On November 15th, I had another opportunity to speak to the participants of the Langara Self Employment Program: this time, our topic was social media.
Social Media 1 – Recap
During the 3 hour workshop I tried to focus on practical information that could be used to promote new businesses as much as possible. I answered a lot of questions and I hope everyone found the session useful.
This workshop was more general and the next workshop will be more advanced. We talked about social media’s influence and participants had some time to think about their social media policies. One of the participants found a social media policy template at womma.org which I will be adding to my list of social media resources (update: Nov 17- it looks like you need to be a member to access this template?). We also talked about the importance of setting smart goals for social media so that your investment (time and money) is more efficient and measurable.We had some time to talk specifically about Facebook profiles and pages, LinkedIn, and Twitter during live demos. Unfortunately we ran out of time before we got to blogging!
Additional Information
Here are some links to information that we didn’t have time to cover in class.
Comparison of 6 Social Media Channels by Patricia Redsicker – a useful guide to evaluating the usefulness of the various social media platforms for you or your business.
Facebook Page Guidelines by Facebook – an important read for anyone who creates or admins a Facebook page.
Blogging Resources
I was going to talk about the different blogging platforms, specifically: WordPress, Tumblr, Posterous and Blogger. Here are some links to articles on this topic instead:
Tumblr Starter Kit by Unnecessary Ligatures
WordPress Showcase by WordPress
Using Blogger For Your Organization’s Website, by googleandyourbusiness.blogspot.com
Should You Be On Tumblr? by Social Media Examiner
12 Lessons from Inspiring Local Business Blogs by problogger.net
Social Media 2: November 22, 2012
At the end of the class I asked participants to choose 2 social media platforms that they would like to learn more about and they selected LinkedIn and Twitter. We will spend dedicated time during next week’s workshop on each of these platforms before we look at content strategy, integration, and ROI/success measurements.We will also make sure the rest of the participants’ personal objectives for attending these workshops are addressed – participants will be able to:
- expand on what they know, fill in gaps
- online/offline marketing (marketing campaigns)
- understand how to use a content strategy for optimal flow of content/efficiency
I also have some advising time for one-on-one sessions if participants want to discuss something related to their specific business or to find out more information about other types of social media i.e. Indiegogo.
