Igniting conversations through social media

In a world of friend requests, likes and tweets, social media has brought about a new way to communicate, and while it's second nature to some, others need a little help navigating the new world of the Internet when it comes to marketing, communicating or the technical stuff.

To help solve that problem, Social Media Club Great Lakes Bay joined forces with the Midland Daily News to bring the Ignite Social Media Conference to Midland last month. The event drew more than 115 attendees from various businesses and organizations in mid-Michigan who are interested in advancing their social media skills.

The conference featured 12 sessions on topics like content quality, best practices and business results, which were presented by 17 different speakers from across Michigan.

"The conference went really well," says Rachel Esterline, Social Media Club Great Lakes Bay founder and social media specialist for AGP & Associates in Midland. "We wanted to educate people in the Great Lakes Bay area about how they can use social media to improve their business or organization."

Social media is about posting information online and starting a conversation about it. This is done daily by individuals, small businesses, large corporations and organizations.

"We thought it would be good to bring together people from the area to talk about social media," says Esterline. "This is the area’s first conference of its kind. We wanted to develop social media in this area and help people understand how social media can work for their business."

One such example is content marketing, or informational content created and shared by the business or organization for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumers.

"The content marketing session was definitely our most popular session," says Esterline. "The room was filled to capacity with attendees listening through the door from the hallway. Charlie Kondek and Sean T. Johnston from Team Detroit did a great job speaking about the benefits of content marketing and how to make it work for companies and organizations."

Content marketing aims to increase brand awareness, loyalty to the brand, organization or product and the potential to increase revenue. But, the key for success using any type of social media is to communicate, Esterline says.

"It’s all about igniting conversation," she says. "That could mean with consumers, with social media experts or other business owners just starting in social media. People need to communicate to see what is working and what isn’t."

Conference attendees focused on different strategies depending on their business and needs. Those with smaller businesses learned techniques to engage with their customers, how to develop interactive presentations, use social media tools and optimize their online presence.

Attendees from larger corporations learned when to use technical jargon and when not to be so serious with the corporate blog posts. One common factor for all the businesses and organizations was engaging in conversations with consumers.  

"Social media is only beneficial for companies (large or small) who want to be social and are in a position to communicate with their customers," says Dave Murray, director of social web communications at re:group in Ann Arbor and founder of Social Media Club Detroit. "Anyone can market on social media, but few are actually communicating. There is a big difference between the two."

Social media is simply all media created and transmitted digitally. Social marketing is using that media to attract attention and start conversations about a product, organization or brand, which is what the conference taught attendees how to do.

"Social media is a referral engine," says Murray. "Choosing to not implement social media in your business means you are missing out on opportunities to build your customer base and for them to refer your business to someone else."

The power of social media is the ability to share informational content. Businesses and organizations can better connect and communicate with their audience through blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels.  That's not where the advantages top; social media is generally free for businesses and organizations to use, and offers quick results along with plenty of options for getting your message out.

"Social media is changing the way people communicate," Murray says. "Businesses and organizations using these media outlets to promote themselves and their products or organizations are gaining awareness and revenue. If they communicate well on the social web they can achieve success."

Lisa McCartney is a freelance writer from Mid-Michigan.
Ignite Social Media Conference -2011 - H Hotel Midland Michigan - Images by Avram Golden