Social media:  What the heck do we do next?

Over the next month or so I will be focusing even more on the subject of social media. 

This ironically comes at a time when THP as a whole is seeing a number of traditional public and media relations opportunities come our way.  But as we have discussed before, the lines are blurring and even in within those traditional opportunities clients, both current and prospective, want social and digital media strategies included.

We have also discussed that compared to a year ago Richmond (and I think the marketing world at large) as passed the early adopter phase and entering into a phase we can call “What the heck do we do next?”

The presentations I’ve been asked to do focus on what folks should be doing next and what implications that will have for communications both internal and external, and what that means for businesses and employees.  They will focus on issues like:

• How can we better engage with the fans and follower bases that we’ve been able to grow?
• How can we better deal with some of the negative commentary and discussions that appear in our social media streams?
• How can we stop just broadcasting and have meaningful two-way conversations?
• How can we engage and keep growing those communities?
• How can we truly create social media communities?
• How can we balance the personal/private online experience with the public experience?
• What impact is social media having on businesses and their employees?

There’s a lot more where that comes from, but that will help start the conversation.  I’d love some thoughts and feedback on those topics in the form of comments, posts and tweets in the coming days and weeks.  It will be a great help to me as I put these presentations together.

Also we at THP are hard at work on “what’s next” from our group and business as it relates to social media and the digital world.  We hope to have some announcements soon on the form that’s already taken with current clients and what it means for us in the future. 

Any thoughts you have in that area will be of great help to us as well.  Thanks so much.