I’m taking notes here from a social media conference in Lawrence, KS.

Social media may not be a fit for you if…

• Your staff equals one…
• You are in a highly regulated profession with legal implications
• Don’t feel comfortable or can’t get by-in from executives
• Not sure if you customers are on social media

What are the implication on your brand …

• on who you follow and who follows you?
• Should you go through your followers periodically and ‘prune’ them?

What are some good strategies for highly regulated industries?

• Rotating files
• Disclosure on blog
• Disclosure on image on background
• Social media press releases – “pitchengine“

Tactical Planning/Social Media Tactical Grid

• Create a tactical grid to help you organize your publication of content across all the various social media platforms:

What’s Next?

• It’s not about the ‘next Twitter’ or “foursquare”
• Its about bringing structure, focus and strategy to the idea of social – there will always be new tools, applications.

Structure, focus, strategy

• Good reference on social media strategy/structure : web-strategist.com – Jeremiah Owyang
• Social Media Structure Types – Multiple hub and spoke – ‘Dandelion’
• Integrate into existing business plan – No turf wars needed

Analytics

• High level metrics
  • goal – foster dialogue; measure – share of voice, audience engagement
  • mid level metrics:
    • # clicks
    • retweets, ‘likes’
    • comments
    • sentiments

Examine your workflow

• Change as necessary
• Eliminate confusion – What can you let go of or improve efficiency so you CAN have time for social media?

What do your social media users need, want?

• Think about platforms you want to use
• Who is there
• How they want to be reached
• What you want them to do

How do you monitor? (for free)

• Set up Google Alerts
  • Brainstorm terms
  • brand terms
• Nielson’s Blog Pulse
• Set up Tweetdeck
• Set up Twitalyzer – twitter analytics tool
• Tweetreach
• Twitaway

Social Media Case Studies by Industry

• Crisis fund raising – organization needed to raise money super quick for crisis, @PRSaraEvans ‘donated’ her followers as a quick way to generate an audience, $50K in 12 hours
• Cancer fund raising – strategy: largest number of mentions/tweets on Guiness record;high jacked the conference, all people had to do was tweet and money donated, hashtag: beat cancer
• Location-Based Apps
  • Why would user want to check in?
    • show how active they are
  • Why would business owner care?
    • A ‘Mayor’ could be provided incentives to these loyal visitors
    • Pay visitors to visit your establishment, make them prove it with photo – then business gets UGC!
  • schools using foursquare to provide student tours of various locations on campus, provide hashtag to use and locations
• How to reach influencers
  • Promotion or giveaway and have people tweet about their best experience with the product – http://www.tweetgiveaway.com

Final Questions

• Good twitter ‘practitioners’ – zappos; socialfreshbrands (?)
• tweetdeck, seismic – syndication tools
• use twitter text messaging tools for keeping up to date on key brands, people, issues
• QR codes? – get a business card with a QR code
• How can I, a small retail store, compete on Facebook with national competitors?
  • @PRSaraEvans: you may actually have an advantage! You have time to communicate and establish a relationship
  • Be a trusted resource for that niche audience, be their personal shopper