That means that people increasingly are as likely to become Facebook fans with their local car dealership or favorite restaurant as they are to catch up with their 10th grade English teacher or high school girlfriend.

A lot of people ask the question, “Why?” when they hear all the buzz about social media, said Lorrie Delk Walker, president of Lorrie Walker Communications, Inc., a public relations firm in Tampa and Lakeland. That question is easy to answer when reading studies of how Generation Y communicates.

David Fallarme recently wrote on The Marketing Student blog that while Baby Boomers communicated via written letters, telephone calls or face-to-face meetings, Generation Y uses myriad social media outlets, including Facebook wall posts, private messages, instant messages and texts.

“If Generation Y isn’t already part of your client base, they soon will be,” Walker said. “So businesses need to communicate on their level.”

That means learning to use these outlets appropriately is paramount. For all the creative ways there are for businesses to use social media to their advantage, there are just as many ways to use it incorrectly.

“If not done right, social media can hurt you more than help you,” Walker said. “For example, if a restaurant sends out 14 tweets in a day and not one of them has anything to do with the restaurant, that’s not beneficial.”

Walker recalls a Lakeland barbecue restaurant that posted tweets about getting to work late, what a busy day they had ahead of them and what the weather conditions were.

“That provides nothing of value to a potential customer,” she said. “Tell me that you offer catering, or that you have pulled pork as today’s special, and that gives me a reason not only to follow you, but to actually give you my business.”

On the other hand, too much good information can have the same effect as useless info, Walker said. Businesses should not overload people.

“I think people are willing to become fans of businesses on Facebook or watch their YouTube videos if they aren’t nagged about it every 5 minutes,” she said. “If I’m going to follow a used car dealership on Twitter, I don’t want them sending me information about a new car on their lot or the latest service special 30 times a day.”

Businesses looking to jump on the social media bandwagon might consider consulting with a marketing or public relations company that understands how social media works for some guidance.

“It’s better to get it right the first time and build a following that sticks with you, rather than go through trial and error, anger people, and constantly lose followers,” Walker said. “Those people who quit following you aren’t going around talking you up in a good way to their friends.”

With that said, marketing businesses that cater to specific niches are popping up everywhere to assist industries in using social media effectively.

Auto Dealerships
Showroom Logic helps car dealerships market themselves on the Internet, specifically through Facebook and Twitter, said Mike Annable, Showroom Logic’s co-founder. Dealerships want sales leads, and these outlets provide a way to communicate with people who are in the market for a vehicle.

“Social media enables people to find products and services without feeling as though they have to deal with a pushy salesperson first,” Annable said. 

If a person in Tampa wants to buy a used car, they can search for a dealership on Facebook and become a fan, or find a dealer on Twitter to follow. Dealers who work with Showroom Logic have mechanisms in place to automatically update their Facebook and Twitter accounts each time they get a new vehicle on the lot.

“If the person sees something they like, Twitter and Facebook gives them an outlet to communicate with the dealer,” said Dave Ingold, IT/marketing manager at Park Auto Mall in Pinellas Park who uses Showroom Logic’s services. “If not, they simply keep looking without feeling pressured by a salesperson.”

Showroom Logic enables dealers to spread out their posts. If a dealer gets 10 new cars on the lot and wants information posted on all of them, it will be done automatically over the course of hours, not minutes, Annable said.

Real Estate
Real estate agents are another group always in search of marketing outlets, and Snap Tours in Lakeland has created a way for agents to market themselves and their listings on 39 social networking sites.

Snap Tours offers a complete marketing package for agents to create virtual tours, branded e-mails and brochures. With just one click, Snap Tours converts photos, information and the agent’s personal brand into video, said Michael G. Barrett, the company’s creative director.

Gate Arty, a Lakeland Realtor, said the Snap Tours technology is “vastly superior” to other virtual tour Web sites.

“It’s just a better quality product overall,” Arty said. “I like the multi-functional aspects of it.”

Restaurants

Social media outlets also are an obvious marketing tool for restaurants, Walker said.

Lakeland residents who follow Black & Brew Coffee House and Bistro learn of summer specials, weekend live music and new menu items via Twitter.

Subs ‘n Such in Lakeland offers specials to followers who mention Twitter when they eat at the restaurant.

“Yesterday, I saw where they offered a 12-inch sub at the 8-inch price if you told them you saw the offer on Twitter,” Walker said. “That’s a great way to advertise your business, and to measure the success of advertising via a particular social media outlet.”

Learn More
If you are in need of Lakeland or Tampa public relations services and social media advice, please visit www.lorriewalker.com for more information, or call (863) 614-0555.

© 2009 Lorrie Walker Communications, Inc. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Sinai Marketing is credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this article is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.

My business, Lorrie Walker Communications, Inc. will celebrate its first anniversary in a couple of months. Do I have people crashing down my door to hire my services? Not nearly often enough. Where have I found most of my current clients? At community events.

Let me tell you what I love about Emerge Lakeland. Today’s meeting was scheduled from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. It featured guest speaker David Shepp, a government relations and public affairs consultant who discussed “political awareness, education and the political process.” I pulled that directly from the group’s press release.

I got to the meeting about 11:25 a.m., where I signed in, paid my money, got my lunch and found a seat. I had time to talk to the people sitting around me. The event began on time. The speaker stayed on topic. He left time for questions. And the meeting ended EARLY. I think it was over by 12:30 p.m. Now, I would have stayed until 1 p.m. if it had lasted that long. I had set aside the time. But to get everything that I came there for, and in less time, that is almost unheard of, friends.

I go to a lot of lunch meetings in the community, and I have to say that today’s Emerge Lakeland meeting was among the most organized and smooth-running meetings I’ve attended in a while. I’ve been getting frustrated lately with meetings and speakers who promise one thing, but then wander off topic horribly. I feel like I’ve wasted my time by the end of it. That was not the case today.

So Lakelanders between the age of 23 and 42, there’s good news for you: Emerge Lakeland is a great place to network and increase your visibility. For those of you who live outside this area, I encourage you to try out different professional organizations until you find one you like. And don’t overlook the service organizations. Groups such as Kiwanis, Rotary, Sertoma, etc. can serve the same networking purposes.Good luck building that buzz!