Nashville Tech Story (11/23/09)
[meta]marketer’s Kate O’Neill led the audience through key points to a strategic social media plan last week, as she introduced the group to a number of tools including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. As the workshop began, the audience emphasized their need for understanding Social Media as a business promoter, the safety and privacy of these tools, and the proper etiquette for the use of these tools.
Kate began the workshop by emphasizing the importance of adapting to this form of marketing, and embracing these tools as the “new normal.” An interesting statistic she pointed out is that Facebook is beginning to encroach Google in quantity of web traffic, and very soon might surpass it completely. Another interesting point, thanks to @Bazaarvoice, is that 64% of consumers connected to brands on social media made their first purchase from that brand due to a digital experience. This really laid down the ground rules of the importance of getting to know and understand this type of marketing.
Although it is extremely tempting just to dive in and start using these tools, Kate illustrated the importance of creating a strategy for your marketing efforts. You should ask yourself:
-Who are you trying to reach?
-Who are the audiences you are trying to connect?
-What channel is appropriate to communicate with your audience?
-What are the key concepts that you want to get across?
-What are the key terms you would use to describe that concept?
-Who are your content contributors?
After defining your strategy, it is important to participate, but in the proper way. So, what is the etiquette for Social Media use? Kate referred to this as, “Think of it like a cocktail party…. light and interesting.” She also emphasized the importance of not only talking about what you think is interesting, but make sure it will be interesting to your target audience as well. In addition, she stated that it is essential to think about everything and make sure it is always back on a strategic level.
If you missed Kate’ presentation, and want to find out more, take a look at her slideshow below:
