FNCE Reflections -- Margery Swan

Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the 2012 FNCE (Food and Nutrition Conference Expo) in Philadelphia and sit in on multiple educational sessions.  Since I’m still a relatively new social media user, the session I chose to go to was:

“Time to Socialize: The Ins and Outs of Facebook, Twitter and Linked In”.

Both speakers, Bonnie Taub-Dix and Keri Gans have a background in social media and have successfully used it to promote themselves professionally.  The first application, they discussed and the one I was most interested in, as a new member, was Twitter.  Through their presentation I learned that you can send a direct message through twitter (only the recipient can see) and that there are applications available to combine the different social media platforms.

Hootsuite, for example, allows you to post/tweet things simultaneously and has a built –in option to shorten URLs when tweeting.

During the session they also talked about the differences between a professional and personal Facebook.  They suggested creating a professional page if you want to create a brand or if you have your own practice.  They also recommended the following tips:

1)      Try and make your Facebook and twitter look similar to enhance your brand.

2)      Don’t be afraid to promote yourself – Facebook about your blog or tweet about your Facebook.

3)      Follow up with friends and followers whenever possible and answer any questions.

One of the last topics was Linked In.  This was something I was curious about because I have not yet created a Linked In account.  This is because I didn’t really understand how to use Linked In or how it would benefit me as a professional. During the discussion, I learned that Linked In is an important tool to connect with other professionals and to promote yourself.  Linked In members can also join discussions and post questions to different professional groups or categories. 

So, the message here, don’t be scared to experiment with social media, the pay-off can be huge and it’s a great way to connect with people, while still promoting yourself and your business.