There’s no doubt in the value of using social media to build your brand. But opinions differ in the use of social media by employees. It seems that companies are polarized in the issue, but are being slowly awakened to the fact that allowing employees to access social media at work has great benefits. Do you allow employees to access social media in your office?

There are four distinct advantages to allowing social media:

• Increased productivity. There have been a number of studies that have found that judicious use of social media in the workplace will actually increase productivity. A study conducted by the University of Melbourne found that employees with access to social media are 9% more productive than those without.
• Increased buy-in. Employees like to feel trusted and empowered. If they don’t you can expect to experience higher turnover and lower morale. A good way to gain trust is to allow employees to use social media in the workplace. If an employee feels like they are trusted, they’ll be more likely to stay with the company.
• Recruiting. Small businesses have started to use social media for recruitment, but limit efforts to one account. If you have 10 employees in your organization, each with a social media account with 100 friends, you have the potential to reach 1,000 people. This is achievable if employees are allowed to access social media at work and are encouraged to share posts.
• Identification of business opportunities. Through the use of social media, employees in charge of sales and business development can source new clients and build fruitful relationships.

There are many advantages to allowing access to social networks at the office. If you‘re hesitant to completely open the social media floodgates, try doing so in short periods, like the final three hours of the working day.

No matter what you decide, allowing access to social media is a good practice for your business. If you would like to learn more about social media and how you can leverage it in your business, we are happy to talk with you.

Social media has really become a major way for businesses to get their name out and gain exposure to the many different people on the Internet, build their brand and find new customers. With the large numbers of people currently using the Internet, it makes sense for businesses to have some form of online presence as they will be able to connect with more customers.

Social media, once called a fad, has become the norm and is going to be with us for some time. A large number of companies already have an online presence, and are taking advantage of the benefits that social media can bring. Here are a number of things you can do to get your social media adventures underway.

Be Clear on Social Media It’s important that before you start looking into the different forms of social media that are out there, you are clear on what social media is, and what it isn’t. Social media is a way to meet people, and share content and ideas with them. For companies it’s a form of non-traditional marketing - think of it as soft marketing - it’s not meant to be the place where you flog your products, rather a place to develop interest in your company, so people will want to do business with you. By using social media you can show people who your company is, and connect with them on a more personal level. If you are clear on what social media is from the beginning, there’s a higher chance that you’ll be successful when you develop your online presence.

Before You Launch Into Social Media There are a number of things that your company needs to have either already done, or considered, before you jump in:

• Have a website: It’s a good idea to have a solid website with information about your company, contact information, products and services. Most potential customers will look at your website after looking searching for you online, and before they choose to do business with you, so your website needs to provide the relevant information they are looking for. If you don’t have a website, or feel yours is lacking, it’s easier than ever to get a professional looking site. With a quick search you will be able to find some competent designers.
• Get educated: It will be beneficial to educate yourself on current trends regarding social media. This can be done by simply going to social media websites, taking the free introduction tours and reading blogs related to the sites. Beyond that you should also research your competitors’ websites and Internet presence. Observe what content they have online, and more importantly: what they don’t have. It will also help to connect with and observe industry experts, see what they post online, and note the style and tone they use. This will help provide you with a sound knowledge base from which you can then create a more effective online presence.
• Set goals: As with any step in business, you should have a plan with realistic goals. Aim for results that are achievable for your company. If you’re a small, local IT company that focuses on providing support for banks, don’t expect to have the same massive hype that Microsoft and Apple do. Clearly set objectives and review periodically.
• Develop a focus: In real life, you can’t be all things to all people. The same goes for social media. You need to develop a focus on what type of online content you would like to share. You should aim to create content that your customers will want to share with people.
• Stake a claim: You should to go to the main social media websites - Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube - and reserve your personal and business usernames. This is important because it will make you look more professional by having the same username across all sites, and users will be able to find you easier.
• Ask for help if you need it: While some companies make social media sound easy, it can be deceptively hard to master. If you feel lost, or are having a tough time with it, there are knowledgeable consultants out there who are happy to help.

Time to Get Social When you feel you know what direction you will take, it’s time to start developing your online profiles. It can be tough to decide which social media tools to utilize. Unfortunately there is no right answer. Most small businesses follow the crowd, and this means having pages on Facebook and Linkedin. This does not mean that you should join these networks simply because they have the most users. It is recommended that you follow what similar businesses or direct competitors are doing. If they are on one service but not another, do the same to begin with, but be on the lookout for new social media sites, or features being added to existing sites.

One Thing to Not Forget There is one really important thing we can share with businesses thinking of pursuing social media: it isn’t a turnkey operation. You can’t just, “set it and forget it.” To be successful, you need to be active by posting updates, news, and above all interacting with the people who reach out to you. After all, they are your customers. If you do establish your social presence but forget to keep it up to date, you will be the company that’s forgotten.

If you would like help with your social media strategy, please get in touch with us. We’d love to hear from you.

In late February 2012, Twitter hit 500 million users. This milestone has cemented Twitter as a major Social Media player. With this large user base, companies should be seriously considering integrating twitter with their marketing strategies. Benefits of integration include increased followers, brand awareness, and potentially a better bottom line. Here are some tips for increasing your followers.

Search for companies and people you know While it’s easy to use the search function in Twitter, it can be time consuming to search for people one by one. Instead:

1. Log into your Twitter account
2. Press the # Discover button at the top of the page
3. Press Find Friends
4. Log into the various accounts available
5. Add people as followers

This is a great way to rapidly increase your followers, and reconnect with customers and contacts you may have lost contact with.

Combine your Twitter and Facebook feeds You can combine your Twitter and Facebook feeds easily:

1. Log into your Twitter account
2. Select Profile Settings
3. Select Profile
4. Select Post your tweets to Facebook
5. Follow the instructions provided

Within minutes, your Tweets will show up in your Facebook status, enabling you to reach two platforms simultaneously. Be warned, this could spam your followers, causing them to stop following you - so it’s best to keep your Tweets or status updates to the most important information.

Join Twitter Ads for Small Business This recently announced service will be up and running soon, allowing small business owners to advertise on Twitter through Promoted Tweets. This service will be released in the near future, enabling businesses of all sizes to advertise.

If you are not on Twitter, would like to join, or know more please contact us.

I’m sitting in on a great Smartcompany webcast titled “How Small and Mid-Sized Companies are using Technology to Drive Business Success”. As usual the Smartcompany efforts are excellent productions, well worth the time.

The interesting thing about this particular session is hearing non-tech related small businesses talk about their use of social media. Great example is Brasserie Bread, a Sydney based artisan bakery. These guys have captured the passion surrounding their products to fantastic effect by creating a vibrant and active community. Tools like Twitter and a blog keep their customers engaged in a two way dialogue bringing superb value to both sides of the relationship. Brasserie Bread has further expanded their activities to include baking classes and public events both driven by, and feeding back into their community and social media strategy.

I’ve often pondered the best way to grow a community around what Grassroots IT has to offer. Trouble is as soon as I get thinking about that, my next thought is “who on earth would want to engage in a tech centric community, apart from a tech?”. Having seen what Brasserie Bread has achieved though definitely gives me pause for thought. After all, if they can foster an active community around something as seemingly ordinary as bread, surely Grassroots IT has something to offer?

I’ve got a good friend and colleague who is one of the most astute networkers I know. She has an amazing ability with people, both in understand them, working with them, but also in bringing them together. She also happens to be a fantastic writer, penning a number of e-publications that she has successfully used to help promote her business.  In fact the success of her business is largely based on these core skills. Which is why I was a little surprised the other day when she confessed to knowing very little about blogs, twitter, and so on. Web 2.0 is such a perfect medium for her message that I had assumed she’d be all over it!

Now to bring this back into context, Grassroots IT is only slowly discovering the power of social media, so for sure we are the last ones to be in a position to offer advise! So better yet, let’s share the learning experience. Follow us on Twitter (@GrassrootsIT), and via the blog (Subscribe over here) and learn from our mistakes! Let us know what works, and what doesn’t. Comment on our blog posts. Tweet back at us with feedback and ideas. Why not dip a toe in the water of Twitter? It’s free, and you can just listen for as long as you want. When you’re ready to start tweeting yourself, start by checking out these great Twitter Tips for an easy introduction. And don’t forget to let us know when you’re on, so that we can follow you too!

There’s no ignoring the ‘Social Media Revolution’ that’s happening around us, but the real question is…does it actually matter? Facebook, Twitter, Web 2.0, etc, etc, etc. The numbers are quite staggering when you hear about how many subscribers these services have, how rapidly they’re growing (and what they’re considered to be worth in dollar terms – astronomical).

But what’s it worth to me, as a small business owner? Can social media add any value to my business? To my clients business? The irony of that question I guess is that I”m asking it via a ‘social media’ channel, namely my blog. In my opinion yes, the well considered use of social media channels can bring a massive amount of value to my business (note the phrase ‘well considered’ in that sentence) and that of my clients. Now I’m going to throw up a quick disclaimer here to say that social media is a new thing to Grassroots IT. We’re starting to dip our toes in the water, so to speak, and learning a lot as we go. To give you a quick idea of where we’re heading with this, and how we might gain some value from the time invested…

1. “How To” posts on the blog. By provided step by step instructions on a particular task in the form of a blog post, we will start to build an easily accessible knowledge base for both our own internal reference and that of our clients. Need to setup your new iPhone to talk to Exchange? No problem, just go to our blog and search for Setup iPhone.
2. Engage in an open dialog. We get some things right, but we also get some things wrong. The important thing is to be aware of each so that we can continue doing the right things right, and work to fix the rest. By encouraging an open, transparent dialog with community, clients, and potential clients we can hopefully gain more insight on how we’re doing, and what we can do to improve.
3. Get People Talking. The goal of most marketing I guess is to get people talking about you. Increase the awareness, get your name in front of people, and so on. Check out this great video from our friends over at Bluewire Media and Mike O’Hagan of MiniMovers fame that says it so much better than I can.

Here’s an amazing video that I’ve seen a few times around the place, but final just came across today. Gives me goose bumps every time I see this, and puts a new perspective on social media.