Social Media Masterclass Bulgaria – Vassilena Valchanova Report – Day 1

Earlier this month, Michael Leander was one of the speakers at the first Social Media Masterclass in Bulgaria, organized by Inter Contact Bulgaria. Michael Leander was the main speaker and his presentation caused a good impression in one particular attendee – Vassilena Valchanova, who wrote on her blog about her experience and learning at the seminar.

This two part report, once it was a two day seminar, resumes the main topics that Michael presented from the point of view of one of the attendees.

I want to thank Vassilena for giving us her reports, for her kindness and help.

Michael Leander on Social Media
Vassilena wrote on 15/07/2010

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a very interesting seminar – Social Media Masterclass with Michael Leander as speaker, and I “blame” Inter Contact Bulgaria for my presence there – thank you so much for the invitation. Overall, I am not a traditional target group for events such as “101″, but Michael Leander impressed me with his great presentation skills, structured and clear speech on the strategic end of social media marketing.

The basic group of visitors in Bulgaria for this kind of events is composed of marketing managers and teams who wish to join the new wave of social media, but do not know exactly how. The preliminary inquiry organizers did show that the basic knowledge deficit among attendees (56.5%) is not having enough knowledge about social media in order to use it effectively for marketing purposes. The seminar was purposed precisely to build knowledge. But, unlike many speakers, Michael Leander did not focus on fast success “how-to” tactics, but made an excellent summary of the basic social media philosophy for corporate behavior. I think this is much more effective and properly managed.

He started with something very important, still, few people understand – social media is a new channel of communication and nothing more, it does not change the fundamental basis of communication. “Do not use social media just because it’s hype – see how your company can benefit from it,” said Michael Leander, and later continued in the same spirit: “Do not just jump on the Facebook wagon – ask yourself IF it’s Useful and IF SO, it is the only choice”. Leander also explained that new media is the major challenge for communicators – our work has become more difficult because we need to know and use another communication channel, which is developing very dynamically: “unlikely you will recruit new people for the marketing department, but you will have to deal with another media.”

Michael Leander also talked about several key features of social media that mark the channel’s uniqueness. Discussions are not controlled, organized and guided by the organization – we have very little control over the messages. Social media environments are complex interactions between speakers, and here we are all speakers. An essential part of communication is guided by the public and the organization must develop “human” voice.
To build a working strategy for social media presence, we must be patient and mind rule “TTT”: “Things Take Time – often three times More Than expected!” I’d love to engrave this over my desk and show it to all clients. Unlike the traditional media environment, there is no monopoly in social media – anyone can participate and create content, as the success rate depends on the proper communication style fine-tuned to the audience.

I will finish this post with ten rules of social media that Michael Leander presented:

1. Experiment with social media – believe it is not only to experts and gather your own experience. The idea is to make mistakes, learn from them so you won’t repeat and then move forward.

2. Make a plan – know what to do now and what to do then – both in case of success and in case of failure.

3. Listen! You must be willing to listen, especially to hear what consumers say and model your strategy to feedback. Michael Leander added that you must be prepared to listen to nonsense from time to time.

4. Be transparent and honest: don’t let your audience dizzy with marketing nonsense, use straight talk. Acknowledge mistakes, apologize and become better!

5. Share your content – to adequate to the new social media environment, you must be willing to share your content and make it easy to share. It is about adopting a Creative Commons license and integrating ways for your audience to share with peers.

6. Keep it as a person, not a corporation. In social networks you may not use heavy corporate jargon, complex expressions or formal style. Get closer to people.

7. Contributing to the conversation and community development. Do not just promote yourself and your products – give the audience something interesting, share news or funny videos of the day to add to the community something a bit more interesting. Social media is not unlimited advertising space, it’s a place for conversation.

8. View criticism as an opportunity. Do not automatically delete negative comments, instead give a clear argument to convince the enemy. Often the negative comments activate your supporters who will act to defend your positive image.

9. Take the initiative. Be proactive, attract the crowd, turn to the main initiator of the dialogue (but this does not mean that only you can talk – ask the community to comment on interesting topics).

10. Accept that you cannot cope alone. Your presence in social media should be extended to all the employees of the company, they should join and be active. Naturally, this should happen only if you have a clear policy on employee behavior in social media and they know what goals you are looking for and how to achieve them.

I hope I’ve sharpened your appetite for the rest of the presentation, which I will talk about tomorrow.

About the author:

Vassilena Valchanova is currently preparing thesis. She studied in Holland, where she spent six months digging in marketing at the NHL University. Certified Internet Marketing Specialist from Inbound Marketing University.Works since her first course, which now makes almost three years of service and expertise accordingly. Vassilena is thet new bolt in the integrated marketing communications machine.

To know more about Vassilena visit her Blog.