SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS
Creating your online identity
What is Social Media?
Social media are the various forms of user generated content and
the collection of websites and applications that enable people
to interact and share information online
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Social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace)
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Blogs (Wordpress)
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Video sharing sites (YouTube)
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Photo sharing sites (Flickr)
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Crowdsourcing (Wikipedia)
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User reviews (Amazon, Yelp)
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Streaming sites (Ustream)
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Social bookmarking (Digg, del.icio.us)
THE SOCIAL MEDIA REVOLUTION
Online viewers: Please watch at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8z
Why is social media so important for businesses?
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It finds you customers and builds clientele
It gives businesses the ability to find out what people
are saying about them (and others) in their industries
It introduces your brand
It gives you feedback about your brand
It provides a test audience (vs. focus groups)
Solidifies your reputation as a valuable and
knowledgeable resource
EXERCISE 1
Keywords related to your organization
FACEBOOK
Why Facebook?
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According to a recent report by Merchant Circle,
70% of businesses use Facebook. This is a 20%
increase over the last year.
For the first time ever, Facebook is being used more
than Google for online marketing
Facebook updates are three more times effective
than Tweets to propel online business
Facebook dominates the check-in space with 32%
of businesses using this feature (vs. Foursquare)
YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE:
Create the page using
name, logo, and
branding
•
Use as an outlet to
display and share
information in a fun,
informal way (in
conjunction with your
homepage)
•
Form relationships
with people in your
industry (and your
clients’ clients)
•
Showcase the “real”
side of your business
•
What do you talk about?
EVERYTHING
Content Ideas
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News – Is there anything going on internally worth
sharing? Upcoming events? New hires? Announcements?
Industry trends/news –What are the current trends?
News posts can be funny, shocking, serious, entertaining. It
makes you look like an expert.
Client news – Great way to promote upcoming client
events and campaigns. It lets people know who you’re
working with and for whom.
Past achievements – what were some of your greatest
accomplishments? Brag about yourself.
Facebook: Vanity URL
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Vanity URL:
- www.facebook.com/tiffanysmansfield
- www.facebook.com/RehobothFamilyLife
Share your business on Facebook easily with friends,
family, co-workers, and other Facebook users
Increases your SEO when people enter your business
and/or name on Google, Yahoo, or similar search engine
sites
Facebook
550M people
are on
Facebook—
make a 1st
impression
•
A snapshot of
your business
and what it’s
all about
•
With a
Welcome
Page, 47% of
users will
“follow” our
page (vs.
23%)
•
Show people who you are in 5-10 seconds with
a Landing Page
CUSTOMIZING YOUR FACEBOOK
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Custom Tabs (Events,
What’s New, Our Work,
Join the Mailing List)
Add photos and videos
of your staff at work
and around the
community (events,
conferences, etc)
Upload and reach
potential contacts using
your email lists
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“Tagging” clients you
work with, organizations
you’re part of, and
businesses you’re
interested in
Provide links to your
homepage, Twitter,
LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
Update daily!
THE FACEBOOK VOICE
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Establishing yourself as an expert in the field is crucial, especially
when promoting your business via social media.
Build trust and credibility among followers and online users - in
the future they will come to rely on you when issues arise or they
need help with a project.
Provide valuable content to online audiences - and often. Think
industry news, upcoming events, and IGS day-to-day occurrences.
Be enthusiastic and conversational - Promote your culture!
FACEBOOK: In the News
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Barcelona midfield star
Lionel Messi racked up
6.8 million fans seven
hours after setting up a
Facebook page
The most popular person
on Facebook in 2010?
TWITTER
Why should you use Twitter?
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Promote your mission and culture
Twitter is the place to connect with niche audiences
pertinent to our business
Have conversations and build relationships with
individuals in your industry—and clients’ too!
Monitor the competition – who are they following?
Who’s following them? What are they up to?
What do you tweet about?
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Industry news—it can range from shocking and funny to
serious and hard hitting
Upcoming events
Upcoming client events—great way to promote what our
clients are doing. It promotes their images, makes your
business look good, and lets people know who we’re
working with
Day-to-day—Great outlet to showcase company culture.
Did something funny happen at the office? Is someone
winning an award? Tweeting is all about being
conversational
TWEETS FROM CEOS
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"At the RNC now—different vibe here. Palin is totally flirting with me."
(Kevin Rose, Digg)
"Poll: Is the 'Naked People' banner on our home page at
http://www.zappos.com offensive? (A customer complained)" (Tony Hsieh,
Zappos.com)
"Has anyone bought an external battery for the Macbook Air? Looking at
http://is.gd/1UqJ and http://is.gd/1UqK right now. Recommendations?“
(David Sifry, Technorati)
"Our Q3: We announced the results of our third fiscal quarter (Q3) on
Thursday last week, and the rest… http://tinyurl.com/3qyer9“ (Jonathan
Schwartz, Sun Microsystems)
LISTORIOUS
Become an
expert in
the industry
& build
your
reputation
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Listorious is a web service which makes it
easy for you to find the best Twitter lists on
any given topic. It aggregates the Twitter
lists into categories – media, finance,
marketing, food, humor etc. Listorious
allows you to search for a list, person, or
tags in general.
The most popular lists, ranked by how
many people follow them and the top tags
are showcased on the right-hand side of
the page.
Become an Expert
Add your
handle to
Twitter
directories
and lists
specific to
your industry
or
specialized
area
•
LinkedIn
Why do you need LinkedIn?
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Information & Contacts—Do we need a more effective solution on a
business project or need? Who can get the job done effectively? LinkedIn is
a professional network that can introduce you to new resources and
professionals
Competitive Edge—LinkedIn is a great place to bounce new ideas and get
the reaction of professionals from the same industry. Get an honest opinion
of your business and also on the competition.
Trusted Contacts—When you are introduced to a contact by one of your
trusted connections, you start the working relationship at a far better point
than when you hire someone off the street. On LinkedIn you can quickly
check references and interact with people who may have provided a
prospective employee a recommendation.
LinkedIn Groups
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Groups allow members the
opportunity to create and
manage groups focused on a
wide-range of business-related
subjects
- Topics: Education, Healthcare,
Event Planning, Medicine,
Blogging
Groups offer valuable
networking opportunities,
linking professionals to
resources and information that
can be beneficial to their
missions
LinkedIn Discussions
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Discussions, newsfeeds, subgroups (for promotion
purposes)
PROFESSIONAL BLOGGING
Professional Blogging
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What is a blog? A corporate tool for communicating
with customers or employees to share knowledge &
expertise, drive additional web traffic and connect
with potential clients and customers.
Great for small businesses. Provides opportunity to
share their knowledge with a larger audience. Works
well for consultants and knowledge workers.
Other blogging software options: Blogger, Typepad,
and Movable Type
Professional Blogging
CONTENT IDEAS:
Best practices and
tips (applying for
college, using an RSS
feed)
•
Involvement of
successful
professionals and
executives
•
Articles and
reactions on current
trends and news
•
How-to guides
•
What blogs do you follow?
Youtube
Youtube
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Market your organization to millions of people, no big
budget required. Required? A video camera and a little
creativity!
Inform — Your company mission and values; what do you
do?
Educate — ”How-to” or a service demo (How-to Study More
Effectively; How to Wear the Right Makeup)
Entertain — Show off our past events and work! (i.e. Behind
the Scenes of Conference Planning)
Youtube
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Link channel to main homepage, Facebook,
LinkedIn and your professional blog. Tweet and
update about your videos!
Focus on SEO: Optimize video text and
descriptions with keywords and links back to
your homepage.
Youtube – Deloitte
Great use of
social media
Deloitte Film
Festival
2,000 filmmakers
370+ videos
“Even though
Deloitte is a large
organization, your
voice can be
heard. We value
collaboration,
creativity, fun and
participation.”
Online viewers: Please watch at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainJ2VKJ_wU
EXERCISE 2
Brainstorming photo and video content
Evaluating Your Success
Measuring the ROI of Your Social Media Efforts
A new sort of analysis:
"The number of eyeballs, shakes and
finger swipes. The number of blogs,
articles, tweets and diggs. The number of
acquisitions, conversions, calls, responses
or purchases. Total basket size, consumer
recall, loyalty and recommendations.
Check-ins on foursquare and check-outs
on Amazon.” – Mobile Marketing Association
Measuring ROI
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Increased traffic —
more people reading
your blog, more hits on
your website, more
Facebook likes and
Twitter followers
Google Analytics
(tracks keywords,
incoming links, sites, etc)
Wordpress dashboard
TweetMeme (retweets)
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More relationships –
meeting and doing
business with new
professionals
Overall better brand
awareness (having fans,
followers, re-tweets,
readers, viewers builds
your brand)
Google Analytics:
Traffic booms
#1 source:
Facebook
FACEBOOK INSIGHTS
Measures:
Total page Likes,
or a number of
fans, daily active
users, new
Likes/Unlikes, Like
sources,
demographics,
page views and
unique page views,
tab views, external
referrers, and
media consumption
Integrating Your Website
• Add Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn buttons to your
homepage (and to all social media sites)
• Add Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn buttons to your
marketing collateral and email signatures
• Add email subscription applications to your Facebook,
homepage, and blog
Integrating Your Website
• Add link to professional blog to homepage and all social
media sites
• Integrate updates to all social media sites (Did we write a
post a blog entry today? Facebook it, tweet it, and do a
LinkedIn update!
TWEETDECK
• TweetDeck is a real-time application that allows users to monitor updates in
a single concise view (Desktop, iPhone, iTouch, iPod, iPad, Android)
• TweetDeck currently integrates services from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,
FourSquare, and Google Buzz.
• Enables users to split their main Twitter feed (All Friends) into columns
allowing a broader overview of tweets
• Gives users ability to group people together and search across the
“twittersphere.”
- Work colleagues or friends
- Monitor any subject within Twitter (medicine, education, social
media, makeup, non-profit)
- Columns automatically update to provide the user with a very
dashboard of real-time information.
effective
TWEETDECK
Exercise 3
Crafting your strategy
Exercise 4 – Take home
Monitoring your online presence
Ashley Siegle
(202) 248-5043
ashley@isomevents.com