ASID Past Presidents Meeting

Thank you, Past Presidents, for the invitation to talk with you about social media. I had a great time!  After an overview presentation about social media, we opened the floor and simply talked about the pros and cons of social media and its impact on our businesses. 

Where do I find the time?
Just like any other marketing you do for your company, you have to set aside social media time. When you join a new organization, you plan on attending the monthly meetings. You know it will take ___ hours each month. Add some more time if you're going to serve on a committee which, of course, you really need to do to truly benefit from the organization. Schedule a set amount of time for social media.  Start with 1 hour a week. Measure your results. If the results are good, add more time. (Only count real business social media, not the time you spend on personal networking! Sharing photos with high school friends or your family is important but don't mislead yourself into thinking that is your marketing/social media time!)

Measure the results
Doing email marketing via Outlook is not the best use of your time or efforts. You can't measure the results. It is well worth the small monthly fee from a service like Constant Contact in order to have traffic reports. (FireDrum internet marketing has a free account for up to 750 emails.) Use the reports to ensure that what you're doing is having results.  All of your social media should be giving you results. Did you meet a new prospect? Did you get the chance to make a new proposal?  Track what you do and what you get from the effort. Sure, there are intangible benefits to social media as there are to any marketing effort. But you should have tangible results and you definitely should have a system in place to measure each marketing effort. (This is where your Customer Relations Management (CRM) software comes into play.)


Consistentcy
It's important with any marketing effort to be consistent. If you join an organization, show up for 90% of the meetings. If you set up a profile at LinkedIn, show up and participate on a regular basis. You can't blame LinkedIn or social media if you show up once a month, send a message to an old friend and post a half-hearted article. Show up on a regular basis. Send messages even if it's a simple Happy Birthday to a colleague. Give your opinion. Share your expertise.

Let me close with my social media mantra. Maybe it will inspire you too. It's from the legendary Dale Carnegie.

You can make more friends

in two months

by becoming interested

in other people

than you can in two years

by trying to get other people

interested in you.