Social Media Group’s Inaugural Meeting: by G Karl Kumfert

We had our first meeting of the social media group last week.  Here’s a quick breakdown of who attended, what we did, and what we’re going to do moving forward for the October meeting.  

I had prepared a questionnaire in advance, which we used that as a meeting agenda and organization notes for me. The group currently lists at twelve members — nine who attended our inaugural meeting, plus three who had contacted me in advance with a scheduling conflict and committed to do homework and attend next month.. We discussed marketing basics, email, websites & blogs, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, GoodReads.com and expectations for the group. One of the biggest desires was for everyone to get a handle on all the social media channels and combine them all effectively. The biggest concerns were that social media would be a huge time sink with no return, or that the meetings would be devolve into tech support for a vocal few.

Almost everyone attending  already had the big three things in place: a website/blog, a Facebook account, and a Twitter account. Actual usage of those three resources all across the map. About half of the attendees had a GoodReads.com account. Only one had a marketing budget of over $300 to support their entire online platform. The rest were either in the $50-$100 range, or answered the question with a big question mark. Only a third had a rehearsed elevator pitch that they could write on the questionnaire.

To address concerns about gauging return on social media investment, the next meeting will include a brief session on setting up web analytics for your blog/website.

Homework for the next meeting

• Facilitator (me):
  • Put together a private mailing list and a Facebook group for all participants, so they can communicate. (Done)
  • Put together a resource so each participant can find each other on all their social media outlets. (Done, see below)
• Everyone:
  • Setup.  Three requirements for this group are to have a website/blog,  a Facebook account or page, and a Twitter account.  If you are missing any of these, get them by the next meeting. For website/blog, WordPress is recommended, but not required.  For Facebook & Twitter, it is recommended to have a dedicated account for your professional writer’s platform, separate from ones used for personal activities.
  • Network. Friend, follow, subscribe, or whatever is necessary to maximize your connectedness to each other on all social media channels available.  Use the table below to help.
  • Practice.
    1. Blog.  Post one article on your blog before next meeting.
    2. Tweet.  Tweet one message on your twitter account before next meeting.
    3. Comment.  Find a favorite post on someone else’s blog in the group and submit a comment.  
    4. Retweet. Find a favorite tweet from someone else in the group and retweet it.
    5. Bonus. Comment on a blog post on TVW’s website as well.

• Note: To fix any mistakes in the table below, please comment directly to this post.  Comments to this post do not count as homework, that’d be too easy. 😀

[quiphon_social_media_table json_file=”social_media_group.json”]