Make Time for Social Media

I was at a tradeshow this past weekend and was running a pretty cool and effective social media contest! 

The concept was simple: Follow my company's social media page, tweet about it and I would tweet you back to come pick up your prize: A $10 Starbucks card! 

(source)

Very big engagement for very little work and spend (overall!)

Although there were many people hopping on the bandwagon from tweets and posters scattered around the conference, I made sure to tell everyone who stopped by about the contest. In the days where tradeshows and conferences have become a huge swag-grab for so many, having a real engagement can be difficult. Most attendees are there to trick-or-treat and that's about it. They don't want to hear about your offering and they certainly aren't going to stand around and chat about it with you. So, the issue becomes not about impressions, we make plenty of those, but about engagements!

By enticing the attendees to follow us on Twitter or like the Facebook page, what it actually does is give them an opportunity to learn about our company, not on the tradeshow floor, but later, in their news feeds. It also provides us with insight into what they're thinking about and the ability to engage with them later.

Conferences can be an excellent example of where to find your target market. Most of the people who attend them already have ties in the industry you're aiming for, and if they aren't currently in a decision making role, they could be in just a few years. So, by utilizing a contest campaign wherein they have to follow your page or feeds, it allows you into their psyche every now and again. Regular impressions, and hopefully, down the line, more engagement.

Now one thing I heard a lot throughout the day was "Oh I don't use twitter." or "I deleted my facebook account!" and although I'm sure a few of them just had that "don't advertise to me" barrier up, I don't doubt that it was true in many cases. Unfortunately they're missing out on the big picture and we're missing out on their engagement!

But it did make me think, even our own CTO (Chief Technology Officer's) keynote was based on the huge influx of social media use in today's market and how that impacts the IaaS and IT-Managers running businesses. But even he, the guy GIVING the keynote, isn't an active social media user. He acknowledged it's importance in the marketplace, but can't find time in his schedule to actually engage.

It is my full time job to be dedicated to engaging on my company's behalf, which is fine and dandy, but at the end of the day if our company had more names and faces living in social media, chatting about our offerings, it would make us that much more effective overall. It's definitely something I'm working on, getting others to engage around our branding and just technology in general.

So many small business owners and large enterprise executives have a difficult time making time for social media. And it's a shame, because that's where we can truly engage with others. Not advertise to them, but talk to them. Get into their heads and learn not only what we're doing right, but what we could be doing better and what we should be doing next year. Keeping up with the fast pace at which technology grows isn't easy, so why not tap into a market where others are keeping up on it for you? Cultivate lists and followers who can tell you what you need to know!

After all, social media isn't just about advertising, in fact, it's rarely about advertising. The true experience of social media lives at the engagement level and it's an opportunity for us to learn more about our businesses and our demographics without ever having to leave our offices or apartments or cars. Using it as a true empowerment and engaging with those who can offer some true insight into our growth potential is only one of it's major benefits, but it's certainly not one to be overlooked!

So here's your homework: Dedicate at least an hour EVERY DAY to just engaging on social media. It will take days, weeks, probably even months, to get it right. But once you've learned to commit yourself to the engagement so much information and insights will be flowing to you it will be impossible to deny it's effectiveness!

Schedule it in your calendar, around your existing work day. Employ your coworkers to do the same. If you want to increase your brand awareness online the key is to increase your activity first!