I’m sure by now we’ve all heard professionals calling themselves “social media experts,” “social media gurus,” and perhaps even “social networking masters…” gumaxperts, if you will (pronounced GOO-max-perts, to clarify). Adaption of social media professional titles to celebrity couples’ name combination trend aside, you get the point—there are a lot of people who are quick to publicize their expertise in the social media world. So many, in fact, that if you missed the boat on this (don’t worry, the boat wasn’t in port too long in this instance), you might feel a little too intimidated to even try to catch up at this point.
But here’s the rub– regardless of if you plan to be extremely experienced with social media, or just want to take advantage of a few of the many sites available, it’s important to at least play around in social media. Why? Because it gives you a chance to connect with people, and no matter who you are, or what you do, that simple yet so prolific aspect of social media can benefit you. So, for all of you social media non-gumaxperts out there (sorry, had to legitimize my made-up term by using it in a sentence), here are three basic tools to get your feet wet in the social media pool. Don’t worry, just take it one step at a time and you’ll be able to swim in the deep end in no time—without those oh-so-cool floaties too!
Blog: This is where you’ll want to host all of your big ideas. The word blog is actually short for “web log.” Blogs are used for a variety of things these days – a blog can be a diary, a company newsletter, a place for you to voice your opinion, a political soapbox, or a site for information about breaking news. A blog can be anything you want it to be, there aren’t really any rules. However, most successful blogs are well organized and updated frequently. In its most basic form, a blog is a website where you write content or post updates on a regular basis. Two of the most popular blog hosting sites are Blogger and Wordpress. Blogger is a free blogging service supported by Google. It offers a variety of blog templates and designs, an easy way to upload photos and embed videos, and makes it easy to search for other blogs. Wordpress is also a free blogging service. Wordpress has more variety in terms of templates and theme designs, it allows you to track stats on your blog (who is visiting and how often) right on the blog dashboard, and provides the option of upgrading your blog for more storage space or additional plug-ins. Individuals benefit from creating blogs for personal branding and marketing. Businesses benefit from creating blogs in a variety of ways. Whole Foods, for example, has a very successful blog. They post information related not only to their brand, but to all things food related as well, engaging their consumers on a level which allows them to not only connect with what they’re selling, but how it relates to their everyday lives.
Facebook: Facebook is a social networking site that acts as a real community of sharing. When it was first launched, facebook was used mainly to connect with friends and family by sharing photos, commenting on each others’ profile pages, and creating event invitations. By the way, no, that’s not a typo—the “f” is supposed to be lower-case. And no, you’re not the only one– it drives me crazy too. Now, facebook has become utilized more by businesses, through creating facebook fan pages. For individuals on facebook, you create a facebook profile page. Your profile contains your photo, a little information about yourself – where you’re from, your interests and activities, where you work, and a wall, where your friends can post comments or links directly to your profile page. For business on facebook, you can create a facebook fan page. The fan page allows facebook users to join your fan page community, post comments and links to your wall, and be kept up-to-date with business news, events, and leaders.
Also to note: facebook is in the habit of making constant changes to its site, usually to increase traffic to certain pages and therefore increase advertising revenue (hey, they’re a business too, right?), so it’s advised to stay up on new policies so you can best determine how to run your fan page. Here is the latest article from Social Media Guide, Mashable, about recent changes to the fan page policies.
Twitter: The basic premise of Twitter is answering the question, “what’s happening?” After taking just a few minutes to set up an account, Twitter users can easily answer this question by posting a status update to their profile, known as a “tweet.” As Twitter has grown, people now tweet all sorts of things, beyond the “Just woke up, about to head to the grocery store.” People tweet links to interesting articles they are reading online and people tweet their innovative thoughts and ideas. Businesses are even becoming involved with Twitter, tweeting new research, specials and coupons on products, and announcing new service launches. Twitter also makes it easy for users to search for information by entering keywords in the search bar, Twitter pulls up all tweets mentioning the keyword or linking to relevant articles. Most interaction on Twitter occurs directly on your profile page. In the bar where you post your status updates, you can use the “@” before a user name to indicate a response to that user. You can also use the “#” before a keyword to make it appear when people search that particular word. Don’t get caught up in the fact that Twitter happens to ask you “what’s happening?” every time you sign on. The real value for business comes in the form of being able to know what’s happening you’re your consumers. Following users is just as important, if not more important, as posting updates to your profile. By regularly monitoring what people are saying about your brand and following people in your field of interest, you can stay up-to-date on consumer opinions, potential scams, industry news, leaders, and events in your area. And therein lies the beauty of this tool—it allows you to listen to people you never would’ve had access to before. Use it wisely, friends.
So there you have it, your crash course in social media. Keep in mind that although this was a “beginners” course, there are many people who call themselves experts who have not mastered them yet. In fact, if these three tools (and how to use them together to promote your brand) are all you learn in the next few months, you’ll be much better off than many others. So keep your chin up, you’re closer to the deep end than you think. And don’t worry; if you have any questions, post them in the comments below or send us an email, we’d be glad to chat with you. Just think of us as your theoretical floaties. 
For those of you who have these tools mastered, keep an eye out for the next post in the Web(ster’s) 2.0 series—intermediate tools. It’s still in the works, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to toss ‘em our way and we’ll try to work them in!