Social Media Basics

By Jim AndrewsQ&A Business Solutions

February 10, 2010

What is Social Media

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What is the buzz all about?• Becoming a recognized thought leader to a

wide audience.• Monitoring the electronic conversation about

Industries, Professions, Association Trends, Your association clients, Your AMC

• Reaching a larger audience with your messages.

Positioning Your AMC to Maximize Social Media

• Be current with the technology and social media tools

• Have Policies in place for usage• Risk Management• More Work = More Revenue

Introducing Social Media to Clients

• Social Media is part of the overall marketing plan

• Utilize a volunteer champion from within the association to “sell” the initiative to the Board.

• Focus on metrics and ROI.

Social Media Communities…The Value to Associations

• Not new…Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, Bulleting Boards, Listservs

• Strengthening the affinity with the association.– Members want to be and be associated with

thought leaders.

• Inherent risk.

Professional vs. Personal use of Social Media

• Be careful of who or what you connect to your personal account vs. a business account.– Fan pages vs. personal accounts

Social Media Platforms

• MySpace• Facebook• LinkedIn• Blogs• Twitter• YouTube

Twitter Tools• CoTweet (www.cotweet.com)• TweetChat (www.tweetchat.com)• HootSuite (www.hootsuite.com)• TweeetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com)• TweetLater (www.tweetlater.com)• TweetStats (www.tweetstats.com)• Twilert (www.twilert.com)• TwitterBeep (www.twitterbeeps.com)• SocialMention (www.socialmention.com)

Other Low-Cost, Effective Tools/Websites

• Delicious (www.delicious.com)• Xmarks (www.xmarks.com)• NING (www.ning.com)• Ping (www.ping.fm)• Stumbleupon (www.socialmention.com)• Tweetadder (www.tweetadder.com)• Dropbox (www.dropbox.com)• SocialOomph (www.socialoommph.com)• Socialfish (www.socialfish.org)• NTEN (www.nten.org)