How does a corporation get involved with Social Media? (with baby steps of course)

Categories: Community Marketing, Events, Social MediaPosted on August 3rd, 2007

Great post here by Robert Safuto, he lists out three different Points Of Entry To Social Media for corporations:

Association
Organizations may enter the world of social media by creating associations with existing communities and content producers. These associations may result in sponsorships of select blogs and podcasts or campaigns and promotions geared towards communities that represent the appropriate target demographic.

Publishing
Organizations have the option of entering the conversation with their own branded presence via a blog, podcast or mixed media channel. In this instance, representatives of the organization dedicate time to creating content, publishing content and interacting with the community at large.

Community Building
Involves the creation and management of a system that allows users to create a profile, interact with other users and submit content to the community. This type of initiative requires a significant amount of planning prior to launch and a great deal of management once launched.

Great list by Rob, it’s inspired me to add the following:

Viral Videos
I’d also add that I see some companies hiring advertising companies to build the wanna-be-a-hit video, with a wide degree of success.

Community Events
I’m also seeing companies dip their toes by having a small blogger event, such as a blogger dinner or a Lunch 2.0, (here’s how to do it successfully)

Crises Response
Some companies have the ill-fortune of experiencing the nasty way. Dell, Kryptonite locks, Jet Blue, and other companies that had to respond to blow ups in the social media space.

Audio Podcasts
I’ll add to the excellent publishing part that Rob added, that Audio Podcasts are a safe and easy way for corporations to get involved as it’s very similiar to creating existing markeitng collateral, and the chance for scary dialog is minimized.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Community Marketing, Events, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Comments

Adam Darowski

Viral Videos ARE a point of entry, but do they really lead to continued engagement between the viewer and company? I'd imagine this is pretty rare. Am I wrong?

I suppose the video REALLY has to not only be cute & funny, as many virals are, but also genuinely have a relationship with the product or service the producer is selling. Otherwise, any conversion would probably have the same likelihood of success as spam.

Know of any good lists of the most successful virals—from a financial perspective and not a "silly grin" perspective?