Heather provided lots of sound information and was completely accessible.
Here’s what she told us:
You don’t have to do it all. Pick where you are most comfortable and start there.
TIP: Decide whether your social media foray will be personal/professional or a mix. Know where you draw the lines.
She advises using WordPress for blogs because it has easy to use templates and lots of online tutorials. Plus, it’s easy to update from anywhere, including your phone.
Twitter: Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Echofon are all management systems to help you sort followers into streams you can manage. Use them to make content specific or media specific silos.
Facebook: Use it for a personal and/or page for your brand. It generates more traffic back to her suite than any other social media stream and the brand page offers her analytics and the opportunity to pay to promote content.
Instagram: Great to share visually and it’s not necessary to be a great photographer. Hashtags help others find your content (showcase work to all #travel junkies, or #nofilter addicts. You can put links in the comments field to drive traffic back to your site.
LinkedIn: She uses this as an online rolodex. Join a specific group ie journalists, for one year of free professional access (renewable). This is used as a strictly professional outlet.
Pinterest: Great for visuals, photogs, foodies, crafters.
Google+: Lots of buzz about the ways Google will be pushing this to the front of decisions on how things rank on Google in terms of SEO.
Sources: Social media monitoring – Ian Cleary at razorsocial; New media business tools and techniques – Chris Brogan www.ownermag.com
Conferences: New Media Expo – business side of social media, podcasting, blogging; Travel Bloggers Exchange.
Check out Heather’s site, finder her on Twitter @greenwooddavis, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/globetrottingmama and Instagram at heathergd.
