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The social media strategy - a starting pointThere's hardly a day that goes by where I don't hear someone discussing socialmedia and wondering how/where they should start. There's also not many days thathappen where I don't receive a request from a company or a PR person regarding howthey should go about "doing social media" or how could they get started.Given the popularity and importance of social media lately indeed these questionsare quite valid. Many companies are still on the fence (often for very validreasons) and are hesitant to jump in with both feet. However, like many things,you really don't want to get left in the dust by your competition regarding socialmedia - reading this article is a great start and likely suggests that it is atopic that's going around your water cooler.Why Social?Many people are still wondering, why do I need social media? Well, in thegeospatial arena that's likely a good question. My first response would be, well,everyone's doing it! Surely you don't want to be left behind do you? If anything,establishing a social media presence simply to learn the ropes and get your feetwet is a good thing. If you have no idea how you'll use social a good place tostart is simply to listen in and see/hear what and how others are doing theirsocial media. Watch you competition, watch some people and companies that youadmire, monitor some social media "experts" (beware of experts that really don'thave a clue!) and try to pick up on some tips and tricks of social. within notime you'll be thinking about some ideas and solutions that may work well for yourbusiness.If your still unsure, consider attending a local tweet-up, meet-up, un-conference,Ignite event, or other "cool" meet-up that attracts web2.0 junkies and socialmedia geeks! Putting yourself in an environment surrounded by social mediaexperts, newbies, and wanna-bees will definitely get your wheels turning and willlikely result in a couple of good ideas that you can run with. Finally, think ofsocial media as a way to engage and communicate with your staff, your colleagues,and your clients - I'm sure that you likely have a need to improve yourcommunication flows so this is a great place to start.It's better to give than to receiveFirst and foremost, "doing social media" really should be thought of as a businessprocess and will hopefully become an integral part of your workflows. For manycompanies social media and marketing go hand-in-hand, however, you should rememberthat being social is not simply about receiving but its likely more important tothink about giving. If you think that going social is simply about getting yourword out and promoting yourself (or your apps and/or services) then think again.Companies and individuals that appear to be having the greatest success ala socialmedia have lots to give - some give advice, others give tips, tech support,discounts, even free stuff! Remember to pay it forward - and if people Re-Tweet orshare your stuff, be sure to thank them... it will go a long way! I follow a local "social media expert" who's had tremendous success evangelizingsocial media and branding himself, however, I find that all of his efforts arefocused on himself and on selling himself and his products. If I were a bettingman I would guess that his social media life will be short lived mostly becausehe's one-dimensional and only uses social media to sell himself - beware offalling into this cycle.

Build that brandIntegral to your social media strategy is your brand and how you intend onbranding yourself or promoting your brand. For many people, qualifying the ROI onsocial media is difficult (although there are many tools and apps out there thatcan help) although if you specific items for sale and market them only via asocial media outlet you likely will realize if you are having success. Salesaside, perhaps the most valuable return on your social media efforts is yourbranding. As you build your connections and expand your reach, your social mediastrategy will determine how others see you, what they know about you, and how muchthey trust you. If you're unsure what your goal is for "doing social media"building your brand will inevitably be on the top of your list. Your Social Media activities will extend to your brand and how you brand yourselfand your services For the corporate users, branding and appearance is an important issue. You'llneed to think about who's going to represent your company on your social mediaefforts, how they will represent themselves and the company etc. this will takesome thought. Something hugely important too is what tools will they use tointeract with your social media services and what kind of content you'll besharing.Who to friendSo, you have your social media presence, now who are you going to connect with?Some no-brainers include: your customers, potential customers, business partners,service providers, competition, social media experts, journalists in yourindustry, local talent and technology providers. These are all great places tostart! To discover people on Twitter browse the Twitter search utility, thirdparty directory apps, and look at followers of some of your existing followers.who do they follow? On facebook and LinkedIn look for groups of interest and thenlisten in on discussions and even take part in some of them (remember to give).Avid users of groups and forums can eventually establish themselves as experts byoffering up regular bits of useful information. Finally, don't stop there. Ventureout of the confines of your office and network with others. Take part in tweet-upswhen you attend a conference, go to a local tweet-up or social media trainingmeet-up, take part in a local gathering like Ignite where you'll meet up withothers that are interested in social media, attend un-conferences, bar camps,mobile Monday, or similar industry-focused meet-ups and social gatherings.At a local Social media meet-upDon't just TweetFinally, don't just Tweet! I like to compare this to a mobile strategy where Ievangelize to people not to simply develop a mobile strategy solely on oneplatform (like for iPhone). A truly successful mobile strategy will involve a planfor porting your app or service to a Java client, Symbian OS, iPhone, Android, andBlackberry. Similarly your social strategy should consider a number of popularsocial services including Twitter, face book (think fan pages), Linked In (thinkGroups), Youtube, Flickr, along with plans for a blog. Done properly and with someplanning, these services can work nicely with each other and can all be integratedinto the apps and tools that you use to manage and maintain your updates. Depending on which services you use you'll also need to consider how you plan onmanaging, maintaining, and tracking your social media progress. Be sure to alsoconsider the following:

* What media do you want to share and extend via your social media outlets(videos, photos, power point slides)* What apps and tools will you use to update your social services* What mobile device(s) will you use and with which tools* What Twitter client will you need to effectively update your account(s)* How will you track your progress* What media will you include (photos, videos, audio)* Who's going to manage/update services* Who has access to accounts* Do you need a social media policy and committee* State clearly who owns the accounts and content and document accessmechanisms and passwords.Go MobileI'm a firm believer that users of mobile technologies are the savviest (is that aword) and most prolific social media users around. Mobile devices and servicesenable users of social media to stay connect 24/7 and provide a number ofinnovative and clever ways to keep up with your social services and bookmarks.Using a mobile device or smartphone, the user can check updates quickly andefficiently, location-specific updates and notes are easy to add (like photos andvideos) and spontaneous status updates can greatly enhance your presence andenable your followers to experience the time and place with you - updating socialmedia resources from events is very popular and a guaranteed way to attractinterest from your followers and potential followers. For corporate users, youmight consider setting up a couple of your employees with a smartphone and servicedata plan if anything as a nice perk! Equipment is a valid write-off and exposingyour workers to the latest mobile technologies will enable them to keep up withtechnology, provide them with 24/7 access to some of your corporate mobile assets,and it will also be a nice perk for them - hook your social media strategist upwith a nice iPhone 3G S!GISuser iPhone Geo App of the weekUse Social Location ToolsGIS professionals and Geo geeks that are jumping into social media shoulddefinitely take advantage of location sharing technology - after all, we're in anindustry that's focused on location, location provisioning, and locationawareness! Using social location tools to enhance your social media experience isa great way to add value to your social offerings and it also shows your followersthat Geo technology is important to you. A number of amazing third partyapplications and services are available and easily connect to your social mediastreams (like Twitter and face book), enabling you to share location specificcontent (posts, photos, and video) with your followers. Some of the applicationsthat I take advantage of to share location-relevant social content include: Loopt,Brightkite, Schmapp, and foursquare. Use other cool, web2.0 tools particularly for your events. If you're involved inany way with planning or promoting an event, webinar, social activity, tweet-up or?? Use a service like eventful or meet-up and be sure to also list and promoteyour events on your social media outlets, create and promote official tags and atwitter hash tag, and list your events through LinkedIn events and face bookevents applications.Think VideoVideo on the web is all the rage. Business people, in particular those chargedwith marketing and PR tasks, need to think about this. You can create all thepress releases you want and start blasting them all over the place, however, if

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anandaleeke

Nice tool.

reply11 / 18 / 2009

The social media strategy - a starting point

There's hardly a day that goes by where I don't hear someone discussing social media and wondering how/where they should start. There's also not many days that happen where I do... (More)

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Category:	How-To Guides/Manuals
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Upload Date:	10/09/2009
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Tags:	Technology Government social Maps Facebook linkedin twitter LBS gisuser social media Technology Government social Maps Facebook linkedin twitter LBS gisuser social media (fewer)