20 Fantastic Content Ideas For Your Online Community

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20 Fantastic Content Ideas For Your Online Community
This article is not just for meeting professionals, as there are many good ideas for every business considering the social media marketing arena.

Thought-Based Social Media Dialogue

I was recently reading an article that I found online that contained a paragraph from Marie Domingo (@MarieDomingo) with regard to Twitter. She wrote:

"The best Tweets have a call to action or a link that includes an interesting photo or website. Followers following interesting dialogues."

This got me to thinking about the dialogues that are used to market a product, store or service. I find very few businesses follow this social media model.

My current favorite is Chef's Market who almost always uses a photo with their Facebook updates. The scrumptious food photos make my mouth water. The same happens to other Fans as they do post how much they love the food there.

I Love Website Magazine

FREE Website Magazine

I think it was Larry Baltz at Build Team ONE who gave me a copy and said I might like it. An understatement. I love this magazine.

You will like it, too.

Do Fans Really = Fans?

I was watching CBS Evening News last night and saw this story on the Barefoot Bandit. Toward the end of the story, there are a few lines about the bandit's fans on Facebook. The slant made it feel as if all of the fans of this person were supporters.

I am sure that many who are fans are curious bystanders who want to keep abreast of the story. Think about it. You have an interest in a particular story and instead of performing a Google search, you simply become a fan and links to almost every story on this topic will be in one easy, convenient place.

Have you become a fan of a particular Facebook page/person just because you are curious? I have joined many pages just to see what's up with a particular subject. Every month or so I go through and purge those that are no longer of interest.

I'm still a fan of Betty White to host SNL. I'm hoping she will do it again.

Random Ramblings

MPI:TN Fundraising Auction
Down to the last hours (ends at 5 p.m. today). Click HERE to find exotic vacations, services, gift baskets and a whole lot more.Proceeds go to Tennessee Chapter of Meeting Professionals International in order to support scholarships (I have one!) and chapter education and activities. Be sure to tell your friends, family, community. Did I mention that I am co-chair of the auction? Yes, I am.

Maurilio Amorim
I am enjoying reading Maruilio's tweets this week from Singapore. He keeps complaining about the heat and humidity there. Wait until he gets back to Nashville.

Martha Stewart's Twitter Tips
I was so disappointed that Martha's tips did not include anything to do with a glue gun and flowers from the garden. Anyway. It's a good thing.

My Mom's Facebook Status
My brother was helping my mother navigate Facebook and thought it might be funny to change her relationship status to "it's complicated" even though my parents have been married 50+ years. I'm sure that everyone who has been married that long will admit that it really is complicated. One of my mom's FB and "real life" friends saw the change in status and came to visit. My dad was outside cleaning up their camper (for us! Thanks, Dad) and the friend thought my mom was making my dad stay in the camper. Her status has now been changed back to "married" but it was much more fun when it was complicated.

Feel free to post whatever is on your mind. I did.

Words of Wisdom from Billy Kirsch

From Billy Kirsch's Newsletter dated June 2010

TAKING MY OWN MEDICINE: When I work with groups through my team building program, making suggestions for strategic planning, creating new ideas, and helping to create action plans, change seems easy. At least, easy for me. That's because I'm guiding and suggesting plans for someone else. It's so easy for me to drive or fly home from a program feeling self-satisfied, knowing I've made a difference for a group needing a catalyst to evolve or just regroup. But after a month of intense strategic planning for my own business, I'm not so smug! This is hard: stopping the day-to-day busy work, making time to reflect, to dig deeper, to absorb way too much information and to synthesize it all into a logical way forward that makes sense intellectually and also feels right. It has to 'feel right' to work, to engage us and to sustain us, as we move forward with new ideas.

What have I learned about this process by slogging through it for my own business?

• It's hard
• It's worthwhile
• It's overwhelming
• It's satisfying

And we need help from the outside to move from our old models, to shake things up. I spent most of my time the past month either on the phone with potential consultants, or sifting through their information and advice online. I had a point person, my brother Jim, who assumed the constant "let-me-bounce-this-off-you" role. It's very important to have some one who has some distance and can help us sift through the often overwhelming input, conflicting suggestions and new knowledge we're acquiring.

I'm renewed, refreshed, and ready to use some of my new found 'empathy' with my next client. I bet that during our group debrief with my next client, I'll have a little more understanding of just how hard it is to commit to change, to stick with an action plan and to share the confusion that often comes with the process. I can't wait!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I love this!

My husband once worked for Sunbeam Bread and we never had a loaf of bread in our house. We were always running to the grocery store just for bread.

We get caught up in helping others that it is hard to take the time to focus our energy on ourselves.

That's it! I'm taking time later this week to work on my company and myself. Sometimes it is just that "forest and the trees" thing.

Thanks for the inspiration, Billy.

Using Social Media to Your Advantage

When I meet with a potential client, we always have the talk about negative comments and how to handle them. The experts say to meet them head-on and ask what you can do to help.

I recently had reservations at an extremely "limited-service" motel in Indiana. In this case, limited service means they had a bed and a bathroom that I rented for two nights while in this town on business. No complimentary breakfast, no pool, no shampoo, etc.

My reservations were made online in February but when I checked in two months later, they would not honor the lower online rate. The motel had changed from a corporate owned hotel to a franchise hotel just the week before I checked in. I spoke to the new owner and he said that he would honor the rate and it would be no problem to change it. However, when I checked out, the rate had not been changed and I was charged the higher amount. The owner was nowhere to be found at check-out.

Incidentally, the front desk clerk at check-out told me that the owner had stated that he didn't care what corporate said, he would be charging whatever he wanted for rooms. She wanted to quit her job.

Upon my return home, I visited the corporate website and completed their online complaint form. The next day I received an email response stating that they would be contact the owner and would let me know his response.

I had already been down that road and I wanted something to happen quickly.

This chain of motels had a page on Facebook that I joined. My message was simple:

I guess I have just stayed my last night at XYZ motel as they refused to honor my online rate.

Their response was swift -- only about 10 minutes. They provided me with an 800 number. When I called they asked me to fax them copies of my reservation and the receipt. A return phone call within 30 minutes of doing that resulted in a refund being sent to me within 10 days.

Not every company is likely to respond this quickly or to your full satisfaction but I hope that they would at least try.

I recently saw a quote that stated something like:

Your customers are going to talk about you. Don't you wish they would talk about you to your face instead of to each other?

Have you had an experience of filing a complaint on a social media site? What was the outcome?