By Katherine Andes
Recently, I was speaking with a marketing director and she told me that her company wanted to do social media marketing, but they were waiting until they had the staff, the know-how, the strategy, and could do it right.
She also said her superiors really didn’t understand social media, so it was hard for her to get them to be supportive.
My advice to her was to just jump in and try it out.
Sign up for a Facebook account and put up a Facebook Fan Page. While at it, get a Twitter account. With the exception of abusive practices, there really aren’t any rules. If a company puts up a Facebook Fan page and doesn’t do anything with it for months, no one will punish you. Nothing bad will happen.
The same goes for Twitter. Nothing bad will happen if you open an account and let it sit.
Of course I don’t recommend you let it sit. In fact, I recommend setting aside 15 to 30 minutes a day to just play around with it. As you gradually put up posts, you’ll see what happens.
You can also visit other fan pages and see what other companies do. You’ll explore. You’ll learn to navigate the media.
With this amount of time invested, you will be pretty savvy about how it all works in 3 to 6 months. Then you can start planning how to best use social media sites for marketing and advertising purposes.
Easy Furniture Web Tip #61: Don’t be afraid to sign up for a Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account. Social media marketing doesn’t have to be perfect. Just get started now and learn as you go.
P.S. As I wrote this column, I realized I hadn’t set up my own Facebook Fan Page yet. So I took my own medicine and did so. It took me 15 minutes. Please visit it and become a fan!
Katherine Andes is a consultant who specializes in web content development, including search engine optimization, and landing pages — especially in the home improvement market. You can phone her at 559.589.0379 or email at kathy@andesandassociates.com.