Hi. This is Randy Hlavac, and one question you're probably asking is, "What sort of social assets should I develop for this specialization?" We're going to talk about that in this video, and also give you options that'll allow you to custom-tailor it to the country that you're in. One of the first social media sites we use is Twitter. We like to use Twitter because it can accomplish three big objectives. First off, it links us up with virtual communities. It allows us to identify and link up with the influencers who are talking to those communities on topics we may not be experts in, as well as businesses, and it also links us up with target market. So if you look at the tweet on the left, you'll see #socialmediamanagement, #graphics and #socialmedia, are actually virtual communities around those subject areas. So when I add those to my tweet, I'm actually talking to people who are actively searching for those particular subjects and they'll be able to read my tweet. If I happen to be re-tweeting a piece of great content from an influencer, they can also look at the influencer. What happens there is every time I use those hashtags, I grow more followers. Also, you'll see the @buffer, @Hootsuite. Those are links to actual businesses and could be also to people. What it does is those at handles actually allow this tweet to go out to all of their audiences so they have millions of followers, millions of followers will read this particular tweet. So using hashtags and the at handle, we can get to a lot of different people, a lot of different businesses and more importantly, a lot of different virtual communities in our target markets interest areas and communicate with them using Twitter. A second social networking site we like to use is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is good for three reasons. First off, it connects us with the thought leaders and the other professionals who are talking about subjects that are of interest to our high value market. We can also link up with businesses in our industry or businesses that are being used by our high-value markets. Finally, we can connect up with communities on a lot of different topics. In fact, you'll probably connect up with the Northwestern Social Media Marketing Specialization, that is out on LinkedIn as it is on Twitter. Instagram is another social media site that's really good for micro-content. Micro-content is basically a content about your brand, about yourself, and things that represent you. So I like to use it to put out quotes, like, "Today is a gift, that's why it's called the present, make sure you unwrap it." You can also put out information about your company that represents you. Tentsile is a company that puts out different types of tents. They put them out in beautiful scenes that show the tent being used, but they also just represent the essence of the company. So really, Instagram's great for your brand essence, brand positioning. There are also communities out there that links up with hashtags, much like Twitter and LinkedIn. So it's a great way to communicate. Facebook is an area that I really like to use because you can find communities, and basically, Facebook define communities. That said, there's three basic types of communities. The first one are Public communities. You can go out and see them on Facebook, you can search for them and find them on Facebook. Once you're there, you can immediately begin to interact with the group. Private communities are viewable but you must join to engage into comment and be a part of them. So you have to be accepted into the community and you usually do a request, they'll accept you, and away you go, and it is also searchable. A third type that's also available on Facebook that you could build for a high-value market is a Secret community. These are by invitation-only and can't be seen. Another site we like to use, YouTube as well as Vimeo. First off, you can do brand essence videos. At the bottom, you see the Red Bull Soapbox runs that they do across the world. It's just an interesting way to show people the essence of who you are. We can also do help videos. At the top, you see the Fitbit Charge Three. It's a video that tells you how to best use your Fitbit, trending videos that are out there on subjects that may be of importance to your target market. The final major one is the Podcasts of iTunes. You'll find many of your influencers have their own podcasts. You can also search it by specific topics of interest to your target market to find the podcast that would be relevant to them. It also is used a lot for events, so you can become a part of it. So this is the top podcasts for startups in 2018. There are a lot of them out there on any subject that you want or any subject that's of interest to your target market. So I encourage you to sign up for iTunes and then do research for their podcasts. As you're developing your professional social asset, here's some things to consider. First off, do you want to separate your professional and your personal life online or you want to commingle them? Many of the sites like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn allow you to create a separate business sub-site. So what that means is that you could actually have a site for you and your friends and family and then a sub-site for your business where you can link up with influencers and do the things that we'll be doing in this specialization. Second, add sites relevant to your nation. Search professional social media sites or professional social sites in your country's name. On the right, you'll see China and you'll see that China has many sites that are surrogates for the ones that we're using in our specialization. What we recommend you do is use our recommended sites to find the influencers and key people and communities you want to engage with, and then take those and go find them on your countryside. That way, you will be able to use both your country's social networks as well as the global ones that we are using in class. Have fun developing your social assets. This is where you're going to connect up with the influencers that are important to your target markets, as well as the communities where your target markets reside. These are learning tools that will allow you to build a professional network and grow a follower base to make you an influencer in the market that you want to develop.
