Live blogging coverage of the SES NY session: "Small Voices, Big Impact: Social Media for the Little Guy".

Moderator:
Stoney deGeyter - President, Pole Position Marketing

Speakers:
Amber Naslund -, Director of Community, Radian6
Jennifer Evans Laycock - Director of Social Media, SiteLogic; Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Guide
Christina Kerley - Marketing Specialist, ckEpiphany
Tim Kendall - Director of Monetization, Facebook

Social Media Conversations - Jennifer Evans Laycock

To start off, she offered some sage advice for those entering the social media space. The first is to stop running towards the bleeding edge, because most of your target audience won't be there yet. Use the tried and true tactics and channels to start off. The second is that social media is essential in recession. It allows you to connect with and hear your customers.

Next, Jen talked about social media launch points. The first is Flickr. some of the benefits are that is has a highly involved, engaged audience, groups exist about your topic, you can get links that drive traffic (these won't help with search engines, but they tend to convert well), the cost of entry is low at $25/year. To start, you'll want to search for groups on your topic and get involved in the conversation.

Twitter is like a giant wall covered with post-it notes. Advantages are that it has a low barrier of entry, and you can reach a large audience very quickly.

Youtube has a high number of users and a large number of searches run daily. Also, there is quite a bit of room for  Jen shared an example of Blendtec and it's "Will it blend?" campaign. It started with some fun in the lab and turned into a brilliant viral marketing campaign. companies started sending products for them to blend. They gained publicity on a number of large media channels.

Also mentioned were social networks like Facebook and Linkedin, and how they tend to be under-utilized by most companies.

Facebook - Tim Kendall

Tim basically gave an overview of how Facebook works and how businesses can get involved with it.

Q&A Key Points:

• Social media isn't for every company, but every company can listen through social media and gain a ton of insight from consumers. (Christina Kerley, Amber Naslund)
• You don't need to fear losing control of the conversation. Negative feedback can be used to improve product or service, and start listening to customers. Amber Naslund brilliantly pointed out that "Social media didn't create criticism." (Christina Kerley, Amber Naslund)
• Legal issues with social media? Just let people know when you Twitter that it's not official legal advice. Can also put info on the in background image on Twitter. (Christina Kerley, Amber Naslund)
• Despite misconceptions, there is definitely room for social media in B2B. think about how much time we spend talking about our work. LinkedIn and other sites have active discussions and groups. Focus on existing content and socialize it - open up a channel for two way communication (ex. blog post instead of white paper, etc.) (Jennifer Evans Laycock, Christina Kerley, Amber Naslund)
• Facebook does have some viable advertising options for small business. (Tim Kendall)
• Find out where conversations are happening and build your community presence there. Cast a small net in a target community. (Jennifer Evans Laycock, Amber Naslund)