What I Learned in Social Media Marketing Class

Last week, I attended a great class on social media marketing. Sponsored by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), the speaker was the online marketing expert Shama Hyder Kabani of www.shama.tv. Since WritingZone has recently joined Facebook and Twitter, I had a lot to learn. Here are 8 things I took away from Shama’s wonderful class:

1. Before you begin using social media, you need three things in place:
   1. A solid product or service
   2. An excellent website
   3. A great BOD (brand, outcome—something valuable to offer others, and differentiator)
2. Let this be your guide: When you post online, don’t post anything you wouldn’t share with a stranger.
3. Online videos can be successful in any industry. Consider this: 64% of the population will finish watching a 30-minute video; however, only 25% of the population will finish reading an article!
4. Online video can shorten your sales cycle–people who’ve watched your videos are ready to buy more quickly because they feel they already know you.
5. The most important social media sites for businesses are Linked In, Facebook, and Twitter. Each is a different environment.  Think of Linked In as your office, Facebook as a coffee shop, and Twitter as a human search engine.
6. Twitter can be overwhelming for some, so a great tool for managing all those tweets is TweetDeck.
7. Another useful management tool is Ping.fm, which lets
   Technorati Tags: Tips
8. you post your status across multiple social media sites.
9. Check out these resources:
   1. Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani
   2. The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff by Clara Shih
   3. Get Content, Get Customers by Joe Pullizi
   4. Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time by Joel Comm