Social media ROI comes from the relationships you build on Twitter, Facebook etc.

It’s different because you first need to build a relationship before converting the prospect.

Dell’s Twitter Strategy: ROI of Engagement 

 ·        Establish their Twitter account  – (within) 2 years

 ·        Measure sales and track sales using additional software

ROI: Dell “has raked in more than $6.5 million from Twitter followers who clicked through its posts to its Web sites to make purchases.”

Twitter is the 'Turbo' tool in my experience using social media and is well under estimated! It's amazing how quickly the 'Viral' effect takes place.....

I came into the ‘Business Social Media’ sphere in September 2010, having been using social media on a personal level for some years.  At the time I was working for the Hastings & Rother Primary Care Trust providing management assistance on a £16M project - Station Plaza Health Centre in Hastings. The centre opened in May 2010 and has been given a prestigious building industry award for ‘Building Better Healthcare’.  

I provided strong support to the Station Plaza Patient & Public Involvement group to enable local people to have their say over key aspects of the centre.  I decided to take voluntary redundancy as the re-structuring of the PCT (Primary Care Trust) & NHS (National Health Service) was taking place and plunged forward into the social media field.

Throughout my working career I’ve had extensive dealings with people from all walks of life and it’s been my ability to communicate with people that has made my working life both challenging and rewarding.   My ability to communicate yet still get the job done made social media the ideal career path for me as I love meeting new people whether online or offline.

The skills that I have acquired through working in the Public sector, running my own retail business and being a complaints manager has contributed to giving me ideal social media skills which I have put to good use.

I’m really excited and looking forward to the ‘New Age’ of ‘Digital’ word-of-mouth connecting and building relationships with different types of businesses to expand their products and services.

I will be launching shortly a video blog of my journey into the Social Media world including tips and tricks I have learnt along the way.  

Amanda Baldwin - Talkativeonline

During my busy networking doing presentations and speaking to many people I commonly get asked the question ‘What is Social Media’? Well, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate to make our business and services known over the internet whether it is on a local, national or global scale.

Breaking this down even further, ‘Social Media’ is a conversation that is created by using various tools and some of these main tools used are; Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. Creating ‘Digital’ word-of-mouth about your product & services.

Promoting your business requires a very different think and approach compared to traditional methods.  Social Media levels the playing field and offers the SAME promotional opportunities to the small one-man business as it does for the multinational. 

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Well, after visiting the Social Media World Forum at the Olympia in London on Tuesday 29th March 'Social Media' was certainly making waves in the city!

So, How BIG is the Social Media 'Wave' at the moment in the UK? The whirlpool is becoming very strong and the below video shows some very interesting data.

(download)

Click here to download:

Ian_Hardacre_SMB_Making_Social_Media_Success_A_Reality_For_You.flv (7.44 MB)