Real marketing is in the conversations that take place between people. It’s no wonder that word of mouth is the most trusted and influential method of communicating a message. Social media is all about enabling that conversation about you, your company and your brand.

However, once the conversation has started, you can’t control what people say. All you can do is influence them by being open and part of the conversation.

People use social media for four primary reasons:

1. Communication
2. Collaboration
3. Education
4. Entertainment

It only makes sense that you gear your social media activity around these four activities.

Communication

What are you saying about yourself and your company or brand? What are others saying about you? Is what they’re saying in alignment with what you want them to say? Are you conversing with them?

You need a solid brand image and message when communicating with the world.

Collaboration

How are you engaging your community or tribe? What sort of participation are you eliciting from them? What benefits are they getting out of engaging with you? What avenues are you using to engage your target?

Some effective tools for collaboration are organizational wikis as well as online forums.

Education

How are you leveraging your expertise or the expertise of those in your company or organization? He who gives most first, gets most first.

Blogs are the most influential social media tool in existence today. How regularly are you taking the time to educate your audience?

Entertainment

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world because people love to be entertained. They want to hear good stories, they want to laugh. They want to be amazed by what they see.

Videos that truly entertain get passed on and become part of the conversation. How regularly are you producing video content to communicate your message?

Videos are the most memorable communication tool available in your marketing arsenal today. However, if you aren’t familiar with the processes to produce video content quickly and efficiently then you will consume a lot of your time.

For this I recommend you check out Secrets of Video Production – shameless plug

The experience was a bit unfortuante. However, it was a great reminder of three things to keep in mind when doing business. Whether that “business” is dawah or running a restaurant.