Social Media ThinkTank (#SGFSMT) - Viral in a Good Way

by Don Harkey

We had our 3rd Social Media ThinkTank meeting at the Brentwood Library yesterday and it was awesome! We had 14 people present plus 4 or 5 people watch through a live webinar (we'll get better at managing the webinar for future meetings!).

The attendees had a variety of experiences from a variety of organizations including the media, small business, larger businesses, and non-profits. We had people who are professional web designers and we had people who don't have a Twitter account (yet). Here are some of the key points coming out of the meeting.

- Establish your online persona and be somewhat predictable ("variety with a theme"). Don't start off online by being very social and then suddenly start hard selling goods. Be genuine. People tend to follow you and read your links as they begin to trust your content. Don't abuse that trust.

- Many people in the group have more than one Twitter account. We are complex, but our online identity is a little more like a brand. Several people have one account for business and one for personal.

- For larger companies, customer service is a real opportunity. If your clients/customers are talking about your online, you should probably be in the room and quick to make right past wrongs.

- Don't "overpost" online. Regardless of the tool, too much activity that washes out others is not a good thing.

- Facebook has some new fan page and friend functionality that many of us (including me) will need to checkout. Some of these modifications may make Facebook more applicable for business.

- When marketing online, make it "passive". There is a big difference between sending out an email or direct message and just passively posting content or providing links to information. Many social media users are sensitive to selling.

- Social media still needs to lead to actual relationships. You can think of it as another networking group. Meeting people in person multiplies your credibility.

- Everyone has examples of something becoming "viral" online and that has many businesses excited. How does this happen? The group didn't have an easy answer, but did observe that corporations often spend LOTS of money trying to make something viral that doesn't catch on.

The next steps for the SMT (Social Media ThinkTank) is the discussion of several subtopics (for our "subtanks"). The topics identified Monday (with their moderator):

1) Challenges of Using Social Media in Large Businesses / Organizations (Betsy)
2) Social Media for Small Business (Don)
3) Social Media for Non-Profits (Sarah)

We will have several online and perhaps in-person small group discussions on these topics and bring the information back together for our next meeting (to be determined). Long term, our goal is to have a presentation to business/organizational leaders on how to best use Social Media.

It's an exciting group and I thank everyone who participated (both in person and for those who tried to online)!