We live in interesting times. We’re currently enthralled in an immersive, confusing, and definitive transition in our “day job.” If you don’t engage, your competition will. This session will help you become a Social Media sociologist and participant observer, not a cultural voyeur, in order to get to work and build relationships along the way.

Question: If a conversation takes place online and you’re not there to hear or see it, did it actually happen?

Indeed. Conversations are taking place with or without you.

If you’re not part of the conversation, then you’re leaving it to others to answer questions and provide information, whether it’s accurate or incorrect. Or, even worse, you may be leaving it up to your competition to jump in to become the resource for the community. Yes, there will be negative comments. Yes, you’ll invite unsolicited feedback. Yes, people will question your intentions. Negativity will not go away simply because you opt out of participating. Negative commentary, at the very least, is truly an opportunity to change the perception that you did or didn’t know existed.

Many companies are participating in social networks as a form of proactive outbound customer service with a twist of social marketing such as…

• Zappos
• JetBlue
• Southwest
• H&R Block
• Dell
• Wine Library
• Freshbooks

They’re engaging customers on their turf, in their way, in order to help them solve problems, find information or simply engage them in valuable dialog. In turn, they’re turning customer relationships into a powerful competitive advantage.

It’s breaking new ground and it’s setting a new standard.

Engaging with and empowering your customers as an extension of your marketing efforts isn’t new. However, in the era of Social Media, there are new tools and philosophies to more effectively listen and engage with customers and in turn.

• Cultivate a more significant community
• Enhance your brand
• Build relationships
• And, create evangelists along the way.

Participation is marketing.
Intention is everything.
And, actions speak louder than words.
However, marketing needs to be clarified as I am not referring to the traditional marketing that typically “speaks” at “target audiences” through “messages.”

In Social Media, this is about dialog, two way discussions that bring people together in order to discover and share information. Joining the conversation isn’t as simple as jumping in however.

Social Media Tools

• If you’ve ever walked into the tool section of any hardware superstore, you’ll be more than inundated with options.
• There are tools for everything, more than we knew - with more introduced every week.
• Let’s not forget that these tools serve a purpose, some general, while others more specific: 1) You wouldn’t show up to fix a hole in the wall with everything in the store; 2) You bring what you need and you learn how to use them.
• With Social Media, there are more tools than you can possibly imagine and quite honestly, more than you can ever or should ever use.
• We assess the tools based on our objectives and the conversations that are taking place. We don’t just start using everything because they’re shiny, new, slick, or popular.
• We embrace only the tools that facilitate conversations between the people we want to reach, where they’re taking place. The rest is about Social Science and the art of nurturing discussions and relationships.

(Source: clipsed.com)