Meet Tori Linscott, Member of the EGC Social Media Team

Want to get the inside information right from the mouth of an EGC social media expert? We sat down for 5 Questions with Tori Linscott.

Q. So you're one of the social media experts at EGC. How did you get into social media?

A. I started out during what some might call the "golden era" of social media marketing right around 2006, when the value in it really started to be noticed. Hofstra University Public Relations professors preached the importance of social media to businesses and marketing campaigns and I wanted an "A" so I jumped on the bandwagon. I interned for Versace and with the responsibility of being a "media manager," I quickly saw the real value in social media. I realized the easiest place to find out what was being said about Versace's new line was on Facebook or on blogs. I saw the potential in it and quickly figured out my professors were right. It wasn't so much that I found social media. Social media found me, and to be honest – made my job a lot easier!

Looking back now, audiences were far less jaded and self-proclaimed experts back in 2008. As time went on, exponentially more people (like myself) started to blog and tweet about social media – making it exponentially more difficult to stand out. In my opinion, social media users' brains and eyeballs are quickly becoming fatigued. I combat social media everyday with the same notion: only the best of the best content, and the most charismatic personalities can crack through all the "me too" noise and rise to the top.

Q. What top three things should marketers keep in mind when engaging consumers in social media?

A. Encourage consumer-generated content: the nature of the customer's interactions with a brand, company and other customers are now, almost under all circumstances, interactive. If you ask your fans to post pictures or videos on top of their feelings, people are going to become engaged.

When engaging consumers, you need to lead with messages that consumers will care about: style, price, function – and let sustainability attributes be the icing on the cake. A storage company is just a storage company until you start reaching out to consumers, giving them helpful hints on packing up holiday decorations and organization. You have now become a resource to them; it's important to remember a brand succeeds when it bridges a gap inside the consumer's mindset of where they are now and where they want to be.

Keep in mind: engaging your consumers in social media is not a destination; it's a journey. Never stop engaging. Shower your fans with public recognition and they'll respond.

Q. How do you handle a negative post or negative comment?

A. Easy. Tell them you have heard them and you plan to do everything in your power to change their feelings. Give them someone to call (not a 1-800 number, but a cell phone or office line). Let them know you accept full responsibility for what has made them feel negatively toward your brand and let them know this is how you plan to fix it.

Q. What tools are most useful to you?

A. I keep daily activity logs of my time spent interacting with fans, looking into competitors, reading related blogs, etc. This way I always have something to refer back to or remind me of a conversation I had with a consumer that I need to go back to.

I tend to use Tweet Deck and Viral Heat to manage conversations. These tools let me view all social pages for all our clients (including my own pages). If someone says something about a social page I manage, I'm going to know about it and be able to respond in a timely manner.

Q. With the low cost of entry for social media, many marketers look to do this in-house. Describe the benefit to having a professional communications firm handle the effort?

A. Actually, social media is really easy to screw up. Who do you want to be the public voice of your brand? An intern who has a short-term commitment to your company? A mid-level marketing manager who is having a midlife crisis? It's quite easy to offend people and stir up an online reputation problem, damage your company brand, or make a costly mistake (i.e.: picking the wrong wording for your company Facebook fan page – or forgetting a password and locking yourself out of a key account.) A better option I recommend is to get initial guidance from an experienced social media professional, and to let your intern or assistant follow their guidelines. You don't have to feel like an outsourced "professional" is in charge or your company brand, but a professional who is willing to work with your company and show you social media best practices that work for you and your team.