Yesterday we hosted a seminar on Web Strategy and Social Media and took a survey of the use of Social Media by our participants.  Of the 50 attendees, we received 35 surveys back with these results:

To be honest, these numbers really surprised me…  The Web Strategy attendees were a great cross-section of non-profits, manufacturing, professional services, and even included some IT and marketing directors. We really had a well-rounded representation of local businesses, giving us a fairly good idea on the average use of social media by businesses in the area.  The input, feedback and questions provided by the attendees after the seminar were very helpful, and raised these key points.

• Small business leaders are struggling with, “How do I get started?”, “Who can do this in my organization?”, and “How can this benefit my organization?”
• Information is King.  The amount of knowledge in the room that wasn’t being shared virally through social media is staggering.  Your expertise’ and the value you provide your clients can be leveraged with social media at speeds and costs that were not possible ten years ago.
• Social Media is not for everyone….yet…  If your target audience is not using social media, you don’t have to jump into it…  We would recommend maintaining an awareness of what’s changing as your audience could shift.
• There were clearly businesses not taking advantage of LinkedIn and Twitter in the room (5 and 4 users professionally)…  Knowing the industries in the room, some of our participants have some good upside using these tools.  Setting up a Twitter account to simply listen is a great first step, follow some people that can add value to your organization to see how it works.   LinkedIn can be a great tool to find and attract quality employees for your organization and leverage referrals from your fan base.
• Everyone needs an editor.  Getting feedback from an outside perspective helps all of us.  This is certainly true in Marketing and Social Media strategy.  We are offering services to help with your social media strategy whether you simply need to get a Jump Start, a Coach to give you regular input on your progress, or a full scale, integrated Social Media/Web Strategy… we’d love to work with you.  For more information, you can contact Michelle Hillaert at (574) 235-8100 Ext 327.

Thanks to all those who participated and attended the workshop, we really enjoyed the discussion!