Social Media Marketing for Beginners: Working with Content

What content is important when it comes to social media? What are some of the tools that I can use to do it myself?  There are a ton of things you may try when working with social media.  In Todd Kelsey's book "CASA Marketing: Into to Social Media Marketing", he introduces concepts and tools that he feels are worth trying from personal experience.

Curation/Creation/Collaboration
In terms of content, each of these areas have importance.

• Curation: When curating content, it is pretty much simply gathering and collecting information, or finding it, sharing, reviewing, and commenting.  The main goal here is to create an awareness for what you are marketing (site, blog, etc. for the company or organization you're doing it for).
• Creation: This is about creating content to share on social media.  Examples of this include: writing an article, making a video, creating blog posts, etc.  You have the power to create whatever you want for whoever you want.
• Collaboration: Find someone you can work with, or collaborate with for experience.  When working with someone else, you get the benefit of seeing things from another perspective.  It is a great place to start or great for professional experience!

To make working with content more doable, here are some suggestions:
1. If you don't already have a Google account, get one! - Google has a lot of useful, free tools that make it easier working with content.
2. Start a blog.  As you can see here, I am using blogger.com, which I find easiest to use!  If you are the slight bit interested in social media marketing, blogging is an awesome way to start.
3. Create a free website.  This website can be used for your own social media presence or it can be used for a specific professional project, campaign, etc.
4.  Work on a video!  Whether it is making a video from scratch, or simply editing a video, having a background in working with video media is extremely attractive to businesses.  Showcasing this kind of skill via social media not only gives you experience, but makes you an attractive candidate for a position.

These are only a few of the many options one may get started with... While social media marketing can be intimidating, it is important to remember to start somewhere and work your way up.  Now get out there and dive in!