They say to be an expert in anything you need ten years experience at least, and social media hasn’t been around that long, so our favourite social media expert Sam Shazzam (speaking at V2Conference) is somehow breaking all the laws of ‘expertise’ and just doing a fantastic job in helping her clients grow online communities. Here are 5 foundational starting points for growing online communities.
Here are a few tips from Sam Shazzam you need to consider when looking at the world of social networking for your business.
1. You need to have a presence on social media and the earlier you start the better off your business will be in the long term. Eleven million people in Australia have a facebook account and that does not include all of the other social networks out there. This is where people are and if you want to get in front of them you need to be where they are.
2. You need to know which social networking sites your target market is using and create business pages in those spaces. This is really important. Many businesses waste lots of time running social media spaces in networks that are not relevant to their target market. To get the most out of your online marketing strategies you must get this right.
3. Social media is not about broadcasting it is about engaging. It is a back and forward conversation you are having with your customer. Business often gets it wrong and uses social media as a place to sell and push their products and services. If you do this you may do more harm than good for your business so it is important that you know how to use social networking sites.
For more tips read Sam Says Blog and to hear Sam speak on growing online communities come to V2Conference Brisbane Nov 9th.