The social media landscape is constantly changing and growing. How do we keep up?

Build a solid plan and focus on it and don’t worry about the next big thing.

Over the net few weeks we are going to do a series on social media to help everyone understand the value of social media and also how to create a SM plan that generates a great ROI without taking all your resources.

1. What is social media?
   1. Wikipedia: Tools that allow people to create, share and exchange information, ideas, pictures and other media in communities and networks.
   2. To understand my definition further I recommend people read The Tribe by Seth Godin. In this book Seth talks about how brands build these amazing fans / followers that propel their business.
   3. My Definition: Low cost tools that allow people and brands to connect with their friends, fans, customers and tribe.
2. Why get involved with social media? A business should want to:
   1. Share information and educate
   2. Network and build relationships
   3. Create a way for people to connect with them
   4. Notice that sell was not part of the why! (of course, ultimately this must lead to sales but sales as a goal is advertising and doesn’t work in social media unless you just run ads.)
3. Before we get deeper into social media and the networks let’s look at content
   1. Types of content:
      1. Non-dependent: the time or place of sharing doesn’t matter
      2. Location-dependent: the location of the content matters – posting about a great meal requires the restaurant
      3. Time-dependent: the time of the post matters – posting about safety week should occur around safety week
      4. Time & Location Dependent: the time and place matter in the post – posting about a 3 day sale at a local store is both dependent on the time and location
   2. Content Mediums
      1. Written: blogs, articles, chats, etc.
      2. Audio: podcasts/recordings/conference calls – both recorded and live
      3. Images: pictures with captions and tags
      4. Video: recorded or live
   3. In the coming weeks we will look at each of these and how they help with our goals and where to use each

What’s important today is understanding that social media is about building relationships not selling.

Take-Action Items:

1. Get a note pad for the next few weeks

2. Create your top 3 objectives with social media (not to sell)