I recently attended ACCE (American Chamber of Commerce Executives) in Raleigh, NC. Despite my spending most of the time trying to recover from a bad bike wreck, I picked up lots of valuable information. The biggest wave was social media. All week there were packed workshops and classes on the subject. The overall message was that it is everywhere and is a blossoming forum. I am a bit of a facebook, twitter, blogger, flickr addict, but how many people out there use and feel comfortable with social media? It seems like the responsibilities of social media get pushed on the younger people in the office just based on their inherent knowledge of online communication. But one thing I pulled from the classes is that this is not a fad and will not be disappearing anytime soon. It is essential for all business people (regardless of age or skill level) to learn and take advantage of social media. I will give some quick lessons on how to get started.
The easiest is Twitter. For those not familiar, it is essentially the same as a
Facebook status. Or in layman’s terms, it is a short, 140 character sentence designed to answer the question, “What are you doing right now?” To get started:
1) Go to Twitter.com
2) Click the “Get Started” button
3) Pick your identifying information and fill in your email address. If you are doing a personal Twitter, fill out your real name and pick a cute username. For a business, fill out your real name, and use the company name as your username. This lets you keep it personal and informal but still focused on business. IMPORTANT: Do not use your business account for personal tweets! All the other companies won’t care that you just picked your kids up or ate a sandwich.
4) Click “Create account” and you’re done! From there, you can upload a photo (I recommend a company logo) pick a background or upload your own and fill out the short profile section.
5) Start tweeting! Write about upcoming conferences, link to upcoming events, etc. If you aren’t sure what to write, look up what similar people are doing. For example, if you work for a Chamber, go to Search and type “Chamber.”
6) Followers: Twitter works based on follower/followee relationships. When you find someone else in your community, line of business, etc. you can choose to follow them by clicking the “follow” option by their name. In turn, people will look you up and follow you. Who ever follows you can read your tweets and vice versa. The more followers you have, the better. It is a great way to share up to the minute info, communicate with others, and you can brag about what your favorite politician or celebrity tweeted that day. (Tip: Lance Armstrong has a great twitter)
Rules of Twitter Etiquette to follow…
Any questions?
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