I often get the comment that I’m highly energetic or enthusiastic. Usually, I respond that it’s hard not to be when you love your job like I do. HOWEVER, it’s also part of the Biznet brand. We want people to know that we love what we do and enthusiastic about it!

Relevant community topics & members are key
Often, I explain social media using an offline example. Imagine you’re target market a mom of elementary-aged children.
You could:

• use newspaper advertising
• sponsor children’s sporting events
• infiltrate mom-to-mom coffee shop talks
• solicit daycare facilities

Clearly, you’ll hit moms eventually–but they’re not that targeted or cost-effective and (let’s face it) a little creepy. Social media marketing provides the opportunity to show up (WELCOMED) to mom-to-mom communities and invites you to participate. It’s targeted, relevant, and (best of all) appropriate.

Wallflowering doesn’t cut it for ANYONE
Today I had to opportunity to meet a new group of local professionals over coffee. It amazed me how many of the attendees played down their services (”just another business doing x”) and stared at the floor. HINT: I don’t want to work with “just another company,” nor am I on the floor. If you’re the person introducing your company to a new group, you better have some OOMF.

OOMF’ing in Social Media
Imagine showing up to a meeting and not participating; in fact, you didn’t even get dressed. Not only would you get fired, you’d be ostracized from fellow attendees. Essentially, you’d be what Shannon Paul refers to as “that guy.” Get dressed by adding relevant content and photos to your profiles; participate by adding value to (and requesting value from) the greater community.

Opening up a conversation can be a revolutionary concept for the traditional marketing strategy. Allowing your network to transform from “audience” to “conversationalists” means giving up control of your brand. Repeat after me:how

“Here, network: Own my brand.”

It’s no longer a message, it’s a conversation. This will challenge your traditional content like never before. Rather then talking at your consumer, you’re discussing your product/service with them. This means you don’t own the jargon, the message, or even the attitude: for better or worse, the conversation will happen.

A few tips on influencing your brand-related conversation:

• Never cover-up negativity; instead, immediately address it.
  A Twitter user recently tweeted a complaint about Comcast rates and reliability. Rather then ignoring the problem or bragging about how great their service REALLY is, the @comcastcares team responding with: “Can I look into that for you?”
• Don’t be afraid to let your company personality to shine.
  To continue driving home the “neighborhood” feel of their restaurants, Applebees launched their Real Videos promotion, requesting patron videos of them having fun and building community. While I wouldn’t model a plan after this initiative, it’s a step in the right direction.
• Let your network tell YOU what they want–and communicate your response to it. ASK them.
  Just 2 hours ago, @zappos (the Zappos CEO) tweeted: “Poll: “Poll: If you were able to take a peek behind the scenes at Zappos, what would you be interested in learning?” Rather then assuming the network wanted just another company-about video…they ASKED.