10 Jan 5 Steps to Beating Social Media Marketing Cold Feet
I just read an article from Read Write Web which covered a genius topic entitled, “A List of Objections, Replies and Concessions Regarding Social Media and Tools”. The article reminded me of my own post about the 10 Most Common Social Media Myths, simply because it covered many of the objections to social media that we a
s a social media agency tend to hear from prospects, and the remaining resistors of social media – traditional marketers.
So shortly after reading it I realized that with this new year there may be a lot of traditional marketers out there who are nay-saying social media simply because they are still wrapping their minds about how exactly to get their feet wet in social media. So, I’ve taken a few steps back from the posts that assume that you already know this space, and instead wanted to do an introductory post of basically “how to get started”.
1. Set up an RSS Feed Reader and Subscribe to Feeds- Go ahead and start a feed reader that follows the blogs of the social media marketing geeks, in addition to blogs that may be talking about your company. I promise you will a) learn a lot more about how to appropriately enter the space, and b) learn about who is talking about you in the blogosphere. Of course you can start by adding Ignite 🙂
2. Start Twittering- No matter how pointless you think twittering is, start using it to follow even more social media geeks. I promise that the more you use it, the more value it will provide. As you connect with like-minded people on the subject, it will allow you to talk with them, ask questions, and have insight into links they find interesting, etc. Some of my favorite twitterers are: Wayne Sutton, Jeremiah Owyang, and Chris Brogan. You can also follow all of us: Jim Tobin, Gene Smith and me (Lisa McNeill) .
3. Start Studying- If you can’t understand how social media can be used for marketing – start studying as many case studies of companies who have tried it. Start by taking a look at the most infamous case studies like Dell, Wal-Mart, or Whole Foods, and then try to find some examples that may exist within your particular industry.
4. Start Filtering- Yes, there is a lot of social media tools out there that will beg for your attention and time. Instead of learning every tool that exists, begin to filter and understand how each may work to connect with your audience.
5 . Start Social Bookmarking – Start dabbling in social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon or Sphinn and install the toolbars to make it easier to promote articles you find interesting. This will take all of 5 minutes of your day, and can go hand in hand with your RSS reading.
After trying these 5, I hope you will join us in an awesome year of learning and growing in our knowledge of social media and our applications of it in marketing!
