Photo by Chaval Brasil
If you’re a PR professional who’s just starting to utilize social media marketing, or a business owner who knows you need to get involved online but you just don’t understand it all yet, it’s okay. Relax. We’re here to help you.
It can be difficult to wrap your head around all this “social web” stuff and understand the jargon, when you didn’t grow up with MySpace and blogs like some of us have. Social media requires you to think differently about marketing, and it encompasses a vast array of networks where people connect and share information, as well as tools that you can use to promote yourself online.
Here I’ve collected some of the best, most straightforward videos and presentations to help you learn about each of these tools and why you should be using them:
The Social Opportunity — Video from Network Solutions’ Solutions Stars Video Conference: “Small businesses have a fantastic opportunity to bypass conventional media and advertising to directly reach their stakeholders.”
Blogs in Plain English — Video from Common Craft: “A short introduction to blogs – how they work and why they matter.”
RSS in Plain English — Video from Common Craft: “An introduction to RSS as a way to save time reading web sites.”
Social Networking in Plain English — Video from Common Craft: “A short introduction to the concepts behind social networking websites.”
Social Bookmarking in Plain English — Video from Common Craft: “A short introduction to the concept of social bookmarking, using Delicious as the example.”
Twitter in Plain English — Video from Common Craft: “A short introduction to the micro-blogging service Twitter.”
How to Use Twitter for Business — Video from Ed Dale of 30DayChallenge: “This video shows how a fantastic small business is using Twitter to enhance his business – Fantastic example”
Social Media Strategy — Slide presentation from Vanina Delobelle: “What are social media? Why does a company need to set up a social media strategy? In what consists the strategy? How to measure the success?”
Social Media ROI — Measuring the Unmeasurable? — Slide presentation from Yongfook.
Social Media Metrics — Mining the social media conversation — Slide presentation from Pop Lab: “How do you measure the impact of your social media campaign? Kelsey Ruger’s presentation on some of the things that you can track and measure in a social media campaign.”
These videos and presentations should give you a comprehensive understanding of the social media tools out there, and you can also share them with your colleagues and staff to convey the benefits that social media marketing can provide your business.
Cody is a nomadic entrepreneur & lifestyle designer who helps social changemakers & other remarkable people spread their message on the web.
Tags: blogs, measuring, metrics, plain English, ROI, RSS, social bookmarking, social media strategy, social networking, social web, Twitter, Twitter for business
