Jaki Gaudet

Today's IMU Class: Social Media & Building Community, conducted by Chris Brogan.

A community is a place where fans, clients, employees, prospects gather in support of a product/service that empowers them. Social media has relocated these communities from physical to online.

1. It is NOT about you, your product, or anything related to your goals. The community you build is all about the people in it.

2. If others outside of your company are creating a community for you, then consider that a gift and engage them and let them know you are listening.

3. Point out when you are working on correcting problems that your community might be experiencing.

4. Listen to what your community is saying and then take action. Acknowledge it when a community member participates.

5. A community is simply people who gather. We just see the hype around new social vehicles, but we can't ignore our community, no matter where they are.

6. You community wants to succeed and they look to you to help them (if you are lucky). Give them tips, trends, articles, advice, anything that they can learn from.

7. Give your community the feeling that it is all about them and praise success stories.

8. A good community will help a sales cycle with lead generation methods, and providing post-sales education.  Look at ROI as a Return on Influence. If you make people feel good, they're more apt to work with you.  

9. A community can NOT be outsourced. Don't hand them over to an outside company or an intern. They are you 2nd most important group next to your staff.

Building a community for our new england marketing company was my focus in 2010. I dedicated time to it each day and I began to see the results. Set a goal for how many people you want to follow you by a certain date, and keep track. The more relevant posts you include the quicker you are to get to your goal.

My reading material was Building Social Media Groups for Business Growth. It was an in-depth read about the things covered in the webinar.

Next class: Business Uses for Facebook and LinkedIn.