FountainBlue’s July 13 When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series event, on the topic of Leveraging Social Media for Work and Pla. Below are notes from the conversation.
We were fortunate to have such a well-rounded, versed panel, who were experts in an emerging and important business phenomena, and could communicate at the tactical and the strategic level about the ever-important role of social media for both personal and business needs.
They came to social media through different serendipitous paths, and stayed in social media as they recognized the wave of the future, and the impact that people in communication can have on the success of companies, the expansion and development of products and services, and even the future of regions and countries.
A core theme is the pervasiveness of social media solutions, and the imperative to participate in the social media revolution, or to risk falling behind, whether you’re a long-time corporate professional, an entrepreneur at heart, a Baby Boomer or a Millennial, for business or professional purposes.
As marketing evolves to the next level, we are looking not at how many different ways we can deliver messages to our audiences, but more about understanding our audience, and inviting a conversation with these niche audiences to better understand their motivations and needs.
Our panelists remarked on how social media tools from FaceBook to LinkedIn to Twitter and MeetUp are becoming a must-have, a ‘minus-one’ level of information, a pre-requisite everyone needs to participate and communicate.
Indeed, social media conversations, whether it’s through FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter or emerging tools such as Pinterest, provide an opportunity to provide an authentic voice, and be that complex intricate human being, not just a self-serving marketer with a new bullhorn. It’s an opportunity to speak to the needs of the customer and partner, and invite genuine engagement and feedback and collaboratively create a solution that serves the needs of others.
From a broader perspective, these authentic conversations can lead to cohesive communities of users, partners, developers, ambassadors and others, all with transparent purposes, all dedicated to the same business or social cause. The astute companies are actively creating and managing these communities, to better build their brand and better serve their customers, and expand their markets. The world-changers know that communication in community is what will help people make a stand for injustice, as witnessed in Egypt.
Below is specific advice offered by our panelists regarding developing and managing a social media strategy for yourself personally or for your organization:
- Be strategic about your overall marketing plan, and integrate social media components into that plan, and generate measurable results from your plan.
- Know that people want to connect with you at a deeper level; they want to see someone genuine and authentic, a real person, not just someone who wants to sell you something.
- The successful companies will give their stakeholders a voice and a role, inviting engagement throughout the design, development, testing and outreach phases. The best of these companies will develop an ongoing community of people with passionate affinity to their cause, and the voice and power to give feedback, positive and otherwise.
- Protect your corporate brand and have a separate handle for personal brand and information. Choose Jive over FaceBook for example, if you are in charge of social media for your company, as you own and control the content there, whereas on facebook, you don’t.
- What’s written and distributed will be difficult to fix, so remember to ‘measure twice and cut once’, and really be sure that what you’re communicating is what you want to say about yourself today, and in your foreseeable future.
- If you are serving an international market or a large audience, engage your community to partner with you to serve them. It’s about trust and empowerment.
In summary, our panelists did not just share about social media tactics and strategies. They talked about a transformation in the information we have access to, and how we communicate with others. And this will affect everyone, everywhere. You are invited to shape this revolution, and to participate in it and define what it will mean for others who follow.
Resources:
Must-Have Social Media Tools
- FaceBook a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them http://www.facebook.com
- LinkedIn Updates – log into your LinkedIn account, click on ‘News’ menu, the LinkedIn Today link to select your news update settings for social media and other information of interest
- Log into your Twitter account, click on ‘Discover’ link, and search for ‘social media’ or other categories to follow
Other Social Media Options
- See Meetups, including meetups on social media, including Natascha’s social media meetup. SV Social Media Aficionados Group: http://www.meetup.com/Silicon-Valley-B2B-Social-Media-Aficionados/
- Context Optional builds presence for brands in social media, including Facebook and Twitter” http://www.contextoptional.com
- Google Plus, to connect with friends and family, follow interesting people, share information with select others http://www.google.com/+/learnmore
- Jobvyte social recruiting software http://www.jobvyte.com
- Omniture for Web Analytics and Online Business Optimization Platform http://www.omniture.com
- Pinterest, A content sharing service that allows members to “pin” images, videos and other objects to their pinboard http://www.pinterest.com
- Rypple helps great teams work better together with social software for ongoing recognition, feedback and coaching http://www.rypple.com
Online Publications
- Social Media Trends
- SmartBrief on Social Media
SmartBrief Publications: Smart decision makers in a variety of industries and job functions rely on SmartBrief to save time and stay smart. We deliver the B2B news you need — summaries of the day’s most important headlines, hand-picked from hundreds of media and trade publications — straight to your inbox as one-stop-shop e-newsletters. Subscriptions are free of charge, offered in partnership with more than 100 leading trade associations, professional societies, non-profits and corporations. SmartBrief is fast, FREE and open to everyone. We save you time and keep you smart about your industry — and your job. http://www.smartbrief.com/getLast.action?mode=sample&b=socialmedia
- Social Media Examiner, the world’s largest online social media magazine, is designed to help businesses discover how to best use social media tools like Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn to connect with customers, generate more brand awareness and increase sales. More than 600,000 people read Social Media Examiner each month. http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com
- Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang delivers insight on disruptive technologies and their impact on how large companies communicate with their customers http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/
- The Social Organization: How Social Media is Changing Communication and Organizations http://www.thesocialorganization.com/
- The Social Customer Manifesto: There are no spectators anymore. Participate. http://www.socialcustomer.com/
- Social Times is great for popular stories and social media news http://socialtimes.com/
- Seth Godin is a prolific author and has a lot to say about social media marketing: http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/
- Social Media Today is a compilation of thoughts from the world’s best thinkers on social media: http://socialmediatoday.com/
- Adobe Social Practice: Where the social media practitioners at Adobe have their say http://blogs.adobe.com/socialpractice/
- See ‘blogroll’ at Natascha’s company MarketingXLerator for a list of other resources http://www.marketingxlerator.com/
Thoughts on Social Media Trends
- The 11 Social Media Trends by Strategist Rick Mans of Capgemini, http://www.marketingxlerator.com/2012/07/12/11-social-media-trends/
- Social Data is the New Oil
- Social Designed
- Frictionless Sharing
- Hyper Personalization
- Privacy as a Currency
- Social Divide
- Enterprise Social Networking
- The War for Identity
- Business & IT
- Consolidation
- Friending your vending machine
FountainBlue’s July 13 When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series event, on the topic of Leveraging Social Media for Work and Play. Please join us in thanking our speakers for taking the time to share their advice and thoughts and to our gracious hosts at Adobe.
Facilitator Cherie Del Carlo, President, Gather Your Crowd @CherieDelCarlo
Panelist Deepika Bajaj, Associate Director, Social Media, CapCom @invincibelle
Panelist Rachel Luxemburg, Group Manager, Community, Adobe Systems @rlux
Panelist Brenda Rogers, Vice President of HR, Roku @brrendar
Panelist Natascha Thomson, founder and owner, MarketingXLerator @nathomson
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