Social Media (a.k.a. Web 2.0) is changing the way people talk to each other and connect. This matters a lot if you’re at all interested in communicating a message to a large-ish number of people and having them actually pay attention.

In my opinion, the single most important social shift that has taken place because of the Internet is the slide from geographic communities to what Statistics Canada is calling “Communities of Interest”. For example, in the “olden days”, you and I would be connected because of geographical proximity – we lived in the same town. Now, because of the Internet, and accelerated by things like blogs and social networking sites, we’re connecting with people not based on where we live, but based on what we’re interested in. Hence, the shift of importance to communities of interest.

If you have invented a product or a process, you know that figuring out how to tap into the appropriate community of consumers is critical to the success of your project – and this is where the application of social media can get really interesting.

We like to call what’s happening in the blogosphere “The Conversation”; millions and millions of people talking about stuff that they’re into (40% of Canadians have read a blog at least once). If you think you have something they also might find interesting, you need to join this conversation and share your information.

The nice thing is, joining this conversation is exactly the same as joining a “real” one, and there are four basic steps you need to take:

1. Listen. Find the group you’re interested in talking to and listen to what they’re talking about. Lurk and discover what kinds of information they find interesting, how they are speaking to each other, and what social norms are being observed.

2. Participate. So join in – start up a blog that features information or details about your project, and then go back to the people in your community of interest and listen again, comment on their blogs, and generally let them know that you’re there. But don’t be too pushy. Remember, this is a real conversation you’re joining – don’t be disruptive.

3. Influence. After you have been participating – after you have, in fact, become a member of the community you’ve targeted, you will find that you begin to have a profile, and therefore influence. You will notice this in three main ways: people are asking you questions (comments on your blog), they’re recommending you to others (via links on their blogs) and they want to see you again (they’re subscribing to your blog feed via RSS).

4. Action. Once you have influence, you can take action. In fact – you’ve been acting all along, letting people know about who you are and what you’re up to – forming relationships within your community of interest. When you have big news to announce, your community will ideally support you, and may offer not only intelligence from the marketplace, but also promotion in the form of posts about you and your work (just as you will do for them), spreading your news through word of mouth and (hopefully) raising your profile further.

The nice thing is that it doesn’t stop there. If you’ve ever wished you had the budget for a focus group, now you do.

All that’s required is reaching out to a couple of key individuals and asking them if they would be interested in testing your product or process and letting you know what they think, or posting about it, if they like.

Blogs in particular and social media in general can offer incredible insight for a relatively small investment (your time is another matter!). When I speak to clients about investigating a corporate blogging strategy, I often refer to it as “low cost market research”, something I’m sure we’d all like to see a little more of!

Social Media Group helps companies use social media tools and platforms as part of their marketing and communications efforts.