Starting with Social Media – Part 1

Some of you will be fed up hearing about it, others will be intrigued but confused so let’s ignore the buzzwords, disbelieve the hype, and let’s get down to how this ‘social media’ thing can help your organisation.

I’m not a ‘marketing guru’, a ‘futurologist’ or a ‘fad addict’. Just someone who’s been working online for a decade and gotten used to sorting out what’s useful and what isn’t. So, over the next few posts I’m going to cover several aspects of this heady marketing field, and hopefully put it in plain and simple words, with a few pictures to back it up.

Feedback and questions are always welcome, that is what it’s all about after all.

Step 1: Get yourself a Google account
Whether you see them as benevolent demi-gods or malignant internet tyrants, Google are (for the time being) unavoidable, and very useful to you.

So visit https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount?

Register and sign-in.



With your Google account you can now access Adwords, Adsense, Youtube, Google Maps, Analytics and a very neat little function called Google Alerts.

Visit http://www.google.com/alerts

Here’s a screenshot.



Simple huh? Too simple?

So what does it do?
Well, Alerts simply let’s you know when specific search terms have been mentioned on the web or blogs, groups etc.

And why should you use it?
As you will find out more and more, social marketing is as much about listening as it is about broadcasting your message. Alerts lets you know what people are saying about your organisation, enter your business name and you’ll be sent an email every time it appears on Google’s radar.

But, and this is the good bit, you can also monitor what is being said about your competition as well.

Alerts lets you monitor lots of different terms, and with a bit of practice you’ll narrow it down to the ones that are important to you.



What do I do with this information?
If you find your business is being mentioned a lot, and in a complimentary fashion you can now visit these people and thank them for their kind thoughts.

Establishing and maintaining relationships is the key.

If your business is being criticised then you can :

• A) If it’s true, listen to your marketplace and learn some valuable lessons, and make changes accordingly

• B) If it’s wrong, correct people’s misunderstandings and deal with the problem directly

And if you’re not getting mentioned at all, it’s time to look at your marketing strategy and you could do a lot worse than follow the next few posts to help get you noticed.

So there you go, it’s a small start, but an important one.

Next step, micro-blogging. Join the twittering masses and find out how apparently trivial updates can change your business.