The Conference Coach™

If your company is still trying to develop a strategy for social media,  it’s time to stop thinking about it and start being yourself.

At the recent SES conference in San Jose, I sat in on different sessions dealing with web development, design, SEO, social media and many other topics. The underlying palatable theme of the conference was the panic over social media. Don’t get me wrong, there were many experts at the conference, but most only spoke lip service to social media and very few understood it’s long term potential. It seems that to be successful in social media we all need to relearn a few lessons in sharing, communication and friendship.

When you think about social media, you need to stop thinking about your company and start thinking about your employees, current customers and potential customers. This is your opportunity to convert your company from a cold and stale entity to an outward looking company and with a product set created for and driven by people. These people, your employees and coworkers, are just like you and me, and they look very similar to our customers and friends. This is where we build the foundation of our social media plan, because if we can get our employees to shine through via pictures, blog posts, videos and tweets we have to potential to gain friendship along with revenue. At Copper Conferencing we have had success through turning each of our employees into a guest-blogger, allowing them to highlight their skills and knowledge on our blog.

We must also understand that just like friendships we must do our best to be honest and helpful and patient. The social media scene is one that is willing to give criticism as quickly as it is willing to give compliments. But as the old saying goes, “Even bad press is good press.” You should be more concerned not about your inability to control the conversation but whether the conversation is going on at all.

It is also important to understand that social media is a long term strategy. To use a simple illustration think of the last time you were invited to a party only to find out it was a pyramid scheme. Do not view social as a means of tricking your friends into buying something they are not even sure they want. Instead view the long term relationships as a means to generating reputation first, traffic second and revenue third.

To provide a simple example of this concept think about the content on your website. Does your content reflect self focus or does your content answer questions, provide instruction and give before it takes? If we begin to help help users through our content we can start to shape and mold it as a discussion instead of an autobiography. This kind of content writing lends itself to linking, discussion and viral movement. All of these actions can potentially bring large amounts of traffic to a website.

Beyond content think about the kind of value your company can add to a network like Twitter. Have a white paper or an e-book related to your company? Give it away. Have intimate knowledge of your industry and products? Search for related terms on Twitter and start answering questions. Think of yourself as an ambivalent giver of information, the expert in the scene and the kind of user that can be trusted. At the most refined point. trust is what social media should be about. If we can gain the trust of users in our networks, the prospect of selling moves away from our modern isolated model to the days of old when a handshake and a promise where more important then catchy tag lines and redesigned packages.

We will all admit that social media seems to be sticking and at the same time still feels awkward and alien. Let’s hope that we can all begin to stop thinking about social media and begin to think about our place in the relationships and communities that we call industries and markets. If we can begin to start acting like ourselves again we might finally see some results worth standing by.

Have questions about Copper Conferencing or need to do an audio conference or web meeting?  Contact a Conference Coach today.