By now, based on the hype, we are all somewhat aware of the potential that web 2.0/social media can offer our businesses.  However, after speaking to various groups over the last couple of weeks, two things are becoming very apparent; many people are struggling to understand where to begin and just as many are simply trying to find out which sites to participate in. In this post, I will offer you guidance to help minimize your overwhelm and guide you through the Social Media puzzle.

Social media opens up a whole new level of contact with your prospects, your customers, your business partners and your employees. The elegance of Social media is the way it enables constant, yet non-intrusive communication regarding literally anything your business needs to communicate about
So the benefits are clear, yet many of us are struggling to come to terms with the following:

ISSUE -  Don’t Know Where to Begin – there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of social media type sites out there, and the number is growing daily.  Each of us has received those ubiquitous invitations to participate on this site or that one.  The problem is, you don’t know where to begin and where to focus your attention.

QUICK START GUIDANCE – Start by stepping back and really understanding your brand. Then brainstorm with your key “advisors” to come up with a short list of social media sites that would be complementary to this brand.  Whittle this list down to 6 or less sites, and now you have a place to begin.

For instance, if you are a buggy whip salesman, you are probably not going to target MySpace as a place to participate.  MySpace has a very young (large amount of users are under 25), hip, artistic type demographic.  On the other hand, if you are in the music industry, MySpace may be your best place to focus on.
ISSUE – Not Sure How to Participate / Afraid of Being Blackballed – there are many nuances to participating on each site, and they too, seem to change daily.  Most of these sites are communities where people have invested long hours into participating.  You may even say, they’ve invested part of their lives into these sites.  Given these investments, they don’t take it lightly if someone jumps in and doesn’t properly participate.

QUICK START GUIDANCE – Netiquette is important here. We advocate taking some time to get the lay of the land.  Read through the FAQs, check out the “power users” and use the search engine to read up on what others say about the site.
ISSUE – Trying to Figure Out How to Get Positive Attention – Getting attention for your business is probably the most important thing you can do in this Web 2.0 world.  Keep in mind that you are in a highly competitive world when it comes to getting attention. Not only are you competing for attention from the social media world, but you are competing with the offline world as well.  We’ve already estimated that there are hundreds if not thousands of sites out there with thousand of users on each site.  In addition to that there are 225 billion pages of editorial content pumped out every year.  Given this, is attention valuable?  Think of Paris Hilton. What exactly does she do?  One thing is for certain and that is she gets attention.  According to Forbes, last year she made a cool $6.3 million, received 3,600,000 web hits and was mentioned in almost 18,000 press clippings.  Clearly attention is valuable.

QUICK START GUIDANCE – We advocate following the CAP rule. C stands for content.  Thus when you publish, make sure your content is relevant, unique and interesting. People want new, they want unique, they want original, but what they don’t want is boring. 

The A stands for Awareness.  It is up to you to make yourself known to search engines, RSS aggregators, listings, social networks, fellow bloggers. Publish your URL appropriately when you post.  The more time you say your message to more people, the more likely you are to find people who are interested in what you have to say. 

Finally, the P, which represents Publishing with Passion.  Publish frequently.  Publish quality work and publish with passion.  If you don’t give your audience new, original, quality information in a repetitive fashion, you can expect to become exactly like the “movie of the week”, hot for a short time and then totally forgotten.
ISSUE – You Don’t Have the Time to Devote to This – It goes with out saying that in today’s fast paced information age, everyone is multi tasking and there is little time available for anything new.  Need we say more on this topic?  I’m in overwhelm – have to get out of it fast. Everyone can identify with this, right?

QUICK START GUIDANCE –  So is this a deal breaker?
Actually NO – you can make time if you step back and think about this logically.  Remember your first step? You were being strategic in which sites you participated in.  Some sites are more time-intensive than others.  However, if you laid out your goals for these sites and supported them with realistic action plans, then all you need to do is “measure” your execution and continually tweak it to be more effective.  Thus what you might be looking at is spending 5 minutes a day on Twitter or an hour a week on linkedin or 10 minutes a day launching videos on YouTube.  The point is clear, if you understand what you are focusing on building, you can maximize your results without sacrificing more time.
As we conclude this post, what do you encounter and what are you doing to overcome any overwhelm?

NOTE: From time to time, we will be hosting a free 1 hour teleseminar on this topic.  To sign up and find out about the next one, please go to www.imarket20.com/teleseminar.

Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Twitter, YouTube

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