Getting Into Web 2.0

Social media was on the program for Short Course 2009, and it was great, especially for me, to see so many attendees interested in or using social media. The presenter of Audacity of Change: Social Media was Roy Prevost and here's some of his advice:

• Have a plan. If you don't have a plan, don't get into social media. It will be a waste of your time. The caveat? The rest of the world is moving to social media. "I'm sure that's what you're thinking - another damn thing I need to do," Prevost says. "However, social media is where a lot of the population is going and you have to go where your audience is."
  
  
• Get the right person for the job. Task a Gen Y employee with the responsibility of maintaining your social media. Or go to your local high school and ask for their biggest computer geek.
  
  
• Use social media to drive people to your website. Include all your contact information on your Facebook page and link from Twitter to your site. But make sure there's something on your website to look at when visitors get there.
  
  
• Social media is communicating, not selling. Social media is about talking to people and giving them important information. You can communicate from Facebook, you can't sell.
  
  
• Americans have a short attention span. The short 140-character bursts of the Twitter microblog "plays exactly to who we are and what we do."
  
  
• Choose one primary message. Decide whether you're branding your own name or your company name across all platforms.
  
  
• Overhaul your headshots. Have several poses to choose from.
  
  
• Review your domain name. If you don't like it, change it. Is it simple, is it memorable, easy to spell and say? If not, ask for input from your team.
  
  
• Get friends. Import your address book into Facebook. Ask your customers if they're on Facebook and if they want to be your friend/fan. If you have heavy hitters in town, see if they're on Twitter and follow them.
  
  
• Promote it. Add the link to all your social media in your email signature.

So follow Greenhouse Grower and Today's Garden Center on Facebook. And our Twitter links are to the left.