be broadcasting new content. Will it be several times daily, weekly, monthly? Decide with topics from your list you will be addressing.
3) Create new content one week in advance
Block a consistent block of time every day or week (depending on how much content you will be creating) to work on content creation. Think outside the box, beyond the written word. Photos with captions, video, Power Points, charts, graphs, surveys, polls results you get the point.
4) Decide where your content is going to live
Upload content and get the link to where this content will live. (Your blog, your website, YouTube, Tweetpic, Box.net, Slide Share, etc,).
5) Use link shorteners like bitly.com for your content within your post or tweet
They serve two purposes: shortening the link which gives you more space for your copy (with twitter that’s important) and for tracking how many people click to see your content.
6) Pre-load your tweets & posts
Use a tool like Hoot Suite to pre-load your posts & tweets daily, weekly or monthly to leave you more time to create content.
Social Media: To Profile Photo, or not to Profile Photo?
Social Media is all about connections, networking, communicating and sharing. Choosing not to use a profile picture is simply a missed opportunity. A missed opportunity to make a visual connection or to visually brand yourself or your business.
In addition to the missed opportunity, a missing profile photo opens the door to questioning why its missing. Is the person hiding something? Is the person not comfortable or confident with themselves? Is the business claiming to be something it’s not? There is really no reason with technology today, cell phone cameras and inexpensive digital cameras, why an appropriate photo geared towards the correct audience for each social media channel can’t be achieved for anyone or any business.
Bottom line, people want to connect with people. Photos create interest and help build relationships/connections.
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