As businesses still struggle to implement and understand social media, I offer this advice today - Listen and learn before you go "all-in". Here we look at Tweetdeck as a listening station.

1. “Not A Minute Too Soon” Your Sponsors

2. Presented By: James Ball is the Digital Marketing Director / Social Strategist at AroundAbout Local Media, Inc. in Woodstock, GA. James is also a social media consultant who blogs about the integration of social media & small business at NotEasyToForget.com. Your Sponsors

3. What Is Social Media? “Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many).” - Wikipedia

4. There Are Different Definitions “Social media essentially is a category of online media where people are talking, participating, sharing, networking, and bookmarking online. Most social media services encourage discussion, feedback, voting, comments, and sharing of information from all interested parties. It's more of a two-way conversation, rather than a one-way broadcast like traditional media. Another unique aspect of social media is the idea of staying connected or linked to other sites, resources, and people.” – Ron Jones Ron Jones is President/CEO of Symetri Internet Marketing http://www.symetri.com/

5. …but my favorite definition is:

6. Where is the value? It’s in the relationships!

8. I want to build a community around my brand

10. Don’t Jump On Just Because Everyone Else Is Doing It… JUMP ON! Wagon Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthamm/

11. Social media has become a tool used for effective business marketing and sales. Businesses are bringing more control of their marketing efforts “in-house” through it’s use.

12. Businesses are using social media for Listening Public Relations SALES FEEDBACK Branding COMMUNICATIONS research

13. Social media is “before the sale” marketing. Make no mistake, it is marketing, and you should expect a return on your investment. Social media channels are “touch-points” whereby you can effectively convert conversations into leads.

14. Social media is not a stand-alone tactic. Using these channels should be a part of your business and marketing strategy. Sales Funnel from http://www.handshake20.com/

15. Chart from http://www.flickr.com/photos/briansolis/

16. WHICH TOOLS ARE RIGHT FOR YOU?

17. Noneof them… YET.

18. Social media RULES of engagement. Here are 10 of the best I’ve come across: 1) Be Transparent Your honesty (or dishonesty) will be picked up right away in social media communities. If you’re a corporate blogger, use your real name, identify the company you work for, and be clear about your role. If you have a vested interest in something you’re writing about (like an affiliate or a sponsored review) be the first to point it out rather than waiting for someone else to “uncover”. It’s never a good situation when you seem to be hiding something, even if it was completely innocent. From: Social Media Rules Of Engagement – 10 Concepts For Understanding Online Communities By CoreeSilvera Direct Link: http://www.marketlikeachick.com/social-media-rules-of-engagement-10-concepts-for-understanding-online-communities/

19. Social media RULES of engagement. Here are 10 of the best I’ve come across: 2) Be Judicious If you’re writing about a topic that you’re not completely familiar with you should make this clear to your readers. Don’t get yourself into trouble with trademarks, copyright, fair use, or trade secret disclosure laws. Respect private brands and keep yourself out of court. If you’re writing about your employer/corporation outside of their internal community you might want to use a disclaimer something like this: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent ‘Your company’s name’ positions, strategies, or opinions.” From: Social Media Rules Of Engagement – 10 Concepts For Understanding Online Communities By CoreeSilvera Direct Link: http://www.marketlikeachick.com/social-media-rules-of-engagement-10-concepts-for-understanding-online-communities/

20. Social media RULES of engagement. Here are 10 of the best I’ve come across: 3) Be Smart Make sure your efforts to be transparent don’t violate your employer’s privacy, confidentiality, and legal guidelines. Before you plaster that company report all over the web, be sure to clarify if it was meant to be private or kept internal. Or, if you want to write about the competition make sure you know what you’re talking about. Be smart about protecting yourself, your privacy, and confidential information. What you publish is widely accessible and will be around for a long time, so consider your content carefully when you participate in social networking. From: Social Media Rules Of Engagement – 10 Concepts For Understanding Online Communities By CoreeSilvera Direct Link: http://www.marketlikeachick.com/social-media-rules-of-engagement-10-concepts-for-understanding-online-communities/

21. Social media RULES of engagement. Here are 10 of the best I’ve come across: 4) Perception is Reality In online social networking, the lines between public and private, personal and professional are blurred. Just by writing on a subject you are creating perceptions about your knowledge and expertise in that area. This can work for you or against you depending on how you write. Social media has become the new sweat equity. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on advertising if you know how to communicate and create an authority figure perception. On the other hand, if you’ve identified yourself as an employee for your company, be mindful of the perceptions you’re creating of your employer – good or bad. From: Social Media Rules Of Engagement – 10 Concepts For Understanding Online Communities By CoreeSilvera Direct Link: http://www.marketlikeachick.com/social-media-rules-of-engagement-10-concepts-for-understanding-online-communities/

22. Social media RULES of engagement. Here are 10 of the best I’ve come across: 5) It’s a Conversation Talk to your readers like you would talk to real people standing in front of you or on the phone. Don’t be afraid to bring in your own personality and be open about what’s on your mind. Write your content to be open-ended and inviting a response to encourage comments. Invite other bloggers into the conversation by citing and linking to their post on the same subject. You are creating relationships and they may visit your blog and join in by commenting on your blog just to thank you for the link love. From: Social Media Rules Of Engagement – 10 Concepts For Understanding Online Communities By CoreeSilvera Direct Link: http://www.marketlikeachick.com/social-media-rules-of-engagement-10-concepts-for-understanding-online-communities/

23. Social media RULES of engagement. Here are 10 of the best I’ve come across: 6) Are You Adding Value? This is probably the most important rule of social media engagement. The best way to get your blog or conversations read is to write things that people will value. Social communication should be thought-provoking and build a sense of community. If you’re helping people with their knowledge or skills, build their businesses, do their jobs, solve problems, or understand something better—then you’re adding value. From: Social Media Rules Of Engagement – 10 Concepts For Understanding Online Communities By CoreeSilvera Direct Link: http://www.marketlikeachick.com/social-media-rules-of-engagement-10-concepts-for-understanding-online-communities/

24. Social media RULES of engagement. Here are 10 of the best I’ve come across: 7) Create Some Excitement It’s a big world out there and there are plenty of voices and opinions to listen to. Look for important contributions to the world and to the future of technology or your personal industry. Be the first in your online community to create a public dialogue on an issue or put your spin on an existing one. There’s always new innovations or news to discuss and write about, it’s our job to try and bring excitement to it. If you walked past a newsstand and all the headlines were about the same subject, what would make you choose one publication over another? Ask yourself how you can stand out from the crowd. From: Social Media Rules Of Engagement – 10 Concepts For Understanding Online Communities By CoreeSilvera Direct Link: http://www.marketlikeachick.com/social-media-rules-of-engagement-10-concepts-for-understanding-online-communities/

25. Social media RULES of engagement. Here are 10 of the best I’ve come across: 8) Be a Leader There can be a fine line between healthy debate and an argument. You don’t necessarily need to respond to every criticism or jab. Try to frame what you write to invite differing points of view without being disrespectful. There’s something to be said about stirring up controversy and even negative publicity can attract attention in social networking. However, some topics—like politics or religion—slide more easily into sensitive territory. So be careful and considerate. Once the words are out there, you can’t really get them back. From: Social Media Rules Of Engagement – 10 Concepts For Understanding Online Communities By CoreeSilvera Direct Link: http://www.marketlikeachick.com/social-media-rules-of-engagement-10-concepts-for-understanding-online-communities/

26. Social media RULES of engagement. Here are 10 of the best I’ve come across: 9) Did You Mess Up? If you make a mistake, admit it. Be upfront and be quick with your correction. If you’re posting to a blog, and you choose to modify an earlier post, your readers will appreciate you making it clear that you have done so. We are all on a learning journey and mistakes are part of life. By being honest about your goofs you’ll build your value, not lose it, and you may even put a smile on someone’s face…quite possibly yours! From: Social Media Rules Of Engagement – 10 Concepts For Understanding Online Communities By CoreeSilvera Direct Link: http://www.marketlikeachick.com/social-media-rules-of-engagement-10-concepts-for-understanding-online-communities/

27. Social media RULES of engagement. Here are 10 of the best I’ve come across: 10) Before You Hit Enter If you’re about to publish something that makes you even the slightest bit uncomfortable, don’t shrug it off and hit ‘Enter.’ Take a minute to try and figure out what’s bothering you, then fix it. Ultimately, what you publish is yours—as is the responsibility. So be sure. Remember, what you publish will be around for a long time once it hits the web. From: Social Media Rules Of Engagement – 10 Concepts For Understanding Online Communities By CoreeSilvera Direct Link: http://www.marketlikeachick.com/social-media-rules-of-engagement-10-concepts-for-understanding-online-communities/

28. Tools Come Later! In choosing the platforms, channels, and tools that you will use, first consider your goals and overall STRATEGY.

30. What have you learned by “listening”?

31. Where can you find your audience?

32. Do your plans for using social media align with your business goals?

33. How will you measure your successes and failures insocial media?

34. Start by listening. Using social media channels to do your research is an excellent starting point.

35. Let’s take a closer look at As a listening station Using

36. http://twitter.com http://www.tweetdeck.com/

37. More Info About http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/ Also See: 151 Ways to Tweet http://www.bookmarket.com/50WaystoTweet.htm More Info About http://www.tweetdeck.com/features/index.html

38. TweetDeck is a leading browser for the real-time and social web, allowing users to connect with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. TweetDeck shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organized and up-to-date.

39. By setting up custom specific searches, and having the results shown in columns, finding excellent resources and information about other social media channels is easier and more productive. Facebook Marketing Learn Twitter LinkedIn Strategy

40. You’ve heard that “listening” in social media is important. Listening is participation, and if you take the time to listen before you jump in with both feet, you stand a better chance of your social media efforts being in line with your business plans. Your efforts will therefore be more beneficial and produce the desired results. Your Sponsors

41. Thank You For Attending Today! If you would like more information, or need specific help with social media and/or your web presence, please feel free to contact James or AroundAbout Local Media, Inc. We’d love to serve you! Our contact details are below. Clock Photo Credit: Garrett Crawford http://www.flickr.com/photos/gc_photography/ http://NotEasyToForget.com james@NotEasyToForget.com @NotEasyToForget on Twitter http://AroundAboutLocalMedia.com