“What’s the ROI of your receptionist? What’s the ROI of your parking? What’s the ROI of the paint on the walls? What’s the ROI of the landscapers? The idea that everything has to come back to measurable ROI is ludicrous.” ~ David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR

This is the first course of the LSU CE Social Media Certificate Program. Each course in the certificate program is intended to work individually as well as part of the series.

Social Media is a revolutionary business trend. The Essentials course lays the foundation for a complete Social Media integration effort. First we define Social Media’s origins and its usage. Then we discuss Social Media strategy extensively. My goal is to ensure that my student’s are able to lead their organization in developing an effective strategy which aligns with corporate strategic objectives.

Armed with principles for developing a strategy we dive into a practical discussion on branding and the sometimes subtle differences between corporate branding vs. small business or government entities. Regulated industries have their own unique challenges related to Social Media. Personal branding can not only enhance your career but can strategically raise the profile of almost any organization. We work through a step by step tutorial on setting up Social Media for personal branding. The course includes a detailed discussion and demonstration of over 20 important Social Media tools and usage styles for 2011.

We wrap up the two-day course with an in-depth study on listening and monitoring Social Media, reputation management, developing content, engaging your audience and measuring results.

I’m pleased to include some great national case studies and quite a few Southern Louisiana rising stars…

PACTEC
@pactec

Trish Freeman – The Insurance Lady
@insuranceladyLA

Community Coffee
@CommunityCoffee, @CCsCoffeehouse

LSU Continuing Education
@LSUCE

Holly Clegg
@hollyclegg

Louisiana Technology Council
@latechcouncil

Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals
@Bruceonhealth, @La_Health_Dept

The American Society for Quality
@ASQ1521

Naked Pizza in New Orleans
@NakedPizza

Here’s the course description:
http://bit.ly/LSUCESMCert

The Social Media Specialist Certificate Program:
http://bit.ly/LSUCESMSp

The new design layout for Facebook business pages come with long awaited features and strategic changes for organizations to leverage.

New Strategic Considerations…

1. Switch between admin and yourself to make your brand more personal
2. Like and Comment on other pages as your brand for awareness and thought leadership
3. Set new category and sub-category to better define your brand
4. Receive email notices to respond faster to fan / connection interaction
5. Use more descriptive names for custom tabs to further engage with your fans/connections
6. Make effective use of the Photo Banner to create interest
7. Select featured page likes to promote your partners or benefactors
8. Select featured page owner(s) for personal branding
9. Use blocklists for safety

There is a lot to like in the new features for Facebook business pages. One of the most significant changes is the ability to “Use Facebook as” your business page. Once you select this option you can browse other Facebook pages as your brand, click like, and then like and comment on posts just as you would from your personal page. You can also view your “home page” and see a news feed from the pages you’ve liked.

Strategically, the ability for your brand page to interact with other brands’ pages adds a new and interesting layer for creating brand awareness. I’m sure some will try to abuse the feature but they will only hurt their own reputation. The positive possibilities are strong.

Sports teams can exchange competitive trash talk, friendly competitors can have fun with each other, non-profits can interact with their sponsors, associations can interact with their member companies, the Geico Gecko can banter with Flo from Progressive… It just got interesting!

The new challenge will be remembering to switch back to your personal account after browsing as your brand.

Here’s a great article explaining the new Facebook upgrade:
Facebook Page redesign: 10 things admins should do RIGHT NOW.

IT Pros have unique challenges and opportunities when considering Social Media. I look forward to speaking for AITP this week because Social Media is both technical and strategic. Here are some items IT Pros would benefit from discussing in 2011.

IT is supposed to know everything
If someone clicks a mouse, looks at a screen or prints, they assume IT must know how it works. Don’t you know everything? It’s likely that your organization will look to you for guidance on Social Media. Learn more about business applications for Social Media and be ready to provide the guidance they need.

Just say no to Social Media
The gut reaction for most organizations has been to lock out all Social Media sites. Real concerns about productivity, security, viruses and bandwidth make a “lock down” the easy choice. Consider suggesting that certain business units get training on proper business applications for Social Media and open up access for them. Like the “World Wide Web” in the nineties, you may ultimately find yourself opening access eventually anyway.

IT, “Lead the Way”
Social Media is a strategic business tool-set which can make a significant difference in the positive performance of your organization. IT can lead the way for the organization in understanding and achieving great results from Social Media.

Personal Branding
IT Pros who understand how to use Social Media personally can enhance their career and raise the profile of their company.

Implementing Social Media strategically is both an art and a science. IT Pros can instill confidence that Social Media can be done well.

This is a video I created for fun depicting a typical scenario in organizations today. Hope you have fun with it.

Social Media is Free… Sort of.

“I thought it was free!”