Social Media 101

Julie Gomoll, MCA-I, September 2007

Agenda

• What is it?

• Why should I use it?

• Getting Started

What is Social Media?

Social Media

What is Social Media?

• It’s a conversation

Powered by

Should you join in?

Guess What?

• It’s already happening

Who’s Talking?

Customers

Employees

Your Audience

Risks of participating

• People will tell you what you think

Risks of participating

• And people aren’t always nice

Risks of Participating

• Your competition will know what you’re up to and try to copy you.

Risks of Not Participating

• You don’t know what your customers are saying (good or bad)

• A story could get away from you

Risks of Not Participating

Risks of Not Participating

• You will fall behind your competitors

• You will lose customers

Definitions & Examples

Blogs

• Chronological posts

• One or more authors

• Text, pictures, video

• widgets

Blogs

• Are blogs inherently social media?

NOT Social Media

• Blogs with no comments

Blogs

• It’s a conversation,not a speech.

Blogs

• Trackbacks Acknowleging

others in yoursphere

Discussion Boards

• Are discussion boards inherently social media?

NOT Social Media

• Sock Puppets

From NYTimes, June 2007

Blogs vs. Discussion Boards

• Blogs One or several public authors Public can comment on each post

• Discussion Boards Everyone is an author

RSS

• Really simple syndication

• Applies to blogs, wikis,podcasts - anything that changes

• Customer subscribes,gets your changesautomatically

• Are they inherently social media?

Podcasts

• Not exclusively about iPods

• Audio or audio and video

• Subscriptions

• Are Podcasts inherently Social Media?

NOT Social Media

• Podcasts with nocontext, no way tosubscribe.

Podcast as part of a conversation

• 4 options to subscribe

• Links to forums,other content

Videos

• Are videos inherently social media?

You Tube

• YouTube madevideos social.

• Easy embedding,sharing made it take off

• Ratings, comments

Wikis

• Anyone can edit

• Great for lots of information

• Are wikisinherently socialmedia?

Social Networks

• Your own place to have all those tools

• Invite friends to share• Many opportunities for

interaction• Are social networks

inherently social media?

Photosharing

• Is photo sharinginherently socialmedia?

Microblogging

• Twitter

Mircoblogging

• Tumblr

Roll Your Own Social Network

• Ning

Focus on Your Strengths

• Video

Focus on Your Strengths

• Photography

Focus on Your Strengths

• Words + all of above - blog

Getting Started

• Respect your audience (walmart)

Getting Started

• Start small and add gradually

• Keep your posts short but frequently

• Set a pace you can maintain

Blog Demo!

• I’ll have a post ready, add a picture, and embed a video!

Social Media Done Right