Times change. Only three years ago (2008), MySpace and Blogger were racing ahead of any existing social media service: Facebook was at its very start, a simple profile with a bunch of customization options; Twitter had just seen its first boom in growth and Windows Live Spaces was still alive and kicking, while the powerful marketing powers of YouTube had not been discovered yet.
On 2011, social media has long since earned its stable slice of authority among the best rated marketing strategies. Not only companies: freelancers, family businesses, small companies, organizations of any kind have found in Twitter, Facebook and YouTube their messengers to a wider audience, formidable tools of promotion.
However, the unique power of these new media has not been unleashed yet; new features, business options, tools come out every year to make professional users happy, but we could never say what social media can do today is all they can do tomorrow.
I believe thinking outside the box to be a unique skill of human mind that no tools could ever replace. Therefore, I’m here to share a few hints at a creative usage of social media, hopeful that there will do you enough good to continue developing your own strategies.
Seeds Of Social Media Creativity
Get your fictional mascot talking!
Twitter, Facebook and MySpace were born personal tools of communication, allowing people to share stories and life news on the Web. Companies, freelancers and advertisers could use the social profile aspect of these media to create a mascot’s profile (a fictional character) to communicate with customers. People usually enjoy this kind of playful interaction, which could lead to an increase in traffic and conversion.
Original, fun videos stay to people like worm to fish.
Have you ever wondered why social services like YouTube and Dailymotion attract such a massive amount of users and visitors? The answer is the same given for television or cinema users: 21st century people live on visuals. This is a crucial factor to keep in mind if you’re looking for an increase in content virality. Also, if you’re job seeking, a video resume could increase your chances to land the job of your dreams. Visuals are like worms to fish: they attract masses.
Blog a story.
Either if you are an individual, a small business or a big corporation, services like WordPress, Blogger and Chi.mp can help you make the difference. Blogs have the incredible power of having people fall in love with you, provided that you are talkative and respond to your customers’ or readers’ feedback. Corporate blogs, community blogs and freelance blogs are that successful among people because they offer a unique chance to get in touch, narrowing the distance between the business and its customers.
Deviant ART-icles.
DeviantArt.com is not just for artwork, comics and fanfiction. The service has proven to be also a good tool to get feedback on articles and how-to guides. DeviantArt has a huge amount of users and someone is always willing to read and comment on other people’s works. Freelance writers and companies offering written samples should take advantage of this opportunity.
A Bookmarks log.
Tumblr.com and Soup.io blogs are unique platforms that allow their users to choose the ‘type’ of blog post they want to write: a quote, a link, a picture, a video or an ordinary post. By choosing the ‘link’ option you are given the possibility of building a custom bookmark blog with selected resources to offer to your readership.
LinkedIn for networking and building relationships.
LinkedIn profiles are certainly good to show your professional side, but the service itself offers so much more than that: user groups, networking options and personal messages to build relationships with other professionals and companies. Showing off your skills is not enough to land more jobs: meeting and talking to people will do you a bigger favor in getting the word spread about what you can do and about your professionalism.
Slideshare lectures.
Want to teach something, a tutorial or an how-to guide? Sometimes writing and publishing e-books can be time consuming and the promotion work can take even more of your time. Slideshare.net was born to share slides, but slides are not just presentations of lectures or meetings: you can use the slide form to write your guide, share it on Slideshare and let people give you feedback on your work. Publishing times are reduced this way, and you get the word spread out faster.
YouTube for webinars.
If you hold regular webinars and are willing to share them online, you could create your own YouTube channel and upload your recorded webinars there. Quick feedback is guaranteed, seen the number of YouTube users.
About Luana Spinetti
