Does the “social” nature of the web scare you, excite you, or intrigue you? From a business perspective, it often can do all three at the same time!
No matter how you feel about this fast-changing world of internet technology and the new opportunities it brings to the marketplace, don’t stress. Remember, these tools are simply means for socialising/communicating with other people next door, interstate, or around the world. The best way to start learning about them is to join a service or two and just dabble for a while. Search for topics that interest you then listen to the conversations for a while. It won’t be long before you’ll be chatting with others and building your reputation online.

If you want to start with a friend in the social space, you are welcome to follow me a while on Twitter or Facebook. Make yourself known.

There is plenty of good background reading about “web 2.0″ and this online rediscovery that humans are very social creatures. Look in the Social Marketplace section for my small library of resources.

I look forward to “meeting” you, somewhere up “in the cloud” or even face-to-face. Imagine that?! Please share any items from my site that you find helpful with your friends and colleagues; the sharing buttons on each page make that an easier process. A great place to start might be the index of websites I have reviewed on FIVEaa because there are bound to be a few that take your fancy, or might prove helpful.

Oh, and if you have come here to hire my services for your business, just ask for Josie at Baker Marketing. She controls my diary!

Steve Davis
Marketing Director
Baker Marketing

The two commandments of social media marketing

One of the concepts I believe is crucial to share with anyone in business who wants to use social media tools as part of their marketing mix, is that the tools are EASY. What is harder is knowing what content to produce.

From my years of working with thousands of business people, especially small to medium business operators, I have formed the opinion that those people who are still deeply connected to the passion and vision that led them into their fields of endeavour are the ones who will do well in social media.

This is because they will be able to:

• speak with a genuine interest in sharing knowledge and helping people find solutions
• have the energy to be available in the various social places because such interactions will ‘feed’ them

In short, they will be able to abide by my two commandments of social media marketing, adapted from a person who is a magnificent role model for such endeavours, Jesus the Marketer (I will expand on this in future posts and provide links here).

The commandments are:

Love your work with all your heart and with all you soul and with all your mind. And the second is like it; Love your customer as yourself.

While these commandments will strike some people as odd and eccentric, I believe they form a litmus test as to your readiness to go the distance and put in the hard yards of being helpful and available through social channels for your marketing.

It will pay off but it will demand going above and beyond the call of duty.

Hence, the first commandment is crucial for having the staying power while the second commandment is crucial for producing the right content that serves people.

Here is the first article I have written on the two commandments of social media marketing. More will follow.