As I
promised in my last article, we just finished a podcast devoted to social networking for business. We
interviewed Joe Koufman, vice president of business development and marketing, Engauge
Digital, an award winning interactive marketing and technology agency with
proven experience in maximizing user experience to help their clients attract, convert
and retain more customers. They
definitely understand the social networking space.
Anyway,
during the podcast Joe provided 5 practical tips to help small
merchants implement social networking in their businesses. I'll fill you in on
a few of my takeaways and then you can check out the short podcast to learn more.
Before you use social networking from a business standpoint, you should participate on a personal level. This is a great point. I probably wouldn't have thought to create a Facebook account if my children hadn't exposed me to it. As a result it helped me understand the potential of the platform.
- Which
social networking sites are more business friendly?
- Starting a
company blog is a great first step (use free tools like Blogger, WordPress
and TypePad). Create great original content with lots of photos and links
to other resources and additional content. Keep it short! Joe mentioned a
few of his favorite social media blogs which you can use as a reference:
- Seth
Godin - http://sethgodin.typepad.com
- Chris
Brogan - http://www.chrisbrogan.com
- Bert
Dumars - http://socialmediaecosystem.blogspot.com
- Toby
Bloomberg - http://www.bloombergmarketing.blogs.com
- Sherry
Heyl -
http://www.empoweringconcepts.net
- Seth
Godin - http://sethgodin.typepad.com
Good stuff!
Also you can read the Engauge Digital blog by visiting http://blog.engauge.com.
To learn
more practical tips about social networking check out the podcast by visiting https://www.controlscan.com/podcasts/social_networking.php.
'Til next time,
Joan
The eSecurity Diva
Heather,
Thanks for the great opportunity to speak in your podcast series. If anyone would like more information about Engauge Digital, they can reach me at jkoufman (at symbol) engauge.com.
Posted by: Joe Koufman | November 23, 2008 at 09:49 PM
BTW, there are some GREAT explanations of Social Media on the Common Craft website:
http://www.commoncraft.com/
Posted by: Joe Koufman | November 25, 2008 at 08:52 AM
@heather @joe thanks for the shout out and kind words about diva marketing (blog). it's been a labor of love; "diva" has 4+ years of interviews, how to posts and videos about social media. drop by .. and let's talk social!
Posted by: Toby | November 28, 2008 at 11:46 PM