With Facebook reaching its five year anniversary last week and recent Twitter traffic pushing it to the 91st most visited website in the UK, make no mistake, social media is here to stay.

In line with this, last week we ran our first seminar on how to build brands through social media, presented by myself and Alex Myers. Pitched as ‘social media 101’, we delved into why brands should care about social media, outlined some of the key social media platforms worth considering before giving examples of how brands are already making use of them.

A packed audience included a broad spectrum of brands – Diageo, CA, Unilever, Natural History Museum, LinkedIn, Verisign, uSwitch, Cancer Research and Egg – to name but a few. Testament to the importance organisations are placing on getting to grips with social media.

Questions in a lively session at the end of the presentation ranged from what is the business case for engaging in social media, to how do you police what your employees are blogging about, to how do you build a following online.

What is clear is that brands are switched on to the requirement for some sort of focus on social media; they’re just not clear how to go about it.

At Kaizo we don’t see social media as a replacement for traditional media, but merely an additional channel for brands to interact with their customers and build longer-lasting relationships. Online can feed offline activity and vice versa.

Brands should be looking at their entire communications strategy to see how one can complement the other.

Before starting out though you need to understand the online landscape. This means identifying your key communities and influencers, understanding what people are saying about your brand and then identifying the key trends. This provides the blueprint for all future activity.

Following this we recommend involving your brand in the conversations, whether simply by monitoring and reacting, proactive involvement, or offering media-rich content via a Digital News Release.

Remember, whatever your brand, social media matters. Please contact us here at Kaizo if you have any questions on how to get started and how to ensure that your brand stands out online. We will also be running another event so let us know if you would like to attend and what you would like to see covered.