cut the bullsh*t: an explanation and guide to social media
On September 7th, 2011 Henriette Weber wrote:
One of the questions we get a lot at Toothless Tiger is "what is it really you guys do?" Often we answer that question with "something on the internet" - but it's also a lot more than that.
What we do in Toothless Tiger, is social media.
in all shapes and forms really: we have the explanation of social media marketing, we are down with viral effects, we create and teach interaction and involvement.
So - what is social media ?
Social media is, when it comes right down to it, an extension of the internet where all people, companies and organisations have the possibility of being small media outlets. You can publish whatever you like out there for your audience, whether it consist of 5 people or 100.000.
Which social media is commercially the most used right now ?
It could be that it is your friends, your current/potential clients, or other people that you want to see your stories and news. And there's a lot of different levels to create stories on - everything from writing a little message on facebook with an attitude or making a huge campaign, where viral videos and app development are the main driver.
Right now - there are many types of social media you can choose from, and the right ones for you depend a lot of what impression you want to leave, and what you want people to do. Here's a list of social media that we use mostly in our work, and yes, they are some of the most common in our world at the moment. (in our part of the world)
Even though social media is exciting, fun and game-changing in comparison to how we normally communicate, then our approach to social media is focused on companies.
On one hand, we're showing them how they can get more money out of their companies because of social media, but on the other side, we are also showing them how to look at the future of business with serious eyes by meeting and communicating with people where they already are: which is on social media!
There are so many possibilities, so many projects and ambitions you can use social media for, so it's extremely important that you, from the getgo, make it very clear what it is that you expect to acheive from using them. And this is how we at Toothless Tiger live - By having a different approach to social media compared to other companies out there.
Find the central story of your company
To make this as practical as possible you need to find something in your company that you can share with others. A good rule of thumb is to think about what people have especially noticed in and about your company. What are they asking you about ?
Most likely there are a lot of good stories in your company, in it's employees, or in you as a person (or a personal brand if you will) but to begin with, we only need one story. It's our main piece of content and it's the piece of content we are going to generate more content from.
An example could be that you're an icecream manifacturer and people always ask you about your recipe on homemade icecream. Then it's icecream that is the main piece of content. Not "just" icecream but icecream in our eyes. Our world of icecream. But just how much content can you realistically publish about icecream ?
Creativity is key
When we think about icecream we think about recipes, competitions about the best icecream in the world, ice from different countries, test of icecream machines and so on and so on. Creativity is your only boundry. It's what defines what you think you can publish about icecream from the given story as opposed to the earlier necessity of publishing advertisements every, to every other day.
To use social media as a strategic and effective part of your company, it's very important for your success that you are proactive about your stories. It's vital to put up a system where you have the opportunity to listen to relevant pages on the internet.
One of the more basic things you can do in regards to listening on the internet is to sign up on google.com/alerts where you can get mail send to you everytime somebody writes something about a given word (which could be your name, company name or product on the internet, a subject you're working in or even a competitor). In that way you can react, debate and speak your voice every time somebody is talking about subjects you are into - and even watch the surroundings of your brand.
Good luck with it ! We hope that our explanation and our advice will help you go a step further.
[social media, social media marketing, involvement, interaction, viral effects] [7 comments]