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Craving social media

New resources to help entrepreneurs get started with social media

31 March, 2009
3
by Alexandra Samuel

The SHOP Symposium that CRAVE put on today was bursting with fantastic women entrepreneurs whom I've long admired as a customer, member, or as a drooling window shopper. I was already a fan of Escents (my eternal source for hostess gifts), Uptown Giftbox (which packaged the awesome gifts at FWE's recent dinner) and Gumdrops (where I've found great rainwear gifts for friends and family). Small Business BC, FWE and yoyomama have had my back at work and at home. Now I'm also excited about dressing my children in Style Kid, getting myself dressed in Frocks, and getting undressed to my Smart Ass underpants.

All these great businesses and organizations are looking at how social media can help them use social media to reach their customers and strengthen their brand. In our social networking panel, and our small group Q&A, I offered some suggestions on the tools and tactics that can help organizations make the most of social media.

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4 questions to answer before you get started (or move forward) with social media

30 March, 2009
3
by Alexandra Samuel

Many organizations want to know how to get started with social media, or how to take it to the next level. All too often, the answer they get is the name of a site or platform: Create a Twitter feed! Set up a Facebook page! Build your network on LinkedIn!

While it can be very helpful to know about different platforms, no one platform is right for every organization. To make good choices about where to spend your social media dollars, you need to be clear about what you want to get out out of social media, and how you're going to do it in compelling way.

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Listen. Think. Engage!

Three steps for companies getting started with social media

9 March, 2009
1
by Alexandra Samuel

Asked on LinkedIn: What are the first 3 steps every company needs to take to get involved in social media?

1. Listen.

No matter what industry you're in or how sensitive your organization, you need to be doing social media monitoring. At a minimum, set up an iGoogle page and add feeds from Technorati (to search for blog posts about your organization), Twitter search (for tweets) and delicious (to see what people think is worth bookmarking on your site or news coverage). Track the reputation of your company, brands/products, key leadership and industry, and discover where your strengths and weaknesses lie online. (Hint: no news isn't necessarily good news!)

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