Social Media is connecting with people who don't know you. Social Media is a pain in the ass. Social Media is the wave of the future and its best to embrace it; not be scared of it. Social Media is overwhelming and entertaining all at once. Social media is people online yesterday and now they are here at this event! I really can't make this stuff up even if I tried. These are a few statements that others shared with me on camera at The Social Media Club of Johnson County (@SMCJOCO / #SMCJOCO on twitter) launch party on Thursday July 15, 2010 to introduce it's board members. The event was held at the Aloft Hotel / WXYZ Bar in Overland Park, KS.
As me and my wife mingled are way through the 300 + people who attended while checking in with foursquare, Paul Evans and Sara Paxton were giving out prizes via SMS (thanks to Ruxter Mobile and the sponsors!). I would say that was pretty cool. Even better since I won some tricked out cupcakes from Cupcake a la mode! I guess extra cardio is calling…
Throughout are mingling, while sipping on “Twittertinis”, I kept my Flip HD video camera handy to interview people. I asked them to introduce themselves, say their company name and twitter, and what superhero would they be if they could be one? I believe I surprised many people by asking that question but I thought it was fun! My first question I asked was, “Social Media is ________” fill in the blank question.You'll see in the video that we received a ton of different answers.
Social Media can be intimidating for beginners or even people familiar with online but not in the “social cloud” of the 21st century. So I asked another question, “What would you recommend for someone new to social media?”. I followed that by asking, “What technologies would you recommend people use?”. The answers were pretty diverse.
To get started using Social Media you will want to create an account on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other similar platforms. I would start out with Facebook or Twitter to keep it simple. There are simple tools out there like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, or CoTweet that can help manage all your accounts into one.
Lastly I asked, “How can business increase their ROI through Social Media?”. There were many good answers but the one that stuck out to me most was, “The biggest things that businesses need to realize is that ROI comes from non-revenue producing results, efforts. What you have to look at is the click thrus, people who are talking about you, word of mouth, applications. That type of thing. Another thing businesses have to realize is its not over night success. It will take approximately six months to begin to see some financial results.”
Social Media is a contact sport. You must mingle or you'll always be single. Thank you to every one that allowed me to put your mugshot on video. I enjoyed meeting everyone of you!
Michael G. Stults is a leader, manager, and most importantly a team builder. He has realized that his success in his personal and business life has been contributed to the professionalism of others.
Along with his creative mindset, natural relationship building ability, and charisma, Michael has shown that he can succeed in business whether that be in the financial or online marketing sectors.