What is Social Media?
A conversation and a discussion on the Social Media Principles
Chris Heuer
Creative Social Strategist and Coach
Founder, Social Media Club

What do you really want to learn this morning?
What are the most
important questions
you want to have
answered on these
topics?

What is Social Media?

What is Social Media?

Welcome to the social world...

Welcome to the social world...
• Welcome to the era of conversation

Welcome to the social world...
• Welcome to the era of conversation
• Spin doesn’t work, people smell BS a mile away, and they tell their
friends (and everyone else) to avoid it

Welcome to the social world...
• Welcome to the era of conversation
• Spin doesn’t work, people smell BS a mile away, and they tell their
friends (and everyone else) to avoid it
• Advertising isn’t effective anymore, no one is watching the ads and no
one cares

Welcome to the social world...
• Welcome to the era of conversation
• Spin doesn’t work, people smell BS a mile away, and they tell their
friends (and everyone else) to avoid it
• Advertising isn’t effective anymore, no one is watching the ads and no
one cares
• People want to talk to people, not marketing and communications
professionals

Welcome to the social world...
• Welcome to the era of conversation
• Spin doesn’t work, people smell BS a mile away, and they tell their
friends (and everyone else) to avoid it
• Advertising isn’t effective anymore, no one is watching the ads and no
one cares
• People want to talk to people, not marketing and communications
professionals
• The Cluetrain is well on its way to the future, are you on it?
http://cluetrain.com/

Social Media is tearing
down the walls that keep
us apart and changing
the rules that have kept
us from being human
inside our companies.

There is no secret sauce...

It’s not about pulling
levers & getting results
Being social is a way of thinking
from which you can create new
opportunities to talk WITH your
audiences and get the cash
register ringing BECAUSE you are
being helpful and focused on
them, not yourself

photo by Dave Gray - Xplane
http://flickr.com/photos/davegray/82865014/in/set-1776148/
It’s more art then science How do you use the brush?

Your perspective and your attitude is what will
determine success or failure...

Which is why I think these Social Media Principles
are where we must start.

The Social Media Principles
• Be Human
• Be Aware
• Be Honest
• Be Respectful
• Be a Participant
• Be Open
• Be Courageous

Be Human

Be Human
Don’t Just Be Human, Be Yourself

Be Aware

Be Aware
Don’t Just Be Aware, Be Smart

Be Honest

Be Honest
Don’t Just Be Honest, Have Integrity

Be Respectful

Be Respectful
Don’t Just Be Respectful, Live by the Golden Rule

Be a Participant

Be a Participant
Don’t Just Be a Participant, Contribute Value

Be Open

Be Open
Don’t Just Be Open, Be an Agent of Change

Be Courageous

Be Courageous
Don’t Just Be Courageous, Be Willing to Fail

Chris Heuer
chrisheuer.com
twitter.com/chrisheuer
flickr.com/chrisheuer
delicious.com/chrisheuer
socialmediaclub.org
chris@socialmediaclub.org
m.408.834.0884

BackUp Slides
(just in case)

Great Products aren’t
sold, they’re bought
“Advertising is the tax you
pay for mediocre products.”
- Peter Hirshberg
Chairman,
The Conversation Group
photo by chris heuer

The Golden Rules of Marketing
1. Marketing is the work we do to match a company’s product or service with the
people or companies who will get the most value and/or satisfaction from it.
2. The best marketing is done during the product development process, where
the needs and desires of those who will use the product or service are
considered and designed into the product or service with an understanding of
the broader marketplace in which they will be sold. You can’t easily market a
product that was not well made, but the iPhone sells itself.
3. Marketing is not the transactional process with which it has become
associated despite its close proximity. If markets are indeed conversations,
then marketing is a series of conversations intended to serve the better
interests of the market. (David Weinberger has famously said ’somewhere
along the way marketing became what we did TO people’)
http://www.chrisheuer.com/2008/03/14/the-golden-rules-of-marketing/