Each year the National Agri-Marketing Association brings you NAMA Boot Camp. A conference on marketing and agriculture basics, for those just entering the agri-marketing industry and veterans just wanting a refresher.

Today anyone with Internet capabilities is considered media. Thus, the ability for anyone to serve as your marketing and PR team. The ability for instantaneous information has lead businesses into the field of social media. And the term social business is coined. The first general session to start off day two of the event was lead by Justin Goldsborough, Senior Vice President at FleishmanHilliard, on the Evolution of Social Business.

“Social business is about managing online relationships effectively by managing internal stakeholder relationships.”

Justin was able to thoroughly explain the business value of social media and give first-hand examples of ways to do it right. His company has adopted a Social Engagement Lifecycle to help them and other companies take steps into creating a social media plan that works. The bottom line is the importance of content that is engaging.

He left us with five things we should do today to jump start our social business plan.

1. Find where you are on the Social Engagement Lifecycle.
2. Think about what social media channels you want to use and how you want to use them.
3. Search to see how people are talking about your company.
4. Define objectives. Are they measurable?
5. Subscribe to Content Marketing Institute for email newsletters.

Listen to my interview with Justin here: Interview with Justin Goldsborough

Here are photos from the event:2013 NAMA Boot Camp Photo Album