Online Social Media
I’ve spent the last month – on and off – learning as much as I can about social media. I’ve had Facebook and LinkedIn accounts for quite some time, but had only begun to scratch the surface of their usefulness.
At our last Door County Women in Business meeting (email me for more info on this group) we had an each one, teach one session during which experts within the group on each of these three social media applications sat down and taught others how to get started and tips and tricks they’ve found useful.
What that meeting taught me is that…I really had a lot to learn! I was definitely behind the curve on this one. Hence, the last month of intensive study. Over these past few weeks, I think I’ve mastered the basics and am beginning to play around with the marketing effects of each.
Here’s my findings:
Facebook – is for fun. Really great to learn about my college roommate’s successful new business or to peruse pics of my high school sweetheart’s family, but I haven’t really found it to be very useful in business. I have heard stories of people getting great results from their business Facebook page, but I’m just not seeing it. My suggestion is to keep Facebook as your social application.
LinkedIn – I have found that this application is great for enlarging your personal professional network. Meet others in your profession within your region. Join groups and associations within your network. For instance, my network is Green Bay. I have joined marketing groups within that Green Bay network that offer tips, trainings and networking opportunities I probably wouldn’t have known about without LinkedIn. Also great for job searches.
Twitter – My most exciting revelations have come from this crazy little application. Now, when I first heard about Twitter, I thought “Who the heck wants to hear what I ate for breakfast…that it’s raining outside…that I’m bored, etc., etc.? Boy did I underestimate the power of the tweet! You see, with each tweet you have the ability to attach a link – to a website, an online story, video, etc. What a great way to promote our communities and my clients’ businesses! By the way, I’m not a martyr. I know that every time I improve my clients’ business I indirectly improve my own. That’s the sneaky way I operate. For instance, here is one of my tweets this morning: Sturgeon Bay Open Bass Tournament this weekend http://www.sbobt.org. Another option is to retweet what others have written: RT @dianemcneil: Ellison Bay Arts hosts Spring Art Crawl this weekend. http://is.gd/zTt8. The original tweet was from Diane McNeil – I just copied it and sent it off to my followers – pretty cool, huh? You can also search key words on Twitter – my friend Cindy mentioned she was having her dog shaved on a tweet and within minutes there were several canine oriented businesses following her. Oh yeah, here’s another really cool thing! Our web guru, Mike, put a live twitter feed on our website www.boettchercommunications.com. Now Google searches are picking up key words in my tweets as well. It’s a beautiful thing. Enough gushing. Check us out on twitter at: marketingdoorco.
One disclaimer: Adding social applications can eat up your time. Much like email, it can be a serious interrupter in your workflow. So, I suggest allotting 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon and keep it to that. Turn your applications off while doing other work so you’re not tempted to get social when you should be getting busy!
OK, another disclaimer: Technology is fluid, ever-changing. Applications that are hot this month may not be a year down the road. Hop on, but don’t be afraid to change with the trends – go where the masses are for the biggest bang for your buck.
As always, thanks for reading and have a super weekend!
Dina Boettcher, President
Boettcher Communications, LLC
101 N. 4th Avenue, Suite 105
Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235
920.818.0377
dina@boettchercommunications.com
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