Five Steps to Social Media
It seems like everywhere you turn these days, people are talking about social media. Whether it’s Conan O’Brien mercilessly mocking celebrity “Tweets” or a local couple’s unique wedding procession video hitting more than 22 million views on YouTube, social media is on everyone’s mind.
Let’s assume you already know what social media is and you’re thinking about adding it to your public relations/marketing mix. Where do you begin?
Park your real estate
If you haven't already, reserve your organization’s desired username or vanity url on as many popular social networking/social bookmarking Web sites as possible. (Tip: www.namechk.com lets you check dozens of sites at the same time.) Don't forget to reserve variations of your domain name such as yourcompany.net and yourcompany.biz. Additionally, .cm extensions (the most common typo for .com domain names) have just been made available. You might also consider reserving unflattering variations of your company name (i.e. yourcompanysucks.com).
Stop, listen, and learn
Your social media names are in place, so you’re ready to go, right? Wrong. One of the biggest mistakes companies make is jumping into social media without foresight or intent. Social media isn’t something to be entered into lightly. It’s a long-term commitment that takes time, effort, and planning. Fortunately, there are numerous online articles, webinars, and books that can help you make sense of social media. Two I recommend are “The New Influencers” by Paul Gillin and “Groundswell” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.
Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water
Social media should enhance the techniques, methods, and strategies you are already using—not replace them.
Remember, it’s about the relationships
With all the frenzy surrounding social media it’s often easy to forget the most important thing: although facilitated by computers and technology, social media is about people and relationships.
Robin Smothers, APR is a Minneapolis-based communications consultant and social media enthusiast. She can be reached at robin@rmspr.com or @robinmarie on Twitter.