Social Media

Social Media is a buzz word to describe a shift in communications that effects us all.

In the future everything we do will be social.

Right now we are living through a revolution where business is adapting to this new form of word of mouth marketing – Social Media.

To keep things simple here is the ThinkSearch approach to Social Media: ThinkSocial

ThinkSocial

There’s no underestimating the powerful nature of this revolution. Social Media may appear to be all about Facebook status updates, but the reality is that this fun simple starting point has all sorts of ramifications for the way we will do everything in our lives.

From customer service to how we learn at work it’s essential to get the skills to use the new medium and understand how.

To get you started we need an initial understanding of what becoming ‘active’ in social media involves.

1. Where are people who are relevant to your business? Output: a narrative map of social networks relevant to you
2. Who are the influential members of these social networks? Output: a list of websites and people who are important to you
3. Which networks? Output: an understanding of which social gatherings you need to become a part of 
4. Which monitoring tools? Output: amongst the plethora of latest services what is importnat and why
5. What automation? Output: knowledge on best practices and levels of authenticity – a reality check on what your involvement involves

Then we need to sit down and make a cup of tea and consider how we can engage with the network by being useful to it. We need to:

1. listen to what is going on in those networks we identified
2. start to connect with those influencers
3. create content that the networks likes – content that enhances and improves that network
4. respond to interaction within your social accounts
5. keep an eye on your monitoring tools

Whether you are a big business with a team that needs to understand all this or a one man band ThinkSearch have the history and experience to provide the training and as much support as you need to make this transition a success, and ensure your interaction is authentic and your reputation successfully managed.

We think that the below graphic from Mike Arauz helps explain why it is important to build authentic relationships by using Social Media.

If you are already set up with social media the next phase in your social existence is the best – this is where you get to play!

Never forget that social media is not another marketing channel but a community of people just like you and me with a huge emphasis on the social. It’s the creation of the media that is important here – when the network is understood the better the content it is fed the further your brand will go.