Social Media Rocks!
At this year’s SMPS (Society for Marketing Professional Services) “The Wave” Pacific Regional Conference, the theme was Confluence: An act or process of merging. Social media tied well into this theme since doing it well requires the merging of strategy and technology.
I was honored to be a presenter on the Social Media Panel, and gained a lot of insight from my co-panelists:
- Holly Bolton, FSMPS, CPSM, Director of Marketing, CE Solutions (moderator)
- Josh Miles, President/Founder of Miles Design
- Craig Galati, AIA, President of LGA
- Vikki Ott, CPSM, Communications Manager for Haley & Aldrich
During the panel discussion, Holly initiated a creative way to engage attendees called Rock-Paper-Twitter; a play-on the classic rock-paper-scissors game. She asked attendees to listen for tips and ideas during the panel discussion that Rocked, and share them two ways. First, write them on slips of Paper and turn them in. Second, Twitter users could Tweet their tips with the #rockpapertwitter and #smpsprc hash tags. All of the entries went into a drawing.
Some of the ideas that especially “rocked” included:
- The most effective social media platform(s) depend(s) on your firm’s strategic goals. Start by understanding what platforms your clients are on and what they’re talking about.
- Instead of “Return on Investment” focus on “Return on Communication”. What are you learning/hearing that you didn’t know before social media?
- Use sites like Twitter to mine data about your target clients and start by following them.
- Make your social media posts 70% about client needs and interests, 20% engaging and sharing content, and 10% self-promotion.
- Blogging is like a magazine subscription – people seeking specific content. So give them what they want!
- Your social media voice absolutely has to reflect your company culture. People respond to who you are.
- Analytics are a great way to track your online presence. Some effective social media analytics sites include:
These and other awesome insights from the social media panel can be found on Holly Bolton’s post on the Pacific Regional Conference official blog.
Maureen Bissonnette, MBA
Director, Marketing
@MaureenBiss
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