I attended a great event this morning put on by the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Marketing Association called the Digital Marketing Summit.  My favorite talk of the morning was that of Ted Murphy of Izea.  In it, Ted gave some very helpful pointers on how to get started in the maze of social media opportunities.  While we're all caught up in traditional brand development and the interactive marketing programs we've always done, there's an entire ecosystem out there right now of consumers, fans, critics and their conversations that happen whether we participate or not.  It's time to get involved, and to start influencing the conversation.
Ted Murphy discussing social media at the Digital Marketing Summit
My key takeaways:

  1. Start listening -What is currently being said?
  2. Create some goals for your social media efforts
  3. Determine what content you can draw from -Text, video, photos, audio, etc.
  4. Find content you can capture -Customers, partners, employees
  5. Decide what you're willing to share
  6. Choose your platforms
  7. Participate in other conversations, don't just broadcast -The most important conversations may not be those you start.  Seek out conversations about your brand & add value to them.
  8. Create your own storm of social media content
Really great event, and I think Ted's talk helped make some sense out of the social media storm, and gave everyone a few clear steps to getting involved. 

At R.O. Why! Marketing, we already take part in some of these opportunities.  I'm on Twitter.  We're blogging for business, and I have a Facebook page, but there are many more opportunities that I look forward to stepping into.  All it takes is a plan, right?