I was recently asked to be part of a panel discussing social media to a group of business owners at a South Missouri Business Expo, but found out later that I had a scheduling conflict so I had to decline. I was really looking forward to this engagement, as was my wife who says I never take her anywhere! In addition to being a panelist for an open Q&A session, I was also asked to do a breakout session of my choosing regarding social media. The topic of my breakout session was going to be Brand Promotion and Reputation Management using Social Media. I figured for the sake of archiving my thoughts and providing my readers with some original content that I would share my thoughts and presentation here… I realize that this presentation casts a pretty large, or broad net, but it was my intention to give more of an overview and drill down some key techniques for brand and reputation management as well as product promotion.

1. Social Media: Brand Promotion & Reputation Management Presented By: Cotton Rohrscheib

3. Short Conversations = Twitter

5. The Fastest Growing Advertising Network (contextual, relevant)

6. The Best Free Tools for Promoting Your Business:

7. Pages (Promote Products, Discussions, More, etc.)

8. Groups (Promote Products, Discussions, More, etc.)

9. The Best Place for Open Discussions (outside your website)

10. The Mobile Application (iPhone, Blackberry)

11. The Best Way to Build Community for Your Brand

12. Carryover Users to Your Website (FBConnect)

13. Friend Recommendations (growth user base)

14. Shared Content (increased exposure)

16. Extremely Open for Connecting w/ New People (-vs- Facebook)

17. Free Tool for Promoting Your Business:

18. Promote Your Content (RSS Feeds)

19. Find New Customers (One on One Discussions)

20. Support Existing Customers (One on One Discussions)

21. Locate Potential Consumers (Advanced Search Tools)

22. Open Discussions (keep your tweets balanced)

23. The Mobile Applications (iPhone, Blackberry)

25. Blogs / Websites (Opinions, Reviews, etc.)

26. Forums / Message Boards (Support, Reviews, etc.)

27. Your Competitor Presence (Where are they?)

29. Establishing a Fan Base / Group Members

30. Frequent Communications w/out Overdoing it…

31. Discussion Boards

32. Wall Posts

33. Know When to Message

34. Keeping Your Customer Base Happy

36. Promoting Your Brand / Products / Services

37. Personal Communications

38. @replies and DM’s (be transparent, consistent)

39. Pushing Content via RSS Feed

40. Don’t overdo your automated content

41. Show that you are “real people”

42. Keeping Your Customer Base Happy

44. Facebook: Are there existing groups, fan pages?

45. Twitter: What are people tweeting about you?

46. Utilize Social Bookmarks

47. Digg & Delicious: Great SEO Juice, Relevance

48. Customer Reviews on Amazon, eBay, etc.

49. Amazon: Check Customer Reviews Frequently

51. Setup a Monitoring / Management Plan

52. Be Consistent (Never Leave them Hanging)

53. Designate Trained, Capable People as Managers

54. Social Media Managers are hot commodities

55. Don’t be afraid to Outsource

56. What is Your Competition Doing?

58. Don’t expect immediate ROI

59. Promote Your Social Presence Every Opportunity You Have…

60. Encourage Customers to Post Content…

61. Have them Blog, Write Reviews, Recommendations

62. Utilize Customer Reviews (Repost, Retweet, etc.)

63. Manage Your Social Following Carefully

64. Don’t overdo it, or try to hard!

66. Good Luck!

68. Web Design, Development, Managed Hosting

69. Business Class Email Solutions

70. Social Marketing & Consulting

71. Social Media Consultant / Blogger

72. Twitter: @cottonr

73. Blog: The Cotton Club http://cottonrohrscheib.com

74. Developer (over 10 years experience)

75. For More Information:

76. http://pleth.com

77. http://powersitedesign.com

78. http://cottonrohrscheib.com

79. http://facebook.com/cottonr

80. Telephone: 888-276-0848