A New Marketing

They say that speed kills, but I’m sure that being stagnant and not getting anything done has been the death of more good ideas than I care to think about. Let’s get this Social Media wagon train rolling. Here’s 5 ways to start getting things done, today.

1. See what people are saying about you already.
This one’s easy. Odds are, people are probably talking about you already and it’s just up to you to see what they’re saying. Fortunately, there are a lot of great (and free) tools out there to monitor the chatter on the internet. Start with Google Blog Search, Twitter Search (formerly Summize), and Technorati.

2. Comment on blog posts.
Now that you’ve found all these wonderful conversations already in play, it’s time to make like Joe Jaffe and join those conversations. Take a look at what people are saying, and if you feel like you can add something to the discussion, go for it. Just make sure to identify yourself as a representative of your brand or company, and don’t come off sounding like a press release.

3. Set up a profile on a social network.
Go to Facebook. Create a profile for your company or brand. Put the relevant facts and contact info on there. Respond to people who reach out to you. Simple.

4. Subscribe to some feeds with a RSS Reader.
First things first, set up and account with Google Reader or Bloglines (or many other tools out there). Then, using the tools listed above, find some blogs that you think you’d like to read on a regular basis. Look for the big orange “subscribe” button (like my circular one) and follow the instructions to add them into your reader. This way all the content comes to you, making it easy to stay on top of the conversations that matter.

5. Set up a Twitter account.
Neal Stewart once said “I try to post at least one…update per day because I believe that there should be at least one thing we want to tell our consumers per day.”

If you don’t know what twitter is, you can check out it’s wikipedia entry here. Once you’ve got a decent handle on it, check out these awesome posts from a lot of smart people on how to use Twitter effectively. It’s quick, easy, and a lot of fun.

So there’s my five. What did I miss?