Focus Group on Social Media Marketing, Sacramento

With the speed at which social media is growing, it is hard to stay on top of new innovations that might have the most promise to get your message out. As a small business person with no paid staff, but a tremendous passion for social media, I would benefit greatly from meeting with like-minded people to focus on social media.

I am proposing the start of a Focus Group where the use and implementation of social media is focused on at each meeting. The group(s) would be compromised of 6 to 12 people that would meet bi-monthly to:

1. Discuss social media use.

2. Reveiw the latest applications or changes to existing applications

3. Support the members as they expand their use of social media.

4. Foster ideas how each member could best implement social media.

5. Actively use and leverage social media to amplify the message of fellow members.

This would not be a referral group. However, with all of the members dedicated to supporting all the other members through fan page likes, re-tweets, tags, blog comments, guest blogging, and check-ins, each member should see better results with their social media marketing. Let’s face it, a real strategy with social media and websites is to generate engagement through inbound and outbound links. A dedicated Focus Group can help one another create that engagement.

This whole concept is in the formation stage and is open to changes and expansion. My first goal is to gather a nucleus of people together to explore the idea. The Focus Group originated from my 21 Day Challenge sponsored by Creating Answers.

Here are some question and my answers to the initial Focus Group concept.

1. Is it limited to small business owners? No, I would love to see non-profits, government agencies or people that might be dedicated to blogging become involved. All of these areas have the common interest of having a message they want to distribute to the widest possible audience. When you have people from diverse backgrounds you can develop more creative ideas.

2. What if you have no or limited social media experience? No problem. The key is to have an interest to learn and vigorously implement a social media strategy. This would be extended to supporting the other members of the group. While not everyone can use every application, the members should show an on going effort engage on as many levels as possible.

3. Is this just another referral group? No. I don’t envision any aspect of organized passing of referrals. Referrals are natural by-products of relationships you form with other people. I would be excited to recommend a member’s non-profit group on my website or promote one of their activities. That amplifies their message and hopefully makes for a more successfull activity or fundraiser.

4. How much will it cost to join? Nothing. I am not ruling out that some modest dues might be necessary to cover expenses, but if we keep the groups small, meeting at cafe’s or homes, I don’t necessarily see a reason for membership dues.

5. Will you only focus on social media? No, while that will be a primary focus, there are other challenges we face. It would be great if we could spend time at each meeting focused just on one individual and a problem they might have.

This a rough outline of the Focus Groups. If you are interested or have other questions, contact me or leave a comment and I will respond.