Crash Course in Social Media: PA Conference For Women

My Presentation at the Philadephia Conference for Women

I had the great honor of being selected as a 2015 speaker for the PA Conference for Women.  It is my passion to help individuals understand the complex world of digital marketing, breaking it down into manageable steps.   unnamed To bring my expertise through my presentation:  A Crash Course In Social Media Basics to this large audience was very exciting.

If you were not able to attend my roundtable, here are the highlights:

There is no magic bullet to creating a substantial social media plan – it takes time to develop and implement the right strategy to meet your goals.  However, it is not as complicated as you may think.  A few goals, a plan, and a bit of know-how is all you need.

  1. Set-up your accounts
    You can not have a digital footprint if you are not in the game, and setting up accounts is the first step.  Make sure to position yourself within the culture of each platform writing a unique profile that speaks directly to your potential customers and clients.   Your branding should be 11988774_10207990473299928_694138441339020168_nconsistent (logo, message) so  your digital footprint looks like you, so only tweak it a bit to fit.
    Set-up LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ first.  Once you have a footing in those and are consistently posting you can move to include Instagram and Pinterest.
  2. Connect with the right people
    You are constantly in contact with people who are also building their presence on social media.  Send LinkedIn inites to anyone you met at the conference. Follow the speakers on Twitter.  Look to your networking groups for more contacts.  Include your friends and neighbors, those you sit on boards with, and classmates.
  3. Start being social – and there are many ways to be social:
    First:  Share content.  Half the content you share should be yourown (blog posts) and the other 1/2 should be the content of others. You want to share content that educates, entertains and informs your connections without looking like you are just advertising.  If you are sharing the content of others make sure to include them in your posts so they can help you create conversations around your important topics.
    Second: Comment on, tweet,  ‘plus,’ share,  and retweet what your contacts share. Being a great social partner to your connections will get you noticed.
    Third:  Send private messages.  Each platform has a way to interact privately with your connections.  Take the time to reach out and thank them for connecting or make a comment about their work.  Let a connection know you have shared content, a profound moment you may have had as a result of their work, or reach out and thank someone who really made a difference to you.  In addition to private messages make sure to write and ask for recommendations on LinkedIn.12227197_10207990473259927_1183538684972734360_n

After you are set-up and have a plan, make sure you use automation appropriately so it is easy to maintain

  1. Have it on your phone – this will enable you work on your social media when you have a few extra minutes.  Additionally you can keep up with messages which is critical.
  2. Use pocket – pocket is an app that sits on your phone and will maintain a list of articles for you.  When you are reading articles online you can save them into pocket so they are accessible to you when you have time to share.
  3. Google alenrts – when set-up correctly Google will send you articles related to your core buisness areas a key people you would like to follow.
  4. Hootsuite – this website allows you to schedule posts so you do not have to be logging in and out of your accounts all day.   You can download Twitter lists, closely monitor conversations and messages from LinkedIn, and even retweet content from important individuals.

As the title suggestion, this is the crash course.  If you are having problems knowing where to start or building a presence for you or your business, please give me a call so we can work together and develop a strategy to meet your goals.

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