Move over television, because social media has become the go-to platform for companies to reach their target audience. Whether it’s the tailor-made advertisements Facebook puts all over your news feed, or a Twitter campaign asking followers to “retweet to win,” companies, both big and small, have to find new ways to connect with an audience. While big corporations like Apple or Nike have an insurmountable amount of money to spend on these campaigns, what about small start-ups with little-to-no money?

Professor Aimee Roundtree wants to show smaller organizations how to use social media to their advantage. Her presentation at this year’s South By Southwest Interactive conference aims to help these organizations “think through developing, implementing, and measuring an effective campaign.” Professor Roundtree will also share success stories from other professional organizations.

Dr. Roundtree, an Associate Professor at the University of Houston-Downtown, teaches courses in social media, hypermedia, Web publishing, and visual design, just to name a few. She has also helped oversee social media campaigns for the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing and Connexions journal.

But why does she want to help out small organizations? What got her interested? She speaks from experience:

“What peaked my interest is having served in small organizations as they ramp up social media campaigns. Resource limitations, [such as] people and funding, constrained what we could and couldn’t do. So we had ideas for using the media–ideas inspired by practices of larger businesses and name brands. But these were impracticable. So we had to think more creatively about meeting our communication objectives. I also participated in Tweet chats with others at small [organizations] who shared this experience.”

She wants small organizations to know that they can have an effective social media campaign, even without a large budget, and to not compare themselves to companies that do.

“Just because you haven’t developed a social media strategy as sophisticated as American Express or HBO, it doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong… play to your strengths, not theirs.”

A final tip for those small start-ups?

“This media and its best practices are still evolving and emerging.  Use conventional wisdom about what to do (and what not to do) in social media, but remember that there is a lot of room for innovation and creating unique and new niches and strategies.”

Professor Roundtree’s presentation is on Saturday, March 10, from 11:00AM-12:00PM in the Rio Grande Room of the Hilton Garden Inn. You can also follow Dr. Roundtree on Twitter at @akroundtree.