The Social Media Advantage. Holly Berkley

up on the topic-specific lingo and common hashtags. A hashtag is the # symbol followed by a key term, like #obama. Hashtags are used for more than just listening in on streams to identify influencers in a particular field. They allow conversations among fellow attendees at offline events and conferences to post messages. You may also see more TV News and radio programs mention a specific hash tag related to a topic of discussion. This provides an easy way for those interested in a specific topic to contribute, ask question or follow a conversation stream in real time.

      Balmori Associates, the N.Y.-based landscape architecture and urban design firm hosted an in-person discussion of public space in its New York office with 40 Dutch landscape architecture students and their professors. In an effort to open the conversation to participants worldwide, Balmori Associates combined streaming video and Twitter, using the hashtag #mpplaces. The discussion used a Balmori project, the redesign of the public spaces in Balmori’s own neighborhood (the Meatpacking District of New York’s Greenwich Village) as the focus. The Twitter forum, with internal and external participants, narrowed in on the topics of shared space, urban decorum, context and public spaces’ relationship between past and present.

      “What I found of greatest value in Twitter was that it allows non-hierarchical comments; it did not become a debate of stars,” wrote the firm’s Principal Diana Balmori. The confines of 140 characters limits intellectual intimidation and as a result generates more input, because everyone relies on simple language to drive home their point. Participants were able to react instantly to the speaker’s comments. Balmori continued, “Twitter diminishes the gulf between speaker and audience.” Because participants are able to react instantly to shifts in conversation, “it increases participation by making everyone a speaker.”

      “Originally, I used Twitter to research information on various topics using hashtags,” explained Kristin Worley, marketing facilitator of Woolpert, Inc. (http://www.woolpert.com/), a national design firm from Charlotte, N.C. “From that point on however, I realized how much value Twitter actually provided. I have used the articles and networking I gained through Twitter to guide internal corporate staff in their decision-making processes. Twitter also provides the opportunity for knowledge sharing among individuals, organizations and companies in the industry. Our marketing group has also used it to communicate with others regarding conference events, which is a great way to open more doors to conferences and tradeshows and further extend value to the attendees.”

      To help you get the most out of Twitter, try using TweetDeck, HootSuite or Sprout Social to organize those you follow into streaming lists. You can also use these sites to set up ongoing keyword and hashtag searches in an easy-to-see-it-all interface. The Twitter programs mentioned above can also help schedule future tweets, post updates to your other social platforms and monitor your influence and who your top influencers are.

      We’ll talk more about how you can increase Twitter followers and amplify your efforts in Chapter 3.

      Who’s On Facebook?

      First and foremost, if you are a business you need to operate under a Facebook page, not a personal Facebook profile. We realize this frustrates many business owners who have already built up significant following under their personal Facebook page.

      However, Facebook clearly states in its terms and conditions that profiles are meant for individuals and pages are meant for groups, businesses and organizations. In fact, if you have your business functioning under a profile rather than a fan page, Facebook can shut it down, and all of your “friends” will literally disappear. Trust us! This happened to a client who insisted on using a Facebook profile page rather than fan page.

      It’s understandable why people don’t want to switch over to a fan page from a profile page; it takes time to build up friends, for one. Fortunately, in April 2011, Facebook added the “Profile to Page Migration” tool that allows you to easily convert your existing profile to a business page and all of your friends to “likes.” We suggest you download a backup of your profile before making this transfer as there is no way to convert a page back to a user profile once you engage the tool, and since Facebook profiles function differently than Facebook pages, not all content and information gets carried over. We suggest that you visit http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=214139221935487 to learn more about backing up your profile page and how to use the page migration tool.

      Once you start operating under a Facebook page, you’ll notice gathering friends, or “Likes” is a bit more difficult than when you are operating under a personal profile. In the beginning, you may have to make posts on your personal profile to encourage people to switch over and start “liking” and interacting on your new business page. With a Facebook Page, you can not directly invite people to “like” you anymore. Posting the Facebook “like*” widget on your blog posts and web site are other obvious ways to encourage people to “like” you and therefore join your fan page.

      Although Facebook pages are slower to grow and may not give you the direct, measurable impact of LinkedIn, Twitter and a blog, it is still highly recommended to get started now. By 2013, 62% of web users and almost half (47.6%) of the overall U.S. population will be on Facebook (eMarketer 2011). And Facebook users are an active group with 50% logging in every day. In March 2011, Google changed its algorithm to give even more weight to social authority and online reputation. Now the number of “likes” a company has on Facebook directly impacts its overall Google ranking. Read more about Facebook group and fan pages in Chapter 3.

      When Daryl H. Bryant released his new book MS Living Symptom Free, he turned to Facebook as a primary tool for building awareness and ultimately generating book sales.

      “Social media was always a crucial part of the book’s promotional and marketing plan”, said Rania Eldekki of Hudson Horizons, (hudsonhorizons.com) an integrated web agency responsible for helping Bryant launch his Facebook page. “A Facebook campaign was initially developed to increase fan base and interaction within the MS community. As the campaign progressed, tactics were eventually directed towards increasing book sales,” explained Eldekki.

      Bryant himself was responsible for posting and interacting with participants on his MS Facebook community, helping to give it a more authentic voice than an outside marketing agency could alone. The passionate fan base of the Facebook page continues to grow, which has helped MS Living Symptom Free become a top ranked book on Multiple Sclerosis on Amazon.

      How does this story help your business? By realizing that the use of social media, especially Facebook, is about building authentic relationships before you can close a sale. It takes a bit more time than a simple pay-per-click search ad, but the benefits are longer lasting and ultimately will decrease your client acquisition costs.

      The value of a Facebook “Like” of your business or product is ultimately the value of that person’s network. According to Facebook, the average user has 130 connections. Also, 29.6% of shoppers say they have discovered a new product after a friend has “liked” it on Facebook.

      Getting To Know Generation Y (Your Future Employees/Clients/Vendors)

      We believe that as older executives retire and the current college generation, which grew up with the Internet, moves into influential and decision-making roles in business, social media use will only expand. It’s important to understand this generation and plan accordingly.

      Generation Y, or the Millennials, succeed Generation X and include 60 million people born in the mid 1970s to early 2000s. Many of these are the children of baby boomers, so they are sometimes also referred to as the “echo boomers.” This generation spans from young professionals to soon-to-graduate high school students, and most have been exposed to the Internet at an early age. On the whole, they are more computer savvy than any other generation. They are less trusting of corporate media, more likely to ask questions, more likely to share opinions online and they find word-of-mouth an essential part of gathering information. This generation is more likely to Google your company name and see what type of comments come up than to actually visit your company website. Ensuring that the right comments appear during this Google search, to ensure it reflects your brand, mission and goals,