Creating Social Media Value: Part 1 |

This entry is part 6 of 53 in the series Creating Social Media Value

This is part of the series “Creating Social Media Value”.

The first step in creating social media value is to understand what it means to be “present in the marketplace”.

The marketplace of commerce has and continues to shift on-line. While you may have an off-line presence the marketplace will not hear or find you unless you are also on-line.

Presence is more than having your profile in relevant networks or having a blog or web site.

Your web presence is about how well you organize, administer and manage your presence in relevant places.

Organizing your presence, whether individually or collectively, can only be done if you know where you should be and for what purposes. If your presence is not in the right places then the market will not “see” you. If you are not enhancing your presence with relevant content then the market will not see or hear of your value. Organizing your presence requires learning how to use relevant technology and determining where you and your organization should to be present.

Organizing your presence requires learning “who, where, when, what, why and how” your market is organized on-line. Markets have become self organized in communities whose content is in context to the markets needs and wants. Not being present in these communities and engaging in the conversations means you will not been heard or seen.

After you organize personal and organizational presence on-line then comes the task of administering your presence. Administration is defined as the universal process of organizing people and resources efficiently to direct activities toward common goals and objectives. Common business goals and aims should be for serving a market, creating a differential and engaging in relevant relations with other businesses or people you aim to serve.

Too many people and organizations fail to organize and administrate their presence on-line and then they never get any real traction with their market. Jumping in here and there is not being organized and not planning with a purpose is not managing anything. New knowledge of how to organize and administer on-line presence is required.

How To Manage and Administer On-line Presence

The on-line world can seem complex and confusing for those whose only experience in management and administration is off-line. The confusion comes from the lack of knowledge, experience and the vernacular used to describe the on-line world dynamics. The image in this post has a wordel (a word cloud) with relevant words used to define the knowledge domain of the on-line world. Some of the same terms are used in reference to off-line knowledge domains but the words have different context in the on-line world. Some of the other terms used are completely foreign to the off-line world.

In order to effectively manage and administer your on-line presence you must either learn what the terms and technology mean by yourself or hire someone who does and who can transfer their knowledge effectively. Either way learning and acquiring new knowledge is the first step to effective management and administration of your on-line presence.

Part 1 to creating social media value is vital to the success of the other related processes. Without organizing, managing and administering your on-line presence effectively it becomes very difficult to listen, learn, think, plan, engage and measure your effectiveness. It would be wise to do part 1 right the first time otherwise you end up doing the wrong things and doing them wrong. Results come from doing the right things and doing them right.

To say this isn’t important is like saying you don’t want anyone to know what value you have to offer the marketplace. If someone tells you these task are easy and won’t take time then they do not have the knowledge, experience or understanding needed to advise you correctly. Your presence has to do with everything and to ignore it is to discount everything that drives your business.

Is your presence relative to your market? How would you know unless you knew how to ask.

Part 2 (Listening & Learning) will be discussed tomorrow.

About Jay:
Jay Deragon’s professional career includes providing strategic management consulting services to Fortune 500 companies as well as local small businesses. He has consulted with numerous industries spanning over 25 years of professional experience globally. His current professional endeavors are all centric to the disruptive nature of the social web. He writes at Relationship Economy and provides social media strategic services to businesses large and small. Jay Deragon is an avid student of the emerging landscape of all things social and the subsequent impact on business dynamics. Since 2004 Mr. Deragon has been actively studying, sharing and learning how business as unusual is changing business methods, models and relationships. Life is a journey and the experiences along the way provides learning that furthers the experiences if we know how and what to learn. for more info go here http://www.relationship-economy.com/?page_id=2

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