PR 101

The number and kind of social media applications keeps growing. Image courtesy of Share Media

In the seven months I have been writing this blog, I have had much to say about social media and its implications for traditional marketing and public relations. What I haven’t done is talk about using social media’s. So for my next several blogs, I am going to talk about applying social media to your business. It works for both – business-to-consumer and business-to-business.

I am not talking about using Facebook to find that long lost high school sweetheart (does your spouse know you are doing that?). Or tweeting all your friends that you just made a dynamite Denver omelet. There’s nothing wrong with doing that. But to me that’s like using a Porsche Carrera to pick up milk at the corner. You are not taking social media out of first gear.

My social media mentor, Simon U. Ford, calls social media the fifth communications revolution – coming after things such as the printing press and the telephone. As Ford explains, social media is not just sharing information, it is people working together – people collaborating, about people building a community. He also argues – and I agree – that it has completely changed the mediascape.

Here’s the definition of social media definition I use in client presentations: “Social media is a set of Internet tools that enable shared community experiences, both online and offline. It allows people and companies to tell stories, build communities, sell products, build market share or reach new audiences through the use of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, blogs, podcasts, video podcasts (usually called Vlogs), photo sharing and wikis.”

Or put more simply: “social media is about building a collaborative community.” Yeah, I know I said that two paragraphs ago, but it needed to be said again.

The ultimate goal of social media is to bring people to your website. Once there, they can register for your event, buy your product, hire your company, recommend you, do anyone of thousand other things.

What social media does is give people reasons to go the website. Here’s the second key about using social media: you have to build trust. Think about it; are you friends with anyone you don’t trust? I don’t mean an acquaintance you have an occasional beer with. I mean someone who has demonstrated to you through his or her words and actions they are someone on which you can rely. The same thing applies to on-line communities – would you join an online community where you didn’t trust the other members? The trust could take many forms, although demonstrated expertise is always my top reason.

In social media, you attract people by demonstrating your expertise. You do that by blogging, tweeting and using other forms of social media. That’s just the first step. Once you do those things, other people have to endorse what you have done. They have to tweet about, link to it on their blogs and talk about it on their Facebook pages. I will talk about how to do that in other posts.

That is the part that many companies have problems – it means giving up control of their brand. Social media has done is turn the old equation upside down. Customers will search for the companies with which they want to deal. So, every company has to do everything it can to make sure it’s trusted.

When used properly, social media is a powerful set of tools that will outperform just about any other form of advertising or marketing. I think it is that effective. I have seen just how well it works for my clients. Check out either Sidewinder Cycles or Smart Barter USA. I have not worked with either of that long. But you can see the positive effects of social media on both their brands.

Before I go into this, I want to establish how I learned to use social media. I came to it three years ago when I created a series of podcasts for a client. They wanted to find a new way to reach employees. Email wasn’t working. The podcasts had over a 75 percent open rate, compared to the 15 percent rate for emails. I didn’t even know what I was doing was called social media. I just knew it worked.

For the next two years, I did everything I could to learn social media – which was then called Web 2.0. I read everything experts Brian Solis, Chris Brogan, Sarah Evans and other wrote.They are all very good and I learned a lot. I signed up for every social media application in existence and read their FAQs and instructions. I thought I was pretty good at it.

I didn’t know how much I had to learn until I stumbled across Ford. Ford owns a company called Eventslisted.com. He is a successful social media entrepreneur. That’s why I chose to him as a teacher. I mistrust trainers who have never actually done it themselves.

Prior to that, many people who tell me they can teach me social media in a day or a weekend have approached me. That to me is like some driving schools that say they will make you expert driver after one or two lessons. I suppose something like that happens for one in a million students. But most of us have to take the course from an expert instructor. We all need both classroom instruction and hands-on training. This is the kind of training that takes time and effort. If you don’t put in the time and put out the effort, you won’t learn much.

So, I went through Simon’s intensive 10-week social media training course. I learned how to use tools such as Twitter, Digg and YouTube. I learned a lot.

You can see how I applied what I learned by doing a couple of simple exercises:

• Google PR 101. This blog comes up in the third result.
• Google Jeff Cole, Milwaukee. I come as the first three results.
• Google Jeff Cole. I am the first result.
• If you Google my company – JJC Communications LLC – it comes up as the first four results.

I am not doing this to boast. I am writing this to prove a point. By the way, I still need to do some work. If you Google public relations and Milwaukee, I don’t come up for three pages. So, I am still learning.

Next week, we will discuss how to use some social media applications.

If you have any questions about social media, ask through a comment or email me. You can contact me through my company website: http://www.jjc-comunication.biz or email me at jjcole54@gmail.com.

NOTE TO MY READERS: If you are interested in a free, introductory course on social media, email me. Myself and five  other social media acolytes are doing the second round of a our Social Media Book Club on Blog Talk Radio We are giving away an EBook written by social media guru Simon U. Ford. Ford sold several thousand of the books for $47. However, we have permission to give it away for a limited time.We also will be holding a series of four virtual “book clubs” to go over the book. Between the book and the four of us, you will receive a comprehensive overview of social media. Because we want to provide the best possible training, there are only be 50 spots available for the book club. For more information, go to the Social Boomers site. The first show will be Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 8 pm CDT (GMT -6). The URL is bit.ly/Y253H.

If you would like a copy of the book, email jjcole54 at gmail.com. It is helpful to have.