using social media in a tough economy

Don't let the economy rain on your parade. Even if your budget is tight, there are great ways to use social media that cost very little and help build your community at the same time. All the efforts I list below help build word of mouth recognition for you and your organization. Word of mouth in the social media world expands and enhances non-cyber-world communication.

Use LinkedIn to reach out
Update your contacts in LinkedIn and go through them- who haven't you talked to in a while and who has updated their profile? Have you updated your profile and your company's? Making sure your info is correct helps people find you when searching for services. And don't rely on people finding you- search LinkedIn for professionals that you may share common interests with, answer questions to increase your visibility, join groups and share information.

More importantly - make sure your employees are doing the same.

Build your team with facebook
Build/update your profile on facebook. I spoke with a friend the other day who told me her staff, located all over the country, are now using facebook to build their team relationships. What they realized in the process is that their clients and business partners are finding them on facebook as well. She's the kind of person who knows her staff, no matter what their capacity, are the best ambassadors for their company. To help promote the use of facebook, she paid for everyone to have fun headshots taken to use as their profile photo, created a company group- branded with their logo, of course, and made sure they felt comfortable with facebook time during the workday.

Maximize twitter
Are you using twitter? Now that major news organizations are incorporating twitter into their broadcasts, people are using it in place of text messaging and major corporations are using it for customer service, twitter is taking hold in the mainstream. Set up an account and learn how to use it. Once you get that down, start searching it to listen and see what folks are saying about your organization and industry. And, as above, help your staff do the same.

Word of mouth outreach can't be underestimated. Think about the last time you heard great things about a restaurant from a friend and then decided to check it out, or about the time someone complained about the bad service they got at a restaurant. Online, these kinds of word of mouth conversations travel a little faster and a little farther- get out front and maximize your opportunities now, so you are not just putting out fires, but building business!

Make sure your electronic contact info is everywhere it should be
Recently I received a membership mailing from a museum- there was no web address or email contact on the enclosed letter, membership card, envelope, or the large, obviously expensively produced, poster enclosed. What a missed opportunity? Your email and web address should be on your business cards, letterhead, collateral materials, promotional gifts and in the signature of your email. That seems like a no-brainer, but I would put it up there with forgetting business cards for a networking event and thinking, "People no where to find me, I will just email them when I get back." Well, not having the card misses an opportunity to remind them of you and ditto for not providing electronic contact info.

What are you doing with social media to be a world-beater?

Enjoy the autumn colors!
-I Can't Keep Up