Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Los Angeles Social Media Starters

I'm hoping you can help me figure out who I should be connecting with on this.

I find myself speaking at various venues in Los Angeles to tell people (most often service providers) about how I've used social media and particularly my blogs, LinkedIn, twitter and topic hubs as part of my own services business.  These presentations always inspire people to do more with LinkedIn, create or improve their blog, and maybe do more with Twitter. 

Invariably I'm asked by an accountant, lawyer, wealth manager, placement specialist, insurance agent, etc.:

How can I get more help setting up my blog?  Doing these things you are talking about?

And while I always tell people to just dive in and do it (and mention that if they get stuck, just ask a 25 year old to help you), there are definitely a lot of people in the audience that need more hand holding.  They need some help getting started.  They need someone who does consulting, hand holding, cracks the whip a bit, gets the stuff in place, knows different tricks and techniques.

Of course, this normally is a bit more complicated than just the technical aspects.

What's their specific niche?  Who's the audience?  Where are they online?  What do they search for?

So this person needs to understand how to quickly move through marketing analysis 101 type things.

My perception is that most services professionals like this are not going to want to spend a lot of money on these things, but I've not market tested it.

I'd like to be able to point them to a few different options.  I'd especially like to find people in Los Angeles.

Who do you know that might fit?

5 comments:

Ben Kuo said...

I think the list of people offering "social media" assistance is very, very long here--it's one of the areas I seem to run into two or three new people at every event I go to who are helping companies out. I'd check out people attending MOTM and the New Media Interchange--just to name a couple of places where some of the social media folks seem to hang out.

Tony Karrer said...

Ben - anyone in particular you would recommend?

Tom Humbarger said...

Tony - definitely add me to your list. I've been providing these services to several small businesses over the past year.

You can check out my profile and see some of my thoughts on social media strategy and tools on my blog at http://tomhumbarger.wordpress.com.

Tom

Unknown said...

Tony, I took a call last week from a woman who said the hardest thing about finding us was figuring out what she was searching for. I believe the niche is under the online marketing umbrella and would be classified as social media marketing. This includes social networking, blog outreach, forums, social bookmarking, integrated PR and of course, video.

I am the managing partner of SpotZero, a full service online video and social media marketing agency that does all of that! Consulting, hand holding, whip cracking getting the stuff in place, different tricks and techniques and we even have some 25 year olds in case we get stuck! We work primarily with small and local businesses http://www.spotzero.com

SpotZero is owned by Supercool Creative, an online video and social media agency working with larger companies and brands doing creative, production and marketing of viral videos, branded series and online video ads.

Thanks for posing the question.

Regards,
David

Tony Karrer said...

David - thanks for the thoughtful note. I agree that not even knowing what to search for or being aware of what social media marketing is - is a common situation for these folks. Luckily I get to educate them a bit when I present.

I'll drop you a tweet so we can connect.