May 2009

The Social Media landscape is a very interesting one. It comprises of 10 key elements and all of them can be used, and are being used, to help generate and maintain sales for small to medium sized businesses. In this 7-part blog series, I am going to give an over view of the 7 elements you need to be using as a bare minimum.

1. Publish
2. Share
3. Discuss
4. Social Networks
5. Microblogging
6. Lifestream
7. Livecast

The other three, virtual worlds, social games and MMO (or Massively Multiplayer Online game) can also be used, although not essential.

So, let’s keep the focus on the big 7 and help you get your Social Media skills & understanding to a whole new level.

“Share” The Social Media Landscape – Part 2 of 7

YouTube, Flickr & Blip.fm are three systems you can use as part of your Social Media presence. There are a lot of misconceptions about sharing online and the biggest one of the lot is the idea that you “must be TV quality” to bother sharing.

This is absurd and while it may have been true 10 years ago, times have changed and customers are looking for content, not presentation.

YouTube is an online video sharing website that allows it’s users to upload, view, share, comment on and embed videos on other websites or blogs.

It is very interesting to note that YouTube was created in February 2005 and just 21 months later, in November 2006, was bought by Google Inc. for US$1.65 billion – not a bad return on time invested by the three founders!

How is YouTube good for business?

As you will soon figure out, YouTube is an incredibly simple system to use, costs nothing and allows you to connect with your customers at a whole new level – no matter where in the world they (or you) are.

All you need to create a YouTube clip is a very basic webcam, which you can purchase online for about twenty bucks. From there, you login to YouTube.com and click the “upload” button and start recording your clip.

Videoing interviews with your staff, tours of your office and clips from live presentations are just three simple ways you can please your customers. Trust is the most important aspect of creating sales and by letting your clients see “behind the scenes” will build a lot of trust, very quickly.

Each video that is created has a short explanation with it. It is wise to put your website in this bio to encourage viewers to click on your website or blog to learn more and perhaps make a purchase.

Flickr is most commonly used for sharing personal photos. Bloggers are catching on to Flickr and using its slideshow features to create a “flashy” look on their site.

Flickr is not a system that you will use a lot, however, it is one that you need to use. Upload photos from events, tradeshows, team meetings, your staff and more. As with YouTube, use Flickr to build trust with your customers by opening the “behind the scenes” in a simple and well presented manner.

Music is a massive industry, perhaps one of the largest on the planet. Sharing your favourite songs using Blip.fm is a fun and easy way to meet like-minded people – you are looking for people with the same interests are you after all, aren’t you?

Create a free Blip.fm account and occasionally “Blip” a song that you really enjoy – post it to your twitter, facebook (more on these in Parts 4 & 5) blog, website as part of your Social Media presence.

So there you have it, some food for thought on the Share element of the Social Media Landscape. YouTube is definitely the key player here – ensure you use it!

Come back for Part 3 – 7 real soon or even better, subscribe to this blog and have the next post emailed to you when I hit “submit”!

Adam Baird

Uncovering the Social Media Landscape

The Social Media landscape is a very interesting one. It comprises of 10 key elements and all of them can be used, and are being used, to help generate and maintain sales for small to medium sized businesses.  In this 7-part blog series, I am going to give an over view of the 7 elements you need to be using as a bare minimum.

1. Publish
2. Share
3. Discuss
4. Social Networks
5. Microblogging
6. Lifestream
7. Livecast

The other three, virtual worlds, social games and MMO (or Massively Multiplayer Online game) can also be used, although not essential.

So, let’s keep the focus on the big 7 and help you get your Social Media skills & understanding to a whole new level.

“Publish” The Social Media Landscape – Part 1 of 7

Wikipedia, Blogger, WordPress and Digg are all online systems available for you to use. Each has different features and can be used to create different outcomes.

Publishing online is simply you adding your thoughts, lessons, information or data to a system that is easily assessable to other users, generally people who are interested in what you are publishing.

It is worth noting that 99% of everything you ever publish online is there forever. Well, maybe not quite forever but for a very very very long time and there is no way for you to delete it. So, word of caution, ensure you are happy for everything you publish to be seen by the world forever.

Wikipedia is a free, multilingual encyclopedia that is created by it’s users and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone who can access the Wikipedia website.

How is this good for business?

It’s about consumer research, rather than generating direct sales.

1/ Ensure your business (or industry) has accurate information posted for the world to see. You would be surprised just how many people “check you out” on Wikipedia before making a decision to buy from you.

2/ Understand your competition. Wikipedia, like the entire social media landscape, is an environment that forces honesty. It’s too easy for customers and staff to share their view on things if your information isn’t up to scratch. You can learn some very interesting details about your competition.

Blogger & WordPress are fantastic blogging platforms. What is blogging and why is it so important?

Blog, short for “web-log” is a type of website, maintained by an individual (or business representative) with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

Blogging is possibly the most important social media avenue for your business. A blog allows your customers to read, view & listen to important information relating to your business. As a rule of thumb, write 5 informational/educational blogs for every “sales pitch” post.

This means you are adding a lot more value to your readers than they are adding to you. Creating this “safe” (non-salesy) environment means your readers will come back and read future blogs.

This post that you are reading right now is a blog. The platform I have chosen for this blog is wordpress, as you can see at the top of the page, this blog is called http://www.adambairdblog.wordpress.com. In the past I have used blogger as well and find both systems very easy to get started and update regularly.

There is no rule how long a blog should be, you can choose.

Digg, like wikipedia, is created by it’s users. It is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg is great for business when you can have your website, article, blog, video or podcast voted for by enough of your fans that it appears in the Top 10 for it’s category.

Why? Because the Digg Top10’s consistently generate an incredible amount of new traffic to that link. Here’s how you can see Digg in action… simply click here and “Digg this” article. (Thanks!)

So there you have it, some food for thought on the Publish element of the Social Media Landscape.

Come back for Part 2 – 7 real soon or even better, subscribe to this blog and have the next post emailed to you when I hit “submit”!

Adam Baird

Uncovering the Social Media Landscape