Social media tips you can use now

Social media is not just the latest buzz. It’s what the web is for.

It is largely self organised by people who naturally want to find and share interesting things. This is changing how corporate communication teams think. It’s also opening up fascinating new opportunities to work in a new way.

We offer a few tips on just some of things you can do to join the conversation and illustrate how others are doing it right.

Get a twitter account

It’s not just waffle. Dell has generated more than $1m in sales by broadcasting discount alerts on Twitter.

And others

The UK Food & Drink Federation, after a couple of months usage, claim Twitter is one of the major referring sources of traffic to its website.

Get some advice first, and then get blogging

You can reach many more people with customer service information in a blog than you can by phone. Reduce inbound calls by putting solutions to common problems on a blog. Pretty soon you’re in big league savings.

Let your staff write blogs and give outsiders the inside view of your company culture. Think what you could save on PR and print communications.

Re-think press and PR

More people follow Jonathan Ross on Twitter than read the Independent. A front page referral on a major social bookmarking site such as Digg or Delicious will reach more people than a front page in the FT. Online PR costs less than traditional PR and reaches more people.

Release news to your website first

With rare exceptions, news breaks faster online than any other medium. Release your news online first, generate traffic to your site and benefit from search engine uplift for future news releases.

Think of yourself as a social publisher

People want your information. Staff, customers, shareholders, partners and regulators. Let them have it the way they want it. Publish your information using the rich array of social publishing tools at your disposal. Understand and enjoy the new role this affords you in the new communications business.

Track as much as you can

Because digital media is so measurable you can see what works and what doesn’t. Follow the progress of a good video blog or news release as it moves around the world, helped on by the growing web of people who want your story, and will pass it on to others.

And for pure, unadulterated inspiration

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