Quick Guide for Social Media Beginners to Contribute to their Organization's Strategy

Not everyone within an organization is a social media savvy as the next person.  The following provides a guide for those who wish to contribute to the social media presence and strategy of an organization.

When implementing a social media strategy each member of an organization (Board Members, employees, etc.) has a responsibility to participate and interact and further the efforts of that strategy.  This means "liking" a Facebook page and "liking" posts written on the page as they appear.  This allows your friends to see those posts and make a decision as to their opinion on the subject matter and business.  If they decide to "like" that page then their friends are now presented with the same opportunities and the viral possibilities go on from there.

On Twitter, the process starts with "Following" the organization and "Retweeting" its posts so that those "Following" you can see the original posts.  You can also tweet a message back to the organization and include its name in your tweet to, again, put that organization's name in front of your followers.  This is done by using the @username format. 

If you are new to Twitter and don't have many followers, your first order of business should be to go find those individuals or businesses that interest you and "Follow" them.  In turn, they may in turn follow you.  Be careful not to only focus only on national brands and personalities, look at local businesses, organizations, personalities and entertainment options from your community.  Also, remember to use that account and tweet about things that interest you.  You need to be interesting to grow your follower base.

In Summary:
"Like" Facebook fan pages
"Like" Facebook posts
"Follow" on Twitter
"Retweet" posts
Tweet to the organization using @username