| This post was kindly contributed by Key Happenings at support.sas.com - go there to comment and to read the full post. |
The NorthEast SAS Users Group conference invited Dave Thomas, Executive Director for New Marketing Labs, to give the keynote address at Sunday night’s opening session. His address was titled “Why Should SAS Professionals Use Social Media?” Thomas is an entertaining speaker who soon showed the somewhat skeptical audience that this form of information gathering is not a fad and is no longer new. He also gave them practical steps for using social media that I hope to share with you.
The first “So what?”
The world has already changed forever because of social media. Thomas started his presentation with a photo of his son playing with a smart phone. He used the photo to show that many who enter the workforce today have never known a world without social media or the Internet. To them, communicating information via social channels is second nature. So, many of you either work with or may eventually work for someone who will require you to acquire social networking skills.
“So what?” No. 2
According to Thomas, this “So what?” is the idea of a social graph. When you walk into a crowded room, which conversation draws you across the floor? The idea of a social graph is that you see people in that room that you recognize. The same is true on a social media site. “When you go to a social site and see others you respect from your social circle, you see that this page may hold value for you,” says Thomas.
The inverse is true for consultants or business owners: By providing value on your page, you encourage valuable, respected contributors to like your page – thus attracting more likes. “You have to be engaging if you want people to connect with you,” says Thomas. “Give them something that will make them want to come back.”
Now, how?
There are many ways to jump into social media, from blogs and document sharing platforms like digg to geo-location platforms like foursquare. Thomas says don’t get excited and try to do everything at once. Take it one step at a time. Look at these top five performers and choose one to start:
- Blogs – Check out these technical blogs from SAS: The Do Loop, The Text Frontier, The SAS Dummy and The SAS Training Post.
- microblogging – The top platform is Twitter.
- LinkedIn – there are more than 100 SAS groups on LinkedIn.
- Facebook – The number is growing every day – start with SAS Analytics and then surf the more than 30 SAS-related Facebook groups.
- YouTube – YouTube is the top search engine on the Internet with more than 2 billion views per day. According to Thomas, an average person spends 15 minutes per day on YouTube. (What a valuable sales or training tool!) Check out SAS Software on YouTube.
Last, why?
When deciding which channel (blogs, geo-location, document sharing, microblogging) or platform (If microblogging, will you use Twitter or Plurk? If you are using geo-location, will you use Instagram, foursquare of Gowalla?), Thomas says you need to know why you want to use it. Essentially, you need to have a communications strategy before you begin. Don’t be frightened away. This strategy thing can be pretty simple. “Before you decide you want to open a Twitter account, ask yourself what you want it to accomplish,” says Thomas.
If you are a consultant, your needs should be measurable. Set some goals that you can track. There is some great help here and here. For SAS professionals who are looking for information or professional development, my next post will have practical tips for growing your audience. I also encourage you to subscribe to Conversations and Connections blog. Dig through past content for:
If you have questions, you can contact me on Twitter or ask them via the comment section of this blog. Tell me about your progress and how you intend to use this communication channel.
This post was kindly contributed by Key Happenings at support.sas.com - go there to comment and to read the full post.