Social media is definitely the buzz word for the year. What is social media and how can you make it work for you? I am thinking that social media is just another tool in your business or marketing plan. How would you like to use social media - to educate, to inform, to entertain?

Once you decide what role it will play in your plan, you can then plan on how you are going to do it.  Considerations need to be made -  how much time are you going to devote to social media, what are the things you must do in social media, which social media platform make sense for you to start with?

Time is a hot topic when it comes to social media.  Yes, it can eat up a lot of time if you are not disciplined.  What are the things you must do?  You must answer any questions or comments that come directly to you. Social media is a conversation so participation is key. 

Automation can help you a lot - have your articles and blog publish automatically in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn if that makes sense for your business plan.  

It is best to start with one tool at a time. Get to know Twitter and the various tools that can help you stay organized such as TweetDeck. There are so many tools to help you with Twitter that it is hard to keep up with them. I will write another post about Twitter tools one day soon. 

LinkedIn is great if you are in a more professional field. There are some cool applications there like the Amazon tool that lets your connections know what you are reading and what you recommend, your Wordpress blog posts can appear automatically and you can share presentations etc. 

How can you make social media work for you?