Sunday, November 29, 2009

Social Media / Social Networking -- my consultant formula

I have been getting more and more requests to do consults to businesses on setting up social media plans.

I'm not advertising, but it seems many businesses are in dire need of this type of knowledge currently and word of mouth spreads quickly. 2010, if you ask me, will be the year of the Facebook business Fan Page! And Twitter, too, looks to have a promising year yet again.

Here is my formula for focal consideration points for the initial setup across the main 3 social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube):

  • Brand consistency - all three leaders have different specs for the way your companies' brand is represented (i.e. thumbnails, background images, profile images, etc.). This is important so your business looks legitimate across all vested venues.
  • Tracking - recommend tools to track the effectiveness of your efforts. For if no ROI tracking, then why do it to begin with?
  • Privacy and account setting configuration - this is a big point! Initially if these aren't set right you and your company are asking for problems and potentially huge headaches.
  • Usability - initial training on how best to utilize all three while doing as little work as possible.

Then, just before launch of these branded social media outlets, I sit down with administrators (I can set up multiple admins on most of these accounts) to demonstrate my recommended strategies and give a couple successful examples.

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