Member Minded

It’s been a few weeks since I spoke at the KCCE Fall conference and the topic was Social Media 2.0.    They had a great group and we covered a lot of ground in just 90 minutes.  I focused the introduction on what is Social Media 2.0 and Why it Matters, then dug deeper into the big three (Facebook, LinkedIn and Mobile).  As I stated at the end of my presentation, the web moves at such a fast pace it's many times hard to keep up.  Below are links to four important things I think chambers should know or be testing in the social space.

Facebook - Ask and you will mostly receive

I complained during the presentation that Facebook's search function is quite poor, especially compread to LinkedIn and Twitter. While Facebook didn't really alter their search function, they do now offer a friend finder.  Go to http://www.facebook.com/find-friends/browser/ to see the new tool.  Now, you can sort by hometown, current city, high school, mutual friend, college and employer.  Most of its filters are based on friends you already have so those of you with a larger friend base will see better results.  I'm happy Facebook is moving in the right direction and how their search function will soon be updated.

LinkedIn - Monitor your local events

Just in the past month, Linkedin gave your chamber a great new way to profile your chamber as a company.  Visit this link to start setting up your company profile.  I thought this would be a great way to showcase many of the chamber's services and bring in all your social presences (twitter, youtube, blog, etc) into one space.  Now, they've also featured a LinkedIn events function at http://events.linkedin.com.  This functionality is not  new, but LinkedIn has recently been integrating more and more of the events into personal and company profiles which tells me they likely have a plan for its bigger use.  In the meantime, you can easily search for upcoming networking events and/or conferences.  With these search tools you can see if your members are attending other local events and look up industry events of key members as well.  Finally, I think if you have a free event it could be interesting to see how many would RSVP through LinkedIn if you posted your own event with their site.

Scanning - Sharing with smart phones

I mentioned mobile scanning as being a key part of what is next in social media, but didn't give you many resources other than CardMunch.com.  Mark Schental (his LInkedIn profile) from the Northern Kentucky Chamber also mentioned the use of QR (or 2D) codes.  In short these codes can be scanned by most smart phones and will redirect you to a web page, show you a message or even add a vCard of your contact information.  It may sound complex, but here's an easy (and FREE) way to create your own QR codes with Kaywa.com.  I would start by creating a QR code that redirects to your web site and put that on a printed flyer.  I realize not everyone will know how this works, but those that do will likely spread the word!

Social Media News - Stop hunting, start browsing

There are numerous places to read online about social media.  Many times the volume can be overwhelming.  I personally think Jason Falls from SocialMediaExplorer.com is one of the brightest thought leaders in the space and happens to be a Kentucky boy.  His blog covers intermediate to high level social media trends and will introduce you to the latest and greatest tools being used by companies.  Outside of Jason's blog, I suggest http://social-media.alltop.com.  Alltop offers you a "magazine rack" approach to online content by pulling the most recent articles from the top sources onto one page.  Rather than hunt for great content, use Alltop to browse the newest and top sources on one screen and see the most popular stories.

The reality is we couldn’t cover all I wanted about social media in such a short period at the conference, but below is a few brief review of my talk (with links).  For those who wanted my slides, just click here to download them.  Also, if we aren't connected online, please connect with me on LinkedIn (ToddEarwood) or Twitter (@earwood).

Facebook

• Over 500,000 million users
• Users love to compare themselves (1% of the Earth’s population plays Farmville)
• Download the “Facebook for Business” e-book at Hubspot

LinkedIn

• Follow the four steps for a good LinkedIn presence
  1. Create a Personal profile
  2. Complete your profile (get to 100%)
  3. Create an Organizational Group
  4. Create a Company Profile
• Levreage all the new Company tools
  • Enable company mentions in the news
  • Add your chamber services or
  • Link staff members to services offered (i.e. - membership to dues
  • Link a video to services if you have one
    

Mobile

• The new desktop
• 1 trillion text messages sent in 2009
• Use AppMakr.com to turn your news (rss feed) into a mobile app

Free Tools

• Optit.com - start collecting mobile numbers
• SocialMention.com - track what's being said online about you and your chamber
• Grader.com - Score your online profiles and get free tips on how to improve

Image credit: Flickr user metaroll
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