Social Media - A Growing Marketing Element

If you are like most of us in marketing, there is a lot of 'buzz' about social media and how to incorporate it in your marketing strategies. Our marketing team wanted to join in but wasn't really sure how to get started so we consulted with our IT department and they suggested the following:

1) EDUCATE OURSELVES - Attend social media seminars and conferences, and network with others to become familiar with all the elements of social media. We have attended several of these and they really helped us open our minds and envision possible avenues we may want to approach. I would also recommend reading Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff.

2) PRACTICE SOCIAL MEDIA - Establish a personal account on Facebook and/or Twitter, and of course, a blog site. This allows you to experience it first hand and gets you comfortable with writing to an audience. We have recently signed up for a 31 Day Online Blog Course which will help us with blogging. (NOTE: With the help of our IT staff, they set up our company Twitter account and nudge us with ideas and information to post on the site. Of course, they are tweeting a bit more than us, but we are getting there.)

3) IDENTIFY OUR CUSTOMERS - A member of our IT team shared the following observation, which is a good one - There is never going to be the "One All-Encompassing" social media application. This means we're going to have to go out there and find our customers where they are or draw them into a space we provide (either on our own or via another application/web site). That's the challenge for those who are going to go out and communicate with their customers - and it's not too much different than finding them in "real life."

There you have it - three simple steps to get started in the social media world. So far so good. Good luck and please share any other ideas you may have to assist with the social media frenzy.