By Rosalind Brazel
Social Media is an essential tool to marketing your business, creating brand awareness and announcing company news to the public. But many organizations struggle to add this layer to the fold because there are no manuals, no set rules, very few guidelines to venture into social media.
Washington Federal, KIRO radio and MyNorthwest.com are hosting your next social media event in Seattle. On Monday, November 18th you will have an opportunity to jumpstart your social media knowledge at the Zero to Social in 90 Minutes lunch and panel presentation. Top social media experts, including The Fearey Group’s president Aaron Blank (and soon-to-be CEO), will participate in a Q&A panel session to cover the basics and beyond on the topic of social media.
To tease you, Aaron provided a sample Q&A of what you may hear at the event:
1. How do you decide which social media applications are best for you/your company?
I try to play around with every possible social media platform. I find the top performing ones by looking at Apple’s application store. In the store, it lists the top performers. This tells me what the hottest apps are and which ones I should be playing around with almost on a daily basis.
2. What is the biggest misconception about social media?
That it is new. It is not new. I’ve been using it since the dial-up Internet days of the 80’s. It was slower, but it was still social. I spent time in chat rooms on America OnLine. Then in the late 90’s, I spent time on Instant Messenger… and so on. The tools are changing but social media has been around for quite some time!
3. What is the future of social media?
The expansion of mobile is influencing the future of social media. In other parts of the world, commercial billboards communicate with you as you walk past them (via your mobile device). That, too, will be here shortly.
4. Which social media application do you use the most and why?
I have too many. Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Vimeo. YouTube. Foursquare (I have a love/hate relationship with it). Yelp. Waazi. LinkedIn. Pinterest. Lively. Uber. Evernote. Flipboard. Why do I use so many? Our world revolves around it.
5. You were an early adopter on Twitter, what was that like?
I received a 5-year anniversary reminder from Twitter this year. I’ve been using it since 2009. As a result, I’ve developed five years’ worth of online relationships that have now become offline relationships. Twitter back then was the same, just not as easy to use. If people find themselves not on it yet, they can still jump aboard. It is never too late. It is worth the time!
6. Some people say social media hinders the ability to engage in traditional verbal/written communication. Your response?
Communicating in 140 characters or less is a challenge. Doing it well helps your overall communication skills.
Aaron’s fellow panelists include Shauna Causey, Decide.com, and Evonne Benedict, KING 5’s social media manager.
The event is brought to you by Washington Federal and MyNorthwest.com and is hosted by Linda Thomas, from KIRO radio’s morning news program.
For more info, click this audio link: