social media

Expressing Your Social Media Voice

 What is your social media voice?

Amy Wood co-anchors News Channel 7 at 5, 6 and 11 and solo anchors the interactive “News Channel 7 at Ten on Your CW.” She also has a strong media voice, and talked on the subject during Media Women of South Carolina’s “Social Media Smarts” conference.

If you like writing, a blog is the way to go. Both Blogger and WordPress are free sites and are easy to integrate with other social media platforms. (My blog is hosted on WordPress.) If you are blogging for your job, she recommends being transparent by taking people behind the scenes. “Share valuable and useful industry knowledge,” Amy says.

Videos are another great way to have a social media voice. Today’s smart phones make it even easier to capture video. And YouTube is a central channel for posting videos. One popular way to use video is to create demos, Amy says.

A third way to share your social media voice is through audio. Podcasts are the most common way, but now there are apps for smart phones, including audioBoo. It’s also easy to share audio clips on iTunes. These audio posts can then be shared on Facebook and other social networks.

To make your voice even stronger, consider pictures. Amy suggests posting images of customers or products and services.

How do you speak on social media?

Social Media Users Need World Views

We should all be bold enough to embrace and examine our world views, says Trey Pennington.

Trey spoke on “From Stranger to Advocate: Thriving in the Brave New World of Marketing” during Media Women of South Carolina’s “Social Media Smarts” conference. As users of social media, we need to keep in mind three world views: possessions, priority and profits.

The first world view focuses on possessions; specifically, digital rights management versus free software. He talked about the viral video of Jill and Kevin’s wedding on June 18, 2009. They played a copyrighted song for public performance. They recorded the performance. Then they posted it on YouTube. Today it has more than 64 million views.

The song was “Forever” by Chris Brown. The record label could have sued, but had they adopted that view, they would have missed to the opportunity of having the song become so wildly popular, Trey said. In fact, he noted, that Billboard now lists “Forever” has one of the 100 most significant songs of the decade.

The second world view focuses on priority. Too often, Trey said, “Social media is about screaming messages.” He noted that in working with politicians, he often hears, “I just have to get my message out.”

But Trey says politicians need to stop. “You do not need to get your message out. That may actually be your problem,” he says. “What you need to do is get a message in.” He recommends asking people what they want to know and then using social media to turn that message out again.

The third world view focuses on profits and maximizing shareholder wealth. “If you take maximizing profits to social media, you will be greatly disappointed,” Trey says. “Social media is about having human needs met, not about maximizing profits.” He recommends not using social media as a tool of efficiency, but rather as a tool of effectiveness in meeting the needs of your neighbors.

“When you shine the spotlight on others, you affirm them,” Trey says. “Use social media to demonstrate that you are listening.”

Royal Wedding Connects

What were you doing April 29? I and about 2 billion other people were watching the royal wedding.

I stayed up late the night before watching specials. I woke early to watch the pre-wedding reports and the wedding from the nuptials to the first kiss. While watching the wedding live on television,  I was posting on Facebook, sending emails and viewing websites. I wasn’t alone.

During the wedding, there were 74 million mentions each second on Facebook about the wedding. The most popular posts were about the wedding gown, according to MSNBC. Facebook sites were created to discuss or diss the hats, including Princess Beatrice’s hat. Facebook reported that more than 10 million comments about the event were posted by late in the day.

Three million tweets went out – double the number tweeted during the Super Bowl.

Among the many outlets webcasting the event was the royal family’s own RoyalChannel, a YouTube site that offered live video and tweets from Clarence House, the prince’s official residence. The couple also has their own official website.

Internet traffic was 5.4 million page views per second.

Traditional newspapers ran photos – many of them full page. Many of these newspapers will be what people put in their scrapbooks, which you can’t do with a website. 

Did you follow the wedding? If so, what was your way to connect?

Social Media Expands Communications Options

Social media continues to expand communications options.

During a panel discussion, “Effective Uses of Social Media Platforms” several users of social media shared how they are using social media to enhance their business. The discussion was part of “Social Media Smarts” organized by Media Women of South Carolina.

Russell Stall of the Greenville Forward says he doesn’t even like the name social media. “I like connected media,” he says. “With a couple of key strokes you’re connected.”

For Jim O’Donnell of Wolff Industries, social media allows him to grow a relationship and then turn it over to salespeople. Even television is impacted by social media, says Diana Watson of FOX News in Greenville. “Viewers don’t want to wait around until the 6 o’clock news. They want to be updated all the time,” she says. “We’re finding that viewers are demanding more and more.”

She says social media gives the station “an instant connection to what people are thinking or what they want to know about.” While people are watching the news, they also are able to immediately share what they think of the news. “It gives us instantaneous results,” Diana says.

At Wofford College, Russ Bradley says using YouTube has allowed the school to make lesser sports more accessible. The school started by putting the football show on YouTube instead of paying for airtime on a television station. “Our viewership has tripled,” Bradley says. “We’re using it to promote the brand.”

The school is able to spotlight the expertise of professors on YouTube, which often leads to media outlets requesting interviews.

How are you using social media effectively?