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Bill Grimes
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Businesses learn to stay on the cutting edge with social media
EFFINGHAM — While social networking is widely used as a way for individuals to interact in their spare time, the concept also is finding wide popularity in the business community.
Local business professionals spent Friday at Lake Land College Kluthe Center in Effingham for a social media workshop sponsored by social networking group YB Next.
Charlie Bovard, the college’s director of the Center for Business & Industry, said the workshop was designed to help businesspeople understand the concept of social networking from a business perspective.
“Social media is becoming an integral part of our culture,” Bovard said. “More and more businesses are starting to use it as a way to build relationships with their clients.”
Seventeen people, representing nine businesses, attended the workshop facilitated by new media practitioner Brian Noe of Mattoon. Noe provided an overview of social media in the morning session, followed by a more strategic look at the concept that afternoon.
The group particularly looked at search engine optimization (SEO) — the task of getting one’s business or blog closer to the top spot on a search engine.
“We are exploring the broader concepts of social media and how businesses can use it successfully,” Noe said. “We’re also looking at how businesses can stay out of trouble.”
Trouble can come, Noe said, much as trouble comes in face-to-face human interactions.
“If business is looking at social media as nothing more than a different way to publish sales, the first time somebody comes back with a complaint and they’re not ready for it, there can be trouble for the business,” he said.
Noe said the workshop also explored how blogging can be used to interact with customers.
Noe said “smart” businesses have been using interactivity on their Web sites for many years. Social media has only been widely used for business applications over the past five years, however.
“Now, there are so many tools for businesses to draw upon,” Noe said.
While Noe said the top two social media choices for business are Twitter and Facebook, he said there are scores of other sites that can help businesses master the new media.
Workshop participant Deb Beasley of Mid-America Motorworks said many of her colleagues are new to the business applications of social media.
“We want to integrate social media in our business,” Beasley said. “From a personal perspective, a lot of us are integrated into social media.”
Joan Thies of Stevens Industries said she attended the workshop to update herself on the latest business tools.
“We want to stay on the cutting edge of social networking for our customers,” Thies said.
Bill Grimes can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 132 or bill.grimes@effinghamdailynews.com.
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