Many thanks to everyone who participated my “Stimulate Your Business With Social Media” workshop today! I’ve included links to the resources included in the worksheet below. These tools make it easy to dip your toes into the social media pond without becoming completely overwhelmed. If you have any questions about any of these tools, please feel free to contact me!
Tools for Listening
Tools for Engaging
- Twellow – Helps you find folks to follow on Twitter.
- Just Tweet It – Also helps you find folks to follow on Twitter.
- Twitterel – Yet one more way to find folks to follow on Twitter.
- WordPress.com – Blog hosted by WordPress.
- WordPress.org – Self-hosted WordPress blog.
- NING – Build your own social networking community (GoodDogz.org is a great example of a DIY social networking community).
- HelloTXT – Tool for universally updating your status.
DIY Resources
- How Do I Get Started on Twitter
- Creating an Effective Online Profile
- A Sample Blogging Workflow
- Social Media Toolkit
- Which WordPress Should I Use?
Here are the next steps that we discussed at the workshop – we’ll call it your homework assignment!
- Set aside 1 hour.
- Set-up a Twitter account and find some folks in your industry or interest group to follow. Create a solid Twitter profile that tells the world about you.
- Set-up a LinkedIn account and start linking with folks at the Chamber as well as business colleagues. Start with me! Be sure that your profile is complete.
- If you have a Facebook profile, start connecting with business contacts and feel free to link to me.
- If you already have a blog, feed your blog posts to LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. See my blog post today for step-by-step instructions.
- Social media should be DIY. Consider hiring someone (like me) to help you create a plan with strategy, tactics and measures of success and/or for continued coaching. But engagement with your customers should really be done by you. It should be personal and genuine. If someone tries to sell themselves as a social media expert – run away screaming. There are no social media experts; just people who have a passion for the technology and social engagement and the need to help others “get it” and be successful.
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I think #6 is one of the most important items on your list! After all, if it’s called “social” media for a reason. Without the interaction, it doesn’t do much good. Sometimes that requires stepping out of your comfort zone and taking a risk, but it certainly pays off!
Wish I could have been there for the seminar!