Here are a few ways in which a professional services firm can quickly establish a presence and connect with prospective clients and stakeholders
Integrate the Website and the Blog
The website and blog would probably be the "mothership" of any firm's web presence.
Content (text, pictures, videos) would be the reason:
a. Search engines would get keywords to index the site
b. People would find the site – and subscribe to get the updates.
c. This content could then be syndicated to other websites – by RSS feeds.
Linkedin
Linkedin is a business networking site – and firms and their employees can build visibility and brand equity by engaging with groups and in Q and A. They can also utilize the event feature to showcase organizational events.
Facebook
A firm's page on facebook page does two things - it builds a community of fans and can also syndicates the blog's RSS feeds (for example the 2020 Social FB page) – so that every time the blog is updated the fans would get the update on their facebook home page. The ability to upload pictures would also focus on giving a firm a human face.
Twitter
Twitter is a status updation service by which people choose to follow users. A firm can start a twitter account that also syndicates the RSS feed. This however would be most useful when people choose to follow the firm's status on Twitter (example 2020 Social) - and the firm can get its employees to tweet individually and have conversations with interested people.
Other services like Slideshare, Scribd
These are services which help in sharing documents and presentations which can then be embedded as widgets on the blog/website of the firm. This also helps firms to come out favorably on searches engines as these sites get ranked quite highly by search engines.
Discussion forum
Various services like discussion fora where influencers of the domain and various e-groups on Google Groups and Yahoogroups where professionals congregate- engaging in conversations there would also provide a firm with huge exposure to a firm.
Next steps for a firm after exploring what suits its needs...
1. Define metrics for objectives
2. Focus on a couple of tools
3. Training and skilling employees on engaging in social media/web presence
