Social can, and should be used for more than just Marketing. I can count on two hands and two feet how many times people have told me, “Twitter and Facebook are just for bored people, tweeting about their boring lives and bowel movements.” While this may be the case for some people (perhaps you should find new friends to follow on Twitter) Social Media for businesses can be a valuable tool for affecting your bottom line (no pun intended) and helping to find creative solutions for real-life business solutions. Like your first year of college, navigating the world of Social Media as a novice (or n00b, in internet lingo) can be equally challenging, exciting, scary, totally baffling and empowering. Using the following tips, you’ll breeze through freshman orientation and find yourself tackling more challenging upperclassman content in no time.

Orientation: There is a reason Universities start with this class for integrating their incoming students; and that reason is that it integrates students into a social setting. Students, being human, choose colleges not solely based on curriculum, but often opt to go to a school with a good “feel”, good clubs, and interesting people they connect with and a company culture that they can really feel themselves in. The same goes for social media. When people don’t feel at home with your company culture, your engagement with your community will suffer. If you give people content, incentives and create a feeling of a community, they are sure to interact with your page and in turn, remember your company instead of your competitors when it comes time to shop for the product or service you offer.

PUBLIC SPEAKING 101: No need to rush out and join the ToastMakers…no public speaking is or will be involved in the creation of this article! When people first start with their marketing campaigns via Social Media they tend to want to go on the sites and sell, sell, sell. While this may work for your sales people and departments, Social Media is not the place to explicitly advertise your company every five seconds. As with Public Speaking 101,showing, not telling is key. When you are persuading someone of your argument in a Public Speaking forum, you use logical reasons as to why they should agree with you/ When you are persuading over Social Media, using “soft-sell” techniques and give people great content makes people drawn to your company and be more likely to stay awhile. Constantly barraging people with marketing messages is a sure-fire way to put them off, and a way to lose followers. Nobody likes being marketed to (or being talked down to), not even marketers themselves. When you think of Social Media, think of talking to a close friend and the kind of language you would use, versus trying to sell a lead a product or service.

STAT 101: Sure, statistics may not have been your strong suit, but no one can deny the fact that this class is one that has literally translated over to the business world (unlike that Honors Shakespeare or Topiaries 101). Polish off those math skills from freshman year, because Social Media isn’t just all fun and games for former Communications majors, this is where all the math nerds really get to shine! Analytics for your campaign are key to tracking, which in turn, is key to making sure that your campaign is running at maximum efficiency. Even if you don’t have a huge budget for your campaign, a quick Google search for free analytics sites can really help you get a grasp on what you’re putting out and what people are picking up and help you make key decisions for your company.

We hope that this article helped you understand what it means to be a beginner in Social Media. If you have any other questions about any of the topics that we have discussed here, please feel free to contact Webconnection here.