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So do you need a strategy for social media? Or can you just wing it? Well it depends. Having a Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook fan page without knowing why is really pointless. I’ve been asked by friends and acquaintances if they need to be on a specific social networking site. And the answer is no. Pick what works for you and forget the rest. There isn’t time in the world to be on every network.

What are your goals and objectives
First understand why social media matters to you; what are your goals and objectives also how they tie into your overall career goals. Use S.M.A.R.T – (Keep it Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant, and Timely) goals as a starting point.

The next step for creating an effective social media strategy is research.
Make a note of which social media sites you would like to engage with people. The list will most likely consist of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and some select blogs and forums. Review each of the social media sites on your list and do additional research to determine how relevant looking for your competitors, your target keywords and people/businesses you’d like to work with.

Have conversations
They build relationships. Respond to blog posts. Answer questions on LinkedIn, Twitter or Quora. Start developing relationships by following and friending influencers and those in your industry. Quality not quantity is what matters. Tons of followers without a “real” connection isn’t going to enhance your life. Because ultimately it isn’t only about what you do but who you are.

Strictly Business or Personal?
Personal choice really. I know some people who only connect with friends and family on Facebook and keep networks like LinkedIn and Twitter for all other connections. I connect with 99% of the people who send me invites on LinkedIn. However, I don’t give recommendations to people I’ve never done business with.

Create stronger connections
Take the relationships offline. Have a tweetup – an in-person meeting of Twitter users. HOW TO: Organize a Successful Tweetup has some great tips and ideas on how to setup an event. Can’t meet in-person have an online meeting. Virtual options are only limited by your imagination – dinner, coffee, maybe even a movie night.

Measuring your success
Well increased site traffic, more true partners are all indications of success. More referrals from your network. Positive feedback from others.

Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things. Failure to adapt kills many an idea.

If you want to know what others are doing in social media then take a look at the Social Media Marketing Report from 2010.

It’s all about connection so reach out and touch someone in a way that works with your personality not against it.

There are now nearly 200 million blogs on the Internet, however, most nonprofits do not enter the blogosphere because they either do not have the human resources to dedicate to a blog and/or are not convinced at all that anyone will even read or care if they have a blog. Similarly, most nonprofits also don’t consider blogging because they think they need to blog everyday and it is too time consuming, or they have no idea what to blog about. Well… you only really need to blog about once a week, minimum—you can ALWAYS blog more often, but remember to be consistent because people will expect it; so start off slowly.  

Within a few months many nonprofits see the benefits of blogging and realize that it can be a vital part of their online communications, recruitment and fundraising strategies. The positive results from blogging can be HUGE due to an increase of webinar registrations, new donors, new members, purchasing of event tickets and/or donations that result from their E-blast Announcements, E-Newsletters, and blogging have increased the number of daily hits and subscribers (which usually take years to build) to hundreds or thousands per month depending on the size of the nonprofit organization!!! It is GREAT to create and increase your E-Newsletter following, but then you MUST be able to have additional content and activities for them to get more involved with your organization. Continue Reading »

For someone interested in starting a blog this is usually the first question that they ask. Hopefully before this point they have a topic or interested they are interested in writing about.

Typical questions are usually -
Should I use a free service then switch to a paid one?
Is WordPress better than Typepad?
What are the pros and cons of the different platforms?
Do I need to buy a domain? If so how much does it cost and what company should I buy it from?

To figure out what platform to use there are several questions that need to be asked.
What are your goals?
What is your budget?
How technology suave are you?

What are your goals
Perhaps the most important question to ask yourself is why do you want a blog in the first place. There are many reasons to blog but you need to know what your particular motivation is in order to be successful. For example, if you decide to blog because you want to be known as a subject matter expert in your field then you need to decide what you have to say and how often you intend to say it.
Here are some questions to get you started:

• Is blogging going to be a long term endeavor?
• What will the main purpose of my blog be?
• Am I blogging solely as a hobby/for fun or is it for my career?
• Do I want to monetize my blog with ads? If so, how and when do I intend to do so?

What is your budget
Blogging has different price points depending on what you want to do.
The main costs associated with blogging are:

• The blog platform itself
• Hosting for your blog
• Domain Name

Other costs are custom design and blog tools/metrics.

How technology suave are you
Some blogging platforms require more technical ability to setup. You need to think about whether you are will to learn what is necessary to get your blog up and running or if you are going to hire someone to do it for you.

Hosted vs Stand Alone Blogging Platforms
There are several popular hosted blogging platforms – Blogger.com, WordPress.com or Typepad.

For stand alone blogging platforms – WordPress.org, Drupal, TextPattern and Expression Engine.
More information
If you choose to use WordPress.org as a platform you might find Jon Symon’s video series on how to set it up on a domain and hosting worthwhile.

Macworld – The best Blogging Tools for the Mac – features a useful comparative table.

(c) iStockPhoto/alexsl

As more companies create an online presence the issue of what employees of those companies can do online either at work or on their own time is cause for debate. If you run your own company and have others working for you, it is definitely something you should give some thought to. Since I work as a freelancer I am often asked to sign non-disclosure agreements but lately more and more companies are asking me to sign social media policy documents as well. So don’t be surprised at your next new job that someone puts a piece of paper in front of you that’s your new employers’ social media policy.

It’s important to know about these policies as people have gotten fired after committing what their companies deemed violations. CNN’s senior editor of Middle Eastern affairs Octavia Nasr was fired over a tweet. CNN has a very comprehensive corporate social media policy regarding what employees can say on Twitter, Facebook and other social destinations. A former employee of CNN has a pretty comprehensive copy of the document on his site on a post called On Notice. It’s worth a read to see how far reaching it is. Fast Company also has an article published in July called Corporate Social Media Policies: The Good, the Mediocre, and the Ugly. It includes excerpts of the CNN policy as well as several other companies.

It goes without saying that if you wouldn’t say something in person don’t say it online. There is that temptation to ignore boundaries and say whatever is on your mind and forget that what you say can have consequences.

If you have a website or any other online presence, if you work for someone else make sure that it’s clear that your opinions are yours alone and don’t reflect that of your employer. If your company has a policy make sure you keep a copy if you are asked to sign such a document.

On my personal website I address the notion that I alone am responsible for what I say since not every company I’ve worked for or will work for has a social media policy. Below is what I chose to say -

This site is Shelley’s alone, so that means that it doesn’t represent the thoughts, views, opinions or practices of past or future employers/clients, friends, family, pets, children, or that irritating neighbor who likes to play music at 7am when you’re trying to sleep late on the weekends

Some social media policies address the idea that all social media sites are blocked on company computers. Personally, I don’t think it is a very effective strategy. There are too many people with smartphones for employee access to social media to be 100 percent cut off. Unless they plan to make the office a deadzone! And let’s not forget the people who bring their own computers to work or have an iPad.

Just as social media is evolving…so are the policies governing their use in the workplace.