Marketing Blog Regarding Social Media

Here is a very helpful and informative blog from the New Marketing Labs Blog. Warmly, Ariana Vincent, Ariana Institute

What Makes a Strong Social Media Presence?

Posted: 13 May 2010 02:59 PM PDT

Working with our partners, I create a variety of accounts ranging from Facebook Pages, Facebook
Groups, to corporate Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr accounts. A strong
social media presence requires a broad-reaching strategy to expand a
company's network and connect with its stakeholders in a format (photo,
video, text) or platform where its feel most comfortable. People who
think that this means simply placing a promotional video on YouTube or
using Twitter as a platform to simply push out your one-way marketing
message are sadly mistaken.

In just a few busy and exciting months that I've been at New Marketing Labs, I have seen the scope of a properly developed and executed social media
online presence. When a company is able to create a presence in a
variety of social networks, keep each one frequently updated with
quality content and interact with their community, the company will
generally see their presence grow stronger over time. This puts the
company in position to generate viewers, comments, online buzz and
build a trusted reputation with its community and stakeholders.

Here are some basic steps to developing a brand presence online:

1. Start a company blog.
2. Scan the web to find relevant conversations people are having about your brand, competitors and industry.
   
3. Become involved with relevant online communities, so you can offer expert opinions regarding your product or service and know your target market
   on a more personal level.
4. Create a Facebook Page with a compelling avatar and content. Draw in members you meet in online communities and elsewhere.
5. Use Twitter to provide updates about industry related news. Interact with your communities and promote relevant content online. 
   
6. Start your company's channel on YouTube and create accounts on other video platforms such as Vimeo, Viddler, and Blip.tv. To make life easier, use Tubemogul to upload the videos only once and have them hit all of the platforms. 
   

These base steps are for getting started, but remember: Getting the accounts up and running is the easy part. Maintaining a strong presence requires
consistently content creation and regular interactions with your
community. It takes a lot of sweat equity. Are you willing to put in
the time?