Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Seeking Funds/Social Media Marketing

We started off the evening discussing our various updates in our business. Some of the updates included hiring new employees; sought out information on retail and business licenses; obtaining new contracts; research; obtaining a book-keeper; shooting a short film that is now in hands of the Editor; and networking.

The Chapter 9 lesson was about funding sources.  We discussed the main sources of money of business start-ups and companies experiencing growth, including use of own money, credit cards, family/friends, Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists, and bank/SBA-backed loans.

Last night's speaker spoke on the topic of using Social Media as a savvy business tool. Beth Baldauf was the speaker and she is what one would call a Social Media Volunteer. Her full-time job does not allow her to be as involved with Social Media as her private activities. Yet, she is just as passionate about the topic as if she was doing it full-time.  We discussed the primary tools that everyone is aware of including, Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Blogs, and 4Square.  There are about two dozen more applications within Social Media, which she encouraged us all to look into, but if you can find either one or two to be comfortable with, that's fine as well.  It is very important to be engaging and to converse with those in your social network.  An important factor for businesses is to listen before you sell. Make sure you know your audience.  Information shared should be short and the content informative. Sharing pictures and celebrations should also not be ignored.  As it relates to putting time and effort into the social media networks, some suggestions included hiring students or adding it into some or every employees job description. Applications such as HootSuite and Socialoomph can be used to help schedule social media communications at appointed times.  However, it is very important that you set a regular time to see if people are contacting you and responding timely, whether its daily or weekly. If anyone is interested in learning more about Social Media as a marketing tool, they should consider reading a book entitled Socialnomics.  If you live in the Columbia area, you should meet up with the Columbia area Social Media Club.

We GRADUATE next week.  Please email us weconnectedprod@gmail.com if you are interested in attending next Tuesday evening at 6PM.

Sharee

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