10 Commandments of Social Media

1
Thou shalt acknowledge your organisation can benefit from an on-line presence

2
Thou shalt survey the social media tools available to create, manage and maintain a good online brand

3
Thou shalt understand the conversation and be aware of brand sentiment and awareness

4
Thou shalt create and mature a ‘Voice’, an online style/tone that you will stick with/ create an 'online personality'

5
Thou shalt trust your staff with implemented guidelines on how to and what to contribute

6
Thou shalt not put restrictions or rules on your new community for they will fragment and go elsewhere

8
Thou shalt find your audience and engage with them, conversation shall flow and your network shall enlarge

9
Thou shalt find the strong and weak connections in your group and actively try and link the two into a stronger network

10
Thou shalt generate spokespeople for your brand by responding on blogs, forums, wiki, tweets in a quick and informing nay entertaining manner

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Image is paramount - managing your online brand

How you appear online is the key to your success. Building credibility starts with you and your personal 2.0 accounts. What does your Facebook account say about you? what do your friends accounts say about your account and in turn what does that say about your business account? Maybe you think this is slighlty going overboard on the fussy scale but attention to detail at this step will make sure your brand gets off on the right foot.

Scan Google with your name and see what comes up? Is it a picture of you drunk or sleeping rough? Was your face tagged in a friend of a friends facebook photo! If sp make sure you sort this out pronto; make yourself familiar with the security settings on Facebook. What type of posts are on your Facebook accounts? Are they rude or vulgar? Are your friends hell bent on refusing to believe that they left university 10 years ago and giving your personal brand a kicking? If so ged rid of them, you can tell a lot about a person by the friends they keep and their email addresses (thehornytoad@yahoo.com) - especially when readers dont know you personally and will be getting their cues from the content of your social media sites.

Understand how to use the settings on your Twitter account. If some nut is sending you crazy or offensive tweets learn how to block them. Watch your language and tone as well. Comments are never truely deleted in the internet age. Always portray a positive and inclusive image adding value to the conversation.

Make sure that you send quality posts and blogs. Little and often is the key, but make sure its of value, and dont repeat the same message, it will become tiresome and end up as unwanted spam after a short while!

You should set up a YouTube channel with a distict, clear and crisp presentation. If you are a good presenter why not upload a presentation of the work that you do and videos that interested viewers may find value in? Check to see what videos are available and see how you can tweek them to make them more interesting to your audience. 3000 viewers on how to put on a pair of socks - i rest my case! Make sure you link to your blogs and your other social media platforms. Link everything up!

AND FINALLY
Listen to your audience. What do they want from you? What can you give them? In social media you have to listen to what the conversation is before you can converse back.

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