The best offence is a good defence

So you know what you want to achieve with Social Media. You’ve drafted your strategy document and you’re ready to press the go button. So what next, how do you actually engage with an audience using Social Media? It sounds great and you’re sure it’s exactly what your organisation needs, but how do you actually get it done?

If you want to engage your audience in a conversation and start relationships through the use of Social Media, you have to do the hard yards first and build a credible, defensible reputation in the space on which to build more targeted message based campaigns.

In simple terms, building the credibility of your organisation, or your products or services is easiest done by getting your hands dirty. You don’t have to start and or write your own blog (although you could), but you should comment on others where your comments add value or demonstrate expertise.

If you see a value in micro blogging, don’t ignore replies you receive and actively search out questions that you can answer. Search through existing content, on for example, You Tube or Flickr and add commentary or thoughts that substantiate your proposition.

Join social networks in Facebook, My Space or Bebo as appropriate and create an active profile by engaging with your fellow members or fans. And most of all, represent your organisation, product or service honestly, openly and realistically to enhance your reputation.

Once in a liftetime trip to Sydney

Do you fancy a once-in-a-lifetime all expenses paid trip to Sydney, Australia?

If so, we’re looking for 2 active and outgoing people, aged 18-30, from the UK or Ireland who are ready for a fun filled seven days in Sydney.

So what’s the catch? You’ll be filmed and photographed as you experience all the fantastic sights, surf, culture, eating, drinking and excitement that Sydney and the surrounding areas have to offer. You’ll also be featured in video diaries of your time in Sydney and contribute to a blog detailing the highlights of your trip.

This amazing trip includes all flights, accommodation, travel, food, drink and entrance fees to various attractions.

You must be from the UK and/or Ireland and aged between the ages of 18-30 at the time of travel and you must be available to travel between 21 June and 4 July 2009.

Please visit http://facebook.sydney.com for more details and to register your interest.

A three legged horse in a dog show

Twitter has hit the headlines and become the social media phenomena of the moment. From Barack Obama to Britney Spears, people are capitalising on its ability to publish messages to the masses in 140 characters or less. It only takes seconds to write and seconds to read. But what relevance does this new platform have for business and how are organisations cashing in on the opportunities?

Among many organisations Twitter seems to have an unjustified reputation as a service for socially inept teenagers. Yet properly used and effectively targeted, Twitter can add significant value to most organisations’ marketing and communications strategies.

Many organisations will take the approach that they will wait and see how micro blogging develops before they get involved. These same organisations and individuals within them said the same thing about social networking (in fact probably still are) and almost certainly the web before that.

The simple fact is that the speed of adoption and change in this space is such that most organisations cannot afford to risk not getting involved.

More information at http://tinyurl.com/c4dl87