Three tips to starting social media

Yesterday I went to a linkedIn and twitter seminar by Liz Cable organised by Creative Lancashire and picked up some wickedly good social media tips which I thought I’d share.

Firstly – Don’t underestimate the power of social media

One of the first things she did was to show a hilarious youtube clip giving powerful customer feedback via song. This has already had more than EIGHT MILLION views, so should you ever doubt the power of social media, this might go some way to convincing you otherwise.

Secondly – Find what works for you

I’ve always just dabbled at social media, nothing more than paying lip service to it – until that is, I went to a talk that Mike Perls from MC2 gave. “If  you’re in communications, you’ve just gotta get on and do it – and do it with passion” was basically what he said, and so I did.  But there are all type of social media out there. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn are some of the more accessible ones – but try them all, and try them now. Don’t be like a client of mine from about 1996 who turned down the opportunity to have a website with the excuse “it’s too early to be doing that, it might be just a flash in the pan…”

Thirdly – make LinkedIn work harder for you

For anyone in business, LinkedIn is probably THE easiest way to start in social media – even though many users often don’t realise that that’s what it is. But DO make it work harder for you.

As Liz Cable says, 64% more people will contact you if your image has eyes and teeth. Don’t use logos, but do put your photo up. It should present you as if you were at a business networking meeting, because after-all, this is the internet version of a business network.

Remember to update your ‘network activity’ regularly (where it says ‘share an update’) which will go to all your connections

Make the most of your website links – direct people to a relevant page, not just to the homepage.

Always take time to complete the summary box – why not take the opportunity to let people know your experience and goals?