Preparing for a Social Media Presence

I'm often doing some background consulting, professionally or for friends, regarding presences on the Internet. Sometimes people listen, sometimes not, but almost everyone listens when I tell them that they shouldn't sweat social media just yet - particularly small and medium enterprises (SME)s. As I mentioned in The True Way To Monitor Social Media, the true value of social media can only be found in the value of the conversations for everyone involved - and it follows that too much or too little social media can be a bad thing. Social media is a conversation - and when you're having a conversation there's typically a reason why.

In the context of business, social media is about conversion of conversation into something the business wants. This could be branding, sales, customer service and refinement of internal processes - or even simply exposure for press announcements. For larger businesses, getting people to respond to social media presents its own challenges. There are issues of company standards of public communication where too much means the responsiveness of HMS Titanic (with similar effect) or rapid responses that may not work toward the company's interests. Somewhere in between is a magic spot for every business that has to be found. Oh, and did I mention that the most important part of the conversation requires trust? Credibility is king.

For SMEs and similarly sized non-profits, the challenge is somewhat the same with an additional problem: Lack of people to throw at the problem. A small entity without resources to deal with issues responsively detracts from their business: the Internet doesn't tolerate speed bumps for whatever reason. And so, too, a SME has to consider carefully what they intend to use social media for - and how much to use it. Tools like HootSuite.com can make one pebble of content throw many ripples in the great pond of social media - but it's the reflection of those waves that needs to be dealt with.

If your business is making money and you're too busy to deal with social media in a responsive way, you can still prepare for that growth in the future so that your social media presence will flow naturally if and when you get a chance to work on it. Here are a few tips:

• Ask satisfied customers and clients for recommendations that you can post online once you have a chance. Recommendations on LinkedIn and even on Facebook pages can really help in this regard. Open a word processing document and paste these things in, too, for later reference.
• Take pictures. If you're in a service business, get pictures of you doing the service (and, preferably, smiling).
• Document projects done. Even if your customer doesn't want to share specifics with others, you can write down things in such a way that they aren't named. And if they aren't worried about their specifics (get a release in writing!), you have a more tangible portfolio.
• Don't try to stay on top of social media: Focus on what you do. That is how your business will succeed. When the time is right, when you have enough breathing space to get into the social media game, then do your research. You could even hire KnowProSE LLC for that.
• Build your reputation outside of the social media space so it's more robust when it hits social media.

As simple as these things are to read, they can be difficult to do. It will never be perfect - but anything you do along these lines will greatly affect your social media presence in the future, should you get there.

And I hope you get there. Good luck!