social media

I recently attended a Social Media seminar hosted by a local Chamber of Commerce.  My goal for this first part in a 3 part series was to make sure I wasn’t missing the mark on any major social media networks I have been using.   By no means do I consider myself to be a ‘guru’ in social media, but what I found interesting was the number of business professionals who were not using what I consider the 3 major social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn).

It was a reminder to me that the small business owners I represent each day in my role as their eyes and ears on the internet is that most of them don’t have a clear understanding of what social media is or, or what it can mean to them.  I have to think of my clients as those of the 50 or so professional folks in that room who were not yet on Twitter and barely have a LinkedIn profile, let alone how those things will help them.

After the meeting I got talking with a few folks, two of which admitted they were on Twitter, but just not ‘tweeting’ yet out of fear of not having anything interesting to say.   Questions immediately started running through my head about how to pull out information from these folks about what was tweet-worthy info, or what their respective communities may be interested.  What would I want to know about if I were in their follower base?  Here were a few questions I had:

• what is your line of work
• who are your first line customers
• what questions are you frequently asked
• what problems or concerns do your customers or audience typically have
• what praises do your customers or audience typically have

So a municipality might tweet about leaf pickup, plowing policy and village or town events.  A manufacturer might tweet about supply and demand, industry news, or product innovations.  A politician might tweet about the issues that are pressing to his/her constituents.  A student might tweet about what’s going on in school or look for input on that thesis they’ve been working on.

As for a social media enthusiast like myself?  Well I just tweet about any and all of it.  I find watching what others are doing to be the most interesting.  I am intrigued by how much people value their relationships in the twitterverse and it’s evident in their tweets that they do.  (which I think is just about the coolest thing).

Twitter has also brought the world together during crisis – look at this past week with the earthquake in Chili and the predicted tsunami.  The waves turned out to be smaller than expected, but if you watched the Twitter stream in the hours prior, everyone was working together to get the word out – in concern for the well-being to those at risk.

Still not sure you have anything interesting to say?  Start spending a few minutes here or there watching your followers – as someone tweets something you find interesting – send a reply – open a dialog.  You might be surprised to see a new relationship unfold with the conversations that follow, and the folks that end up following along as a result.

Good luck and happy tweeting!

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