Why Social Media? (or my LBF Children’s Innovation Zone Presentation)

On Monday and Tuesday at London Book Fair I gave a presentation on how we’re using social media at Hot Key to launch ourselves as a publisher. You can watch me run through how and why on the video below. It’s about 15 minutes, so sit back over lunch or with a cup of tea when you have time. I do make some interesting points, I promise. Unfortunately the slides don’t show on the video, and I wanted to get it up online quickly, but they are in the widget below the video (Thanks @BookBuzzrCEO) or available to download here

Lbf innovation zone

View more presentations from HotKeyBooks

For those that missed it – the Meet the Team video can be found on our About Us page!

Now, as you know we take social media very seriously here at Hot Key, and rightly so in my opinion. Many people I talked too after my presentation are grappling with how to find the time to do social media, or how to work it into their marketing and PR strategy, or wondering who’s responsibility it is.  Since joining Hot Key, and to be honest, in my previous roles, I’ve had many, many people say with a sigh, ‘I’d love to have the time to blog/tweet everyday like you guys, but we’re just TOO busy‘, with almost an underlying tone of ‘clearly you don’t have anything better to do’.

It is hard, I admit. But it is also no longer just a nice idea, it’s a necessity. If you aren’t prioritizing social media into your company’s strategy, then there is a problem. You can engage instantly with far more people by spending a week on social media than you ever would with a tube poster advert. Also, many people assume it’s just the marketing or PR department’s responsibility. It shouldn’t be. If your company is serious about social media, EVERYONE should be doing it. It should be part of your day, not just part of your marketing strategy.

And finally, some simple tips if you are just starting out:

• Don’t think it’s too late if you have no social presence yet. It isn’t. You can grow followers quickly in the social world if you commit to regularly doing it.
• Don’t use it just for marketing messages, if you do people will turn off. Social Media is a conversation, you shouldn’t try to directly sell to people
• Have Twitter or Facebook open at work at all times. Yes, tell your boss I said it’s okay. You need to monitor conversations to see if you can dip in and start talking. That’s a great way to pick up new followers.
• Twitter has excellent recommendations of Who to Follow, based on your own tweets, so get out there and follow those similar to you, and all being well you might get some follow backs.
• Use bit.ly to short all your links, and then you can see if people are clicking on your content
• Encourage members of staff to have personal twitter accounts too, it’s nice for people to see a personal face behind a brand.

Those are just a few nuggets. And if you still don’t believe that you should be doing social, watch this short video below. It’s a new version of something I’ve shown before, but it’s brilliant. My favourite bit is: “The ROI of Social Media…is that your company will exist in 5 years time”.

What do you think?