Social media is more than having a Facebook, LinkedIn or MSN account; it’s more than uploading a clip onto YouTube; and it’s more than sending a ‘Tweet‘ from your iPhone when you’re on the move. In a way it’s about communicating with people how you’ve never communicated before.

With the ever-cumbersome number of social media avenues available on the internet, the choice can become daunting when figuring out the best way to communicate your business online.

No matter which path you choose, it’s important to keep your content relevant, engaging, accurate and interesting. The variety of media channels to connect with your target audience is growing and becoming more confusing, but one thing is guaranteed and that is – ‘content is king’.

It’s not enough to open a Facebook page or throw a video on YouTube, because if the content doesn’t engage and connect, you’ll lose the fantastic online marketing opportunities these new media channels have created.

Advertising dollars are now being shifted away from traditional marketing avenues to creating conversations online. For example, with all the bad press Telecom‘s XT Network has been getting lately, they’ve been keeping their communication lines open by using social media. XT has been updating its customers through Twitter as to whether there is an outage, what areas it‘s affecting and how long it might last for.

Air New Zealand is also using its staff to communicate with customers through social media. It uses Twitter as a forum to get instant feedback from its customers and a channel for it to share brand messages.

Another interesting social media experiment happening in New Zealand at the moment is the freshly launched Pass It On website.

It’s an initiative to utilise the nearly one million New Zealanders living overseas, as a network of virtual ambassadors. Pass It On is a site where Kiwi expats are being asked to tell their mates and business contacts about everything New Zealand has to offer, particularly when it hosts the Rugby World Cup 2011.

Kiwi Expat Association (KEA) has decided to pick up on the childhood birthday party game of ‘Chinese whispers’ and brought it into the 21st Century – into the internet age. The main message KEA is getting across with this kind of social media marketing, is that New Zealand has plenty to brag about, Pass It On. And with plenty of Kiwiana prizes up for grabs each month, it makes it even more appealing.

Related posts:

1. Social media myths
2. Job recruiters utilise social media
3. Social Media Revolution
4. Pass It On
5. How to avoid the ‘brandjack’