Social Media for You and Your Business with notes

Social (new) media – different communication style requiring new approaches/mindset Traditional media is a 1 to many message, broadcasting Social media is a 1 to 1 conversation, about connecting, community. 3

Website (or blog) – always your home base •You own your site, can’t control fate of tools •Emphasizes your marketing message – what problems you solve •Social media is intro, site is sell •Where ppl check you out Is it ready for action? •Think like a search engine – if they can’t find you, you don’t exist - good SEO (keywords) •Dynamic - Fresh content •Kill useless features – customer’s point of view, what they care about •Mobile friendly •No flash – not mobile or search friendly •Good analytics – traffic patterns, where visitors come from, where they go after they leave you, search terms used •RSS feed •Sharing button 4

Use tools personally first so you can get a feel for them, what they’re capable of, how they can help your biz achieve its goals. Use it for your own professional development or to learn more about social media/marketing •Read blogs, subscribe, comment •Find thought leaders to follow on Twitter •Join groups/pages on LI or FB •Get a sense of the culture – etiquette, do’s and don’ts •Complete your profiles 5

LI – business reception, Twitter – after work happy hour, Facebook – backyard barbecue 6

LinkedIn for professional use - online resume – 80% of employers use/plan to use it for hiring •Connecting with others •Professional dev – groups •Search – find out where prospects are (groups) •Biz/professional branding – group discussions, questions/answers, status updates – be content expert 7

LI’s profile completeness suggestions. Use same photo you use on other SM platforms – your Facebook profile on your personal page may be different. LI Search function will look for keywords so keep that in mind as you complete your Headline, Summary, Specialties and job descriptions. Your Headline can be edited if you wish to describe yourself other than the default – current position. Add web sites – blog, web site, company web site – and Twitter username. Customize your LI URL so it shows your name and not a mix of numbers and name. Add past jobs so former colleagues can find you. 8

Applications can be added to your profile – Slideshare, Tripit (travel plans – good for meeting connections in other cities), Amazon reading list, blog import, Events. Be wary of adding the Twitter application if you tweet a lot – can be obnoxious. Get recommendations. Differentiate yourself by adding Interests – may create bond with someone. Join groups. 9

Review your Settings. Go through all options. •Visible to everyone. •Check name – full name, not first name/last name initial. •Connections browse – allow. •Profile & status updates – turn off Profile Updates when doing a lot of editing, but turn it on before completing last edit. Turn Status Updates on. 10

Personalize invitations to connect – don’t use LI default. Connecting philosophy – everyone has a different connection philosophy. Choose Connect or Ignore. If you choose “I don’t know this person,” it’s possible that their account will be suspended if that happens to them several times. Their connection philosophy is different, that’s all, don’t punish them. 11

People don’t get Twitter - whom you follow, how you engage. Reserve your Twitter username so no one else takes it. Individual – professional development, news, conversation, relationship building (mix of personal/professional), branding/content expert Biz – trusted source, build relationships, sharing news and info, marketing Twitter – public texting – www.twitter.com You will see the tweets only of people you follow (click Follow on their page). If they choose to follow you back, they’ll see your tweets too. You don’t need to follow back those that follow you. Be selective. You will receive an email when someone decides to follow you. Tweet – message to your followers. @ - used in front of a username when you are talking to or replying to that person, or mentioning them in a tweet. Your @ tweet to that person will only be seen by him/her and any followers you have in common. RT – retweet – a way to share someone’s tweet with your followers – great way to share good links or messages/tweets. Good twitter karma. DM – direct message – private tweet to a person who follows you. No one else can see it. Will also go to that person’s email. You can’t DM someone who does not follow you. Shortened URLs 12

Whom to follow? •Twitter lists – Lists by topic to group the people they follow. Good way to find people. •Do the authors of the blogs you read have a Twitter account? A link to their Twitter account may be displayed on their blog. •Linkedin profiles now list Twitter usernames. •Twitter website “Find People” search •http://search.twitter.com/ - Advanced Search – can search by keyword and filter it by location. 13

Complete your profile – photo, full name, web site (blog, web site, LI profile), location (city, state) and bio. Bio is limited to 160 characters. Because I use Twitter for professional and personal reasons, mine is a mix. People will not follow you back if you don’t have a complete profile. Key to Twitter success – a mix of tweets, @’s and RTs. Do not self-promote more than 20% (MAX) of the time. Mix it up. Give value. Sharing and giving credit is highly encouraged. Keep tweets to under 120 chars (or so) so don’t have to be edited to RT. Be a real person, be interesting. 14

Tweetdeck & Hootsuite (computer app), Ubertwitter (mobile app for BBs) Columns by follow topics, search terms Content – keep a running list of good reading, how-to’s, RTs, SmartBrief enewsletters, NFIB, other tweeps (check lists, RSS feed) Send emails to a specific folder – go through at once to save time – Qwitter Warning – spam, phishing bots (Mashable) 15

Personal – check privacy settings – defaults may have changed. Very recent change to privacy - Go to Privacy Settings, Applications & Websites, Instant Personalization Pilot Program, and uncheck Instant Personalization Everyone has different connecting/friending philosophies and may have different ones for different platforms. Ok not to connect/friend with others. Follow your own comfort level. 16

News Feed – 2 options – Top News and Most Recent. Top News is based on a Fb algorithim, they will select news for you based on that. I use Most Recent. Hiding applications (games, quizzes, snowball fights etc.) and people – place cursor over upper right corner and Hide button will appear. Click on that and you’ll have the options of hiding the person or the application. Edit Options at bottom of page – shows whom you have hidden (in case you want to bring them back). Also, shows # of friends that Fb will display in your News Feed. Increase this number if it’s too low – I think the default is 200 so if you more friends, you’ll want to increase it. 17

Recent changes to public pages – not fan, Like. Google Analytics now. When creating public/fan pages, don’t attach it to anyone’s profile or they will be attached to it forever, seriously. Instead see the instructions here - http://socialmediab2b.com/2010/04/facebook-is-doing-it-wrong-for-b2b-companies/ 25 fans, sign up for a Vanity URL Fan page updates go to the fans’ News feed so it’s a great way to keep fans in the loop. Make it shareable. Not too frequent, 1-2x day (will compare to others). ENGAGE 18

Youtube channel – video on FB too Content marketing – how to videos, interviews, behind the scenes Tips – customize your channel so it looks like your brand, moderate comments, create playlists to organize videos, tag videos (search), engage 19

Future is mobile – younger generation, everyone’s attached to their phone More and more applications Latest tool – geolocation – Foursquare, TriOut– Facebook getting into biz soon 20

Benes for biz – word of mouth marketing, customer loyalty rewards Still developing so difficult to know how it can help other types of biz 21

Blogs - Good 1st step for using social media for learning - where I began – reading/subscribing to blogs, later commenting (social mojo, link exposure) Can subscribe to a blog’s RSS (real simple syndication) feed – orange icon Biz blogs – be the content expert, SEO, another home base, obvious link back to website (and vice versa) Challenge – time/talent to create or collect WordPress blogs – free user-friendly blog platform 22

See Commoncraft videos on RSS and Google reader An RSS feed brings posts to you as they’re published. Read them when you have time, won’t miss anything. 23

Content marketing – ppl rather listen to promo or something useful? Basics of sales and networking. Trusted source, expert, trust agent LI - demonstrate status as thought leader/expert Twitter - links to news, info, how-to’s, RTs FB – same Blog – can feed into Twitter and FB 24

Social media = word of mouth on steroids – if you make your content share-friendly – useful, interesting, amusing Results - referrals, lead generation, brand awareness, better SEO, increased website traffic Market your online presence – website home page, collateral, biz cards, email signature, ads 25

Position yourself to listen, respond and engage w customers – Southwest vs United Answer questions – filter by ? Put out fires/solve problems/complaints, correct misperceptions Hear issues of others – market research Caveat – need to be present or listening 26

Facebook fan page Twitter – because of conversational nature (mix of personal/professional tweets), great platform for relationship building – my experience with ASAE and Raleigh Put icons on home page. 27

Tools are free, time is not. Some of best players are small bc their culture is more socmed-friendly. 28

Wrong reason - because everyone else is doing it, feeling pressure. Right reason - tool for achieving goals. But lots of biz don’t start with goals, instead created a Fb page or Twitter account. Don’t do it backwards. Begin with goals and objectives, tie your strategies and actions to that. First, lurk and learn. How are others using the tools? Find those you want to interact with. Which tools are they using? How are they using them? Goals - Have some ideas about what you want to accomplish. These ideas may change over time as you learn about the tools’ potential. 29

First step for biz – listen. Critical yet many biz don’t do this. Know who’s talking about you. Know where industry conversation is taking place. Find out (Analytics) where your visitors are coming from and where they leave your page for Set up Google Alerts, Twitter advanced search, Backtype (blog comments). •Decide on keywords. Check Google Analytics for search terms Biz name/variations/misspellings/acronym, product/service names, CEO’s name, URL for web site/other sites, competitors’ names, industry terms. Start small, grow as you get more competent. Review/refine. Be positioned to respond, engage and correct. 30

Next step – Find where your target audience (customers, prospects) are hanging out so you can fish where your fish are. Upload contacts to the tools. The search is based on email addresses. Google analytics – what sites are your visitors coming from and leaving your page for? Build it and they will come – can’t count on that but if you don’t have data, may need to experiment. 31

Let’s review, you’re •Familiar with tools. •Know how tools can help achieve goals. •Listening tools are set up •Know where customers are Choose one tool. Let your customers know (market) – home page, enewsletters, signs, biz cards, signatures Or first improve your web site. 32

Review some cultural issues Focus on providing valuable content, not too much self-promotion – be the content expert, content curator Limit promotional messages – low tolerance for (and looser definition of) spam (self- promotion = spam). Use content for promotional reasons. 33

Digital generosity - link love and recommended reading lists in blogs, RTs, FB sharing posts Focus on others - Share content of others, sharing spotlight – give credit to them Be helpful Expectation of giving, not taking. Good social media karma Be a trust agent 34

You don’t have control over how your brand is perceived. Consumers/users have control – their perception = reality. You do have control over how you interact in this space, but you’re sharing the space w others w same control – user-generated content. New space. 35

Expectation of authenticity, being what you say you are, no spin zone. Caveat – don’t delete comments, hide behind personas – be real authentic 36

It’s social media -- people prefer to connect with a person (rather than a logo) Success = bring personality, more interesting, differentiates 37

Issue – privacy. Your views on your privacy may evolve as you get deeper into using social media. Everyone has a different comfort level, and that’s okay. Google search - – personal and private both come up and live forever online. We’re 24/7 ambassadors •Negative – if personal life is unbecoming •Positive – it’s a social space, people connect with people, trust agent 38

Don’t collect fans -- engage & activate them Listen and participate in conversations through blog commenting, Twitter replies, Facebook replies – requires daily attention . Shows that you care about those who play in your space, take time to interact – don’t take that for granted. 39

We’re dealing with a lot of change now and we will continue to do so in the near future – budgets, industry, online communities, younger generation’s expectations. Time to be innovative, takes some risks, try some new things/approaches. Anticipate mistakes, learn from them and move on. Everyone’s learning in this new space. 40

You can lose a lot of time in the SM space if you don’t have a plan and a schedule. Personal tips: •Set a timer for your social media time online. •Close social media applications when your time is up. •Use your cell phone while waiting in line to catch up on social networking. Set alerts so you can respond to a Twitter reply or DM. 41

Social Media for You and Your Business with notes

by Deirdre Reid on Apr 28, 2010

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Social Media for You and Your Business with notes Document Transcript