What to Do

In response to my article the other day in iMedia, several people have asked me what else they can do to market themselves or their company. Specifically, they want to know which of the social networks they should use.

Here are my 5 top line thoughts:

1. A) LinkedIn is the best PERSONAL social network tool for business. Meaning that it is the best way to promote yourself. Now, as a company, I want to make sure all of my employees are up on LinkedIn and I want to make sure their commentary about the company is fairly similar, but with their own flair. If people are researching my company, I want them to know that they can look up individual employees to find out more about us.

1. B) LinkedIn for your business - Create a group, a thought leadership organization about your specific skill. For example, I wouldn't necessarily start a Fanscape Group, I'd start a Digital Word of Mouth Marketing group. I'd be the founder and I'd lead the discussions, so that people can always refer back to me, but I'd do it in a thought leadership manner.

1. C) LinkedIn for your business (cont.) - I still recommend having a company group as well. This is more about having your employees bond together and exchange information between them. This is public, so people can peer into your company, but more of a transparent internal tool than an external one.
   
   
2. Company and Leader Blog - Every company should have a blog. It should either be added to by multiple members of your company if they have a strong voice, or run by you, the "Leader." Start this immediately and know that it may take many months to catch on. Which is ok. When people come to your blog, they want to know that it has been running a while and it didn't just start yesterday, so it takes time. This is a great way to talk about issues both at your company and in your space. Don't make this just a place to highlight your business. You need to use this as a place to show off your knowledge of the space and actually discuss things going on in the world that relate to your field. For example, if you were in the music or concert world right now, you would have to address your thoughts on the whole merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation. If you were in the financial space, you would need to address the stimulus package and what it means to you and your customers.
   
   
3. Facebook - I believe Facebook is more of a personal tool. It is a place to connect with friends and family. Show pictures, add widgets, play games, etc. That said, you should still have a Facebook page for your company. Put some general information about your company, enough to entice people to learn more and then point them to key destinations such as your website, your blog, and your LinkedIn page. Think of it this way, Facebook is the fun version of LinkedIn. For the serious side, point people to LinkedIn, for the fun side, the side where you let your hair down, point them to your Facebook page.
   
   
4. Twitter - To properly use Twitter, you need to make it personal. Do not set up a Twitter account and then just "tweet" about things your company is doing. No one will follow you. Consider Twitter a mini version of your blog. (Twitter is considered a "microblog"). The best example of a company utilizing twitter is Zappos.com. Tony the CEO tweets all day long about a million things, rarely if ever related to his core business of shoes. He's just showcasing his thought leadership and letting you inside his world, which is really cool and over 75,000 people are following him. Does it sell him more shoes? Not directly. But the aggregate of his blog, twitter account, and overall "vibe" of the company definitely make him stand out way above his competition and thus sell him more shoes.
   
   
5. MySpace - Have a page here about your company, but consider MySpace as a virtual brochure about your company. Just have a simple page with some information, but you'll ultimately link people back to your other outlets like your actual website, your company or leader blog, and your LinkedIn page.

Other areas to consider are: YouTube and Flickr for your videos and photos. Create "Channels" and put some branding to your pages. And if you can get it to stick, put up a Wikipedia page too (may not stick because it's quirky like that)

Finally, know this. Many of these things work together. For example, when I post a new blog entry, I have it set up so that it feeds into my Twitter which feeds into my Facebook "status." The blog also automatically updates to my LinkedIn and Plaxo (another variation of LinkedIn) pages.

Hope that helps.