Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, oh my! So many options, so little time and it appears like everyone else is jumping on the social media train, what is my office to do? We don’t want to be left at the station! On one hand social media can be a powerful tool for building your brand and much can be gained, but on the other hand, if done poorly or without realistic expectations, it can be a great deal of effort with little reward.
In this two-part blog post we will share our lessons learned as well as snippets gathered from a recent social media event we attended featuring thought leaders in the social media/marketing fields. (Read part one of the blog series here.)
Part 2
Recently we had a chance to attend Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Thought Leaders Live” Event here in Atlanta covering “The Mathematics of Social Media.” This half-day event featured a panel of leaders in the fields of social media and marketing. They discussed how to use social media platforms effectively and how to measure its success, among other relevant topics. While not every point was necessarily applicable to our business as TTOs, we did come away with some great snippets and tips to share for those who couldn’t attend.
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Your website is the face of your company or organization on the biggest stage in the world. If resources are limited, that is where to focus your efforts, as that is where you are most visible.
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You can’t be great at every social media platform, there are too many and not everyone works for every type of business. The better lesson is to “pick you poison” and stick with it! It is more effective to use one well than use a host of social media channels poorly or ineffectively.
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Get involved in conversations on social media! Start by “listening” to conversations going on amongst your audience of followers, then add your thoughts and participate.
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Quality is more important than quantity.
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Social media is not a sales channel; it is a brand building and management channel, so use it as such and keep this in mind when setting goals.
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If you build it and promote it, they might come. Be aware, just because you launch a Facebook page or Twitter account doesn’t mean that people will flock to you. It takes active work to gain and maintain an audience.
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Find your “voice.” Be consistent in what you share and how you share it. Show some personality and style in your posts, this is a place to be fun and creative!
If you use social media, what tips and hints do you have to share? Let’s crowdsource some best practices for social media in TTOs. Tweet them to us @EmoryOTT (include the #socialTTO) or email them to ott-web [at] emory [dot] edu. We’ll collect, compile, and share them in a later blog post.