Some of the key phrases and takeaways from last Thursday’s Boston Business Journal (BBJ) event on Social Capital were, “It’s your number one news outlet” and “It raises your brand awareness in the market.” Given the topic and how critical social media has become for business over the past few years, the BBJ put together this event with a pretty fantastic panel, which included: Robert A. Bertsche, Partner at Prince Lobel Tye LLP; Michael R. Hall, Director of New Media at NESN; and Jennie Moore, Director of Communications at Fisher College. AJ Gerritson, Founding Partner at 451 Marketing moderated.
The discussion ranged from best practices to trial and error situations and how to use social media for your business in the most relevant and strategic way possible. Each panelist came from very different backgrounds, which provided colorful insight from one end of the spectrum to another. For example, Mr. Hall from NESN has a relatively large media team and is able to conduct in-depth research and analysis of various social media platforms. On the other hand, Ms. Moore from Fisher College doesn’t have a team and must measure social media using alternative means.
Both perspectives allowed the audience to relate to both scenarios, while Mr. Bertsche gave sound advice from a legal/compliance standpoint. Knowing “the area of risk and reward,” is crucial in managing your business’s social media strategy. In order to take a risk, you must be informed—he was referring to industry specific guidelines (FINRA, HIPAA, etc.), copyright law, and privacy laws, which has tossed in additional hurdles and far more check off boxes for social media folks and the businesses they are looking to promote.
Being in the public relations industry, I found this event to be quite insightful. I truly appreciate how social media gurus and teams not only must keep relative business communication flowing in line with today’s hot topics, research, promotions, events, they must also align with their business strategies and put a measurement matrix in place. The bottom line is that social media is everywhere and it has become a vital platform to nearly every business. So, to wrap things up, here’s what I learned from these incredibly talented, business-savvy social media gurus while at the event:
- Stay on your game! It’s important to stay connected with local businesses and companies within your industry.
- Always know your audience— this allows you to identify trends and develop relevant content that will grab their attention.
- Syndication—know which platform is most appropriate for the type of news you’re distributing and tweak that information accordingly.
- “Always assume you’re being watched” and use good judgment—you can’t erase a snide or controversial post so be prepared to have a public diplomatic debate or a response ready in the wings. And remember, you may be conversing with an individual but you always have an audience watching what’s transpiring in real-time.