Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Oh My

Inspirational story of self-professed computer novice and social media detractor who transformed into self-taught social media expert and evangelist in less that 12 months leveraging Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn to successfully promote her business nationally.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Oh my

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Oh My. Repeat this to the cadence of Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh my. Do you know the line? It’s from a scene in the wizard of Oz where the heroines are following the yellow-brick road on the way to fulfill their dreams and desires. In the wizard of Oz, lions, tigers and bears are things to fear. Social media should not be something to be feared by businesses of any size or from any industry. Anyone interested in learning social media can do so by investing time and energy in learning about these new, hugely popular social media marketing and message distribution platforms.

Courtesy of See Mike Draw.

To that end, I joined a local New Business Club that I found through my social network on LinkedIn, which was a social network in 1994, long before YouTube, Facebook and Twitter where even a twinkle in any visionary’s mind or even before the term social networking was coined. Tonight’s presenter at our New Business Club meeting is a successful health coach and entrepreneur, who, according to her, was directed by her business coach to begin embracing social media in support of growing her busienss and establishing her brand online. This person, by her own admission, is not computer savvy and intially resisted her business coach’s direction to embrace social media. At first.

Now, less than one year later this person has a Facebook fan page for her business with several hundred fans, a Twitter account with several hundred followers and a mechanism to syndicate content between YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, integrated through Ping FM. Ping FM? WTF? Don’t start muttering Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, oh my. If a self-confessed computer novice, initially opposed to Social Media can do it, so can you.

With so much buzz about Social Media, its easy to become overwhelmed by these social media icons that seem to dominate mentions on all forms of traditional media and just put getting started on the todo list. That would be a mistake. Do you know why? Because your customers are spending more of their time online, specifically on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Linkedin. Facebook alone has 400 million subscribers with users sharing 5 billion pieces of content each week. Facebook users spend 55 minutes on Facebook everyday! That makes for good odds that your target market is on Facebook, probably becoming fans of your competitors right now.

How to get started? Open a Facebook account and create a company page. It is free to do. If you are more interested in promoting your business through videos, sign up for a YouTube account and upload a video. Want to promote your business in realtime, then sign up for a Twitter account begin Tweeting. If this sounds like too much trouble, that’s fine, maybe you are ready for retirement soon anyhow. If you’re you’re a believer or don’t know where to start, request a free Social Media assessment.