We help companies embrace social media and communicate with existing customers and prospects in deeper and more meaningful ways.

Social Media tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Blogs give you and your company the opportunity to share who you are, what you are about, who you know and what you are doing.

We use a hands-on approach to show you how  to use these tools to increase interest in you and your company, build trust, solidify relationships, and keep you top of mind. Companies all over Kansas City, from sole proprietors to organizations with hundreds of employees, have trusted Blue Gurus to make that opportunity a reality.

Companies typically work with Blue Gurus for one of the following reasons:

• They think that social media is going to take a lot of time with little return, yet  they know  everyone else is doing it so they want to make sure they aren’t left behind.
• They have fears and insecurities about using social media for the first time and don’t have the time to research all of the tools themselves.
• They don’t have enough resources to get the work done correctly and consistently but don’t want to hire a full time employee.

The Blue Gurus 5-Step Process

Step 1 – Strategy

We begin by facilitating an “all hands on” meeting to discuss what the strategy for your organization will be. We ask questions of you and your team to learn about your business and your target audiences.

Everyone has a different background when it comes to social media, and it is important to get an understanding of each individual’s experience and comfort level with the tools that are available. Some people will be power users and fully embrace social media. Some will have had limited exposure to social media and need to be coached on the value of these tools for themselves and the organization.

Once you are ready to begin the “social media marathon” you and your team will have lots of questions, which we encourage!  This is a key component to getting everyone engaged in the process. Some of the typical questions we hear include:

• Where should we begin?
• What tools should we use?
• How often should we send out messages?
• What should we talk about?
• How much is this thing going to cost?

We work closely with you and your team to build the momentum  you need to propel your organization into the growing and complex world of social media. We work together to answer your questions, build your team’s confidence in the value of social media, and then focus our efforts on setting up a project plan.

Step 2 – Training

To use any tool effectively, you need to understand what it does and how to use it. We typically begin with LinkedIn training and set up one-on-one coaching sessions to educate you and your team on what makes a great LinkedIn profile.

After you and your team have worked on your LinkedIn profiles, we provide each person with a personalized review highlighting our final recommendations. Once the reviews are complete,  we bring your entire team together and do advanced LinkedIn training in a collaborative forum.

Some of the benefits of this approach include:

• Providing your team members the chance to ask us questions without worrying about asking “dumb questions” in front of peers.
• Increasing the level of accountability that each person feels to the success of the social media effort.
• Helping us build a rapport with the people in your organization and giving them confidence that we are there to help the organization become more successful.
• Opening up the doors to collaboration. Team building naturally occurs during this process. We have learned that most people in organizations crave collaboration. When the entire team comes together, we see amazing results as team members get excited, share stories, suggest ways to use these new tools, and more.

Step 3 – Implementation

Now that we have a plan and your team has been trained, we help you create your social media presence.  LinkedIn personal and company profiles, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Blogs, and YouTube accounts are some of the most commonly implemented tools.

There are many more tools available and whether or not we implement a certain tool depends on the strategy we outlined in the earlier stages of the process.

Step 4 – Consistency

The most challenging aspect of using social media effectively is consistency.  The consistency equation is made up of two parts: CONNECTIONS and CONTENT.

CONNECTIONS
You must continually challenge your team to help grow your sphere of influence by inviting people to connect on LinkedIn, “Like” your Facebook page, follow your organization on Twitter, and subscribe to your Blog.

This is a paradigm shift for organizations and must become a part of the way you do business on a daily basis. We track this activity to make sure progress is being made in support of the agreed-upon social media strategy.

CONTENT
Your content must be fresh, creative, relevant to your audience and published at least once a week for your social media to have a real chance at being effective. We work with you to make sure this is done and hold you and your team accountable for your commitment to the process.

Step 5 – Ongoing Messaging

Some clients struggle with figuring out how to say what they want to say. Other clients have things to talk about but don’t want to be bothered by the technical aspects and time commitment involved in publishing it to all of their social media sites.

For many of our clients, we handle this process for them. They are responsible for sending us their weekly messages, pictures and any other relevant content.

We proof it, edit it where appropriate, make it more “social media friendly”, format it professionally and then publish it to their social media sites. This process ensures that the content is being properly crafted for their audience and instills a system of accountability that our clients need and want.