Jumping head on into the cold water i.e. social media

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Just a small excerpt of the social media jungle

So, it's been a while since I last posted - actually it's been almost exactly 2 years. Oh boy, so much to catch up on - where to start...

Well, for now, I'd like to dedicate this entry to my newest challenge: I was recruited to be social media manager of a company, even though I have never done anything like that.

During my studies at AUC, we looked into the most important social media tools for journalists: facebook and twitter. I was taught the importance of virality and surveying your audience.

At the end of the day, my knowledge turned out to be quite helpful, when the revolution in Egypt was aggravated, accelerated and created by a social media tsunami. So yeah, I got the point, as to why social media are important for journalists.

However, now that I've sold my soul and am working PR and Social Media management for an e-commerce company in the tourism industry, the picture seems to be quite different. Don't get me wrong: I love my job, but it's a challenge - right now.

Hence, I am starting to get acquainted with the commercial use of social media. As far as I've learned, the key of commercial use of social media is to not appear commercial. First and foremost a company has to provide a service to the fans by offering information that meets the fans' needs.

But wait: Which fans? My biggest challenge right now is the attempt of trying to gain more traffic, likes and virality on our facebook, twitter and Google+ sites, of which we have about 20 each. So, if you have a good idea, how to generate a large audience without giving away freebies, let me know.

Also, what's that thing with Google+? I'm sure, I'd be much more into it if I lived in the States but somehow the Google+ wave has not really reached Germany, yet. Even though, apparently it is one of the best tools companies can to get better rankings on search engine results. But, no matter how often I watch that introduction video to Google+, I just do not understand how EXACTLY this is supposed to work... Call me stupid. And why is it not connected to twitter or facebook? This just makes everything so much more time consuming.

For our company, not do I only have the daily task to take care of facebook posts (- luckily facebook forwards all posts to twitter) but I also have to check all of our Google+ accounts. Since there is no way of pre-dating a google+-post, the mandatory activity gets lost in the rumble of all other things.

So, to all social media wizzes out there, if you have any advice on how to get started properly, please let me know. I'm open to constructive criticism and helpful advice.

Oh, and while your at it: Here's a link to one of the facebook pages that I will manage: Travanto - Ferienwohnungen & Ferienhäuser (it's in German btw).- of course, you may like it... if you want.. of course ;)