SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING:
THE BASICS FOR ENTREPRENEURS
Inventor’s Association of Georgia
June 27, 2009
Jackie Hutter, MS, JD
Chief IP Strategist
The Hutter Group LLC & Patent Matchmaker
Website 1: www.JackieHutter.com
Website 2: www.PatentMatchMaker.com
Blog: www.ipAssetMaximizer.com
Follow me on Twitter: @ipStrategist
Blip.fm DJ JackieHutter

Question of the Day
◦ Why is an IP Lawyer
Talking to
Entrepreneurs About
Social Media
Marketing?
◦ My journey applicable
to anyone who is:
◦ Entrepreneurial
◦ Curious/Adventurous
◦ Bootstrapping

My Journey into SM Marketing

A Non-Expert’s View of SM
 There really are no experts today
◦ Evolving daily, new rules constantly
◦ Traditional marketing rules do not apply
 SM is not about “eyeballs,” it is about
relevant connections
◦ Who is looking for the information you are
associated with?
 Develop a relevant niche and stick with it
◦ Use same “persona” in multiple SM channels
◦ Creates credibility and makes you findable

Key Takeaway from My
SM Marketing Journey
 Success in is a process not
an event
◦ But this is true for all
marketing efforts
 Not enough to just show
up, you have to
participate in your
chosen niche
◦ More is more
 My journey continues
◦ Wherever I am, I am not
yet there

SM Marketing Program Basics
 Would you rather hire someone to
design and implement your program?
◦ Huge number of SM marketers available
 Even if someone assists, you still will have
to provide content
◦ Significant commitment required
 Suggest starting slowly
◦ Watching others can help you find your way
◦ Wrong path can be hard to undo/time waste

Step 1: You Must Have a
Website
 Most people go to
websites if interested in
learning more about
your business
◦ Even if you meet them in
person
◦ Instant credibility killer if you
do not have this!
 Enables people to
◦ Find your business
 Search engines crawl the
web and index information
◦ Validate your expertise

Steps to Setting Up a Website
 Pick a URL
◦ Goal is long-term viability and findability
 You may need to change your business name!
◦ Try to get a .com name
◦ Should have no dashes, dots etc.
◦ Check availability and purchase
 Establish a website with the URL
◦ “It ain’t Rocket Science!”
◦ Can hire someone
 +: Easier, can be more professional looking
 -: Expensive, need to keep paying for maintenance
◦ DIY
 +: Several free or low-cost providers of easy to use website templates
 GoDaddy.com, Wix.com
 +: Can do your own updates, maintenance
 -: Takes time to learn, must exercise discipline in keeping up

Step 2: Set Up Google Alerts
 Set up a Google Alerts for your name & things related
to your business
◦ What and who is talking about you
◦ http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en&gl=us
 Also good for monitoring blogs that discuss subjects in
which you are developing expert status
 Ex: My Alerts 1x’s a day
 Patent Strategy
 Intellectual Property Strategy
 Jackie Hutter
 My blog: ipAssetMaximizer.com

 Blogs
 Blog comments
 LinkedIn
 Twitter
 Content Marketing
◦ Ezine articles
◦ JDSupra (for lawyers)
 Facebook
 Ning.com
 Innovation Social
Networks

Why So Many Options?
 The key to success in Web 2.0 world is
getting your name out there in your
chosen niche
◦ Top listings in search engines
◦ Use same/similar content over and over in
different locations to boost visibility
 Tweak for use in various contexts
 Goal is ubiquitousness

Blogs
 Millions of blogs in the world today
 Allows infinite segmentation
 Goal is to find blog topic that others have
not identified and that others would be
interested in reading
 Great opportunity to establish a presence
on the web that can drive business to you
◦ Become a recognized expert/news aggregator in
niche related to your entrepreneurial concept
◦ “Ft. Myers Beach”
 Distinguish from advertising
◦ Like having content related to your business
published on a regular basis

Blogs
 My story: www.ipAssetMaximizer.com
 Truly niche area of IP business strategy
 “Expert” blog
◦ Takes me about 4 hours for each post
 Sometimes more
◦ Ranked in searches as more substantive because I have
original content
 As opposed to aggregation
 Not large readership, but high influence
◦ And likely buyers of my services
 Biggest challenge with blog is time takes to write
◦ Can collaborate to lessen commitment
◦ Aggregation blogs take less time
◦ Note: found easier to start because I have been reading
blogs for several years

Blog Comments
 Commenting can be great way to enhance web
presence
◦ Indexed on web and attributable to you if under your
own name (or traceable alias)
◦ Crowd sourcing for journalists
 Comments have to be substantive and relevant
to your expertise
 Can gain significant credibility as expert in chosen
subject
◦ Ex: I was recently contacted by Business Week about
a comment I made
 Appeared on BusinessWeek.com in April in “Game Changing
Ideas” series
 Perpetuates my Web-based reputation

LinkedIn
 www.LinkedIn.com
◦ Over 8 million members
◦ Many people not on at all or have only a
couple of connections
 Provides single source of online visibility
◦ Continuous source of connection
 Independent of current job
 Resume/cv checker
 More reliable when public?
 Find collaborators/partners/suppliers
 Join affinity groups

+/- of LinkedIn (IMHO)
What I Like What I Don’t Like
 Can find people easily  Has become crowded
 Great source for virtual partners
◦ Specialness hard to extract
 Central place to put info about me
◦ Lots of foreign users, especially in
◦ Business information networks
◦ Resume
◦ Automatically posts blog updates
 No peer review
 Can enhance reputation ◦ Not reputation based, promotion
◦ Answer questions based
◦ Presentations ◦ Answers often wrong, but no way
◦ “What am I doing” to call out
 Can find collaborators for projects  Increasingly requires substantial
◦ “Everyone is a free agent” effort to extract value
 Emerging high level jobs board ◦ Little niche opportunity
◦ Low cost source of employees more likely
to move or work virtually ◦ Better for those with marketing
professionals?

Twitter
 “Microblog”
◦ All entries in 140 characters or less
◦ What’s going on in real time
 More personal form of SM
 Requires continuous updating
◦ Once a day at a minimum
◦ Multiple times a day better
 Develop relationships with people based
upon Tweets
 Many 3rd party applications to make easier
and more valuable to use

Twitter
 Value Proposition for Entrepreneurs
◦ Can gain immediate expertise by asking a general
question or sending a direct message
 People very happy to give info
 “Know anyone who . . .?”
◦ Focused niche information
 Find content aggregators in your area of interest
 Learn about issues your potential customers may be facing
◦ Meet potential customers and business associates
who arguably are in a higher demographic group and
more innovative than the general business population
 Early adopters more likely to respond to new marketing
techniques like Twitter
◦ Greater interaction likely leads to less isolation and
better idea generation

Twitter
 Can be confusing when starting
◦ Think of as “virtual watercooler”
 IMO numbers not as important as content
◦ My “Twitter grade” very high even though I don’t
have huge # of “followers”
 Fact that people select you effectively makes
Twitter peer reviewed
 Selfpolicing
 Keys to success
◦ Get Retweets
◦ Gain followers
◦ Make personal contacts
◦ Gain customers

Twitter
 IMHO Twitter is the greatest source of personal marketing
today
◦ “Networking on steroids”
◦ People connect with and recommend those whose name they
recognize and trust
 Lots of people in the Internet-related areas, but fewer in
other niche areas
◦ Still time to stake a claim and gain followers, especially in niche
area
 Auxiliary benefits
◦ “Tweetups”
◦ Drive traffic to your blog
◦ Publicize news
◦ Learn about new tools to make work and life easier and less
expensive
◦ Find like-minded people in far-flung places

Facebook
 Place for people to
◦ Communicate
◦ Update
◦ Collaborate via groups
 Still evolving into a product
◦ Likely to be very different product in a year
 IMO, I look at as place to engage socially
◦ Wish to keep personal friends separate from
business friends
◦ Ways do exist to wall off personal from business
◦ Might want to investigate because good for
search engine rankings

Content Marketing
 Communication with your actual and
potential customers without pitching
 Making them smarter about topics
relevant to your product
 Useful and entertaining info worthwhile
on its own, but that might also be useful
towards sale or subsequent action
◦ Ex: example of really good review of product
 Best form is conversation

Content Marketing
 Define a critical group of buyers
◦ Target audience
 Determine what information they really need
and how they want to receive it
◦ How do they need to be educated
 Deliver that critical info to that core group of
buyers in the way they want it
◦ Don’t pitch!
 Continually measure how well you’re doing and
adjust as you go
◦ Use market research to ensure proper targeting

Content Marketing
 Sources
◦ Blogs
◦ Ezine Articles http://www.ezinearticles.com/
 Re-package content and put in article format
◦ Alltop: Digital Magazine rack
◦ Google Reader
 Most RSS to Twitter for additional
exposure
 Free and paid options for most

Create Your Own Social
Networking Site with Ning.com
 Puts new social networks in hands of anyone with a good
idea
◦ Ex: Inventors Associations, Affinity Groups
 Your social network can be for anything and anyone
 Name your social network and choose a combination of
features
◦ Photos, videos, forums, events, etc. from list of options
 Customize your social network's appearance and launch
 People who join your social network will automatically
have a customizable profile page and will be able to
message and friend each other
◦ Allows like-minded people to develop deep and personalized
networks

Emerging Open Innovation
Marketplaces
 Historically, major corporations have not looked outside for ideas
◦ Would buy businesses with products, but not bare ideas
whether patented or not
◦ Had own R&D departments
◦ “Not invented here”
 Today, major corporations increasingly searching outside for
innovations
◦ “Open Innovation”
◦ Still relatively few companies with attitude and infrastructure
◦ Sure to change in future as economy improves and effects of
downsizing realized
 Net result will be that companies will not have enough ideas to fill
pipelines

Emerging Open Innovation
Marketplaces
 Corporations that today have Open Innovation infrastructures starting to
post product and technology needs on sites
◦ Yet2.com
 Product centered
◦ Innocentive.com
 Innovation centered with “rewards” listed
 These ARE NOT invention submission companies
◦ Only companies pay to participate
◦ (You should not pay to have your idea listed)
◦ Some companies: P&G, Newell Rubbermaid
 Untried new model is InventBay
◦ “First to view”
◦ Invest in new ideas if pass, will allow you to post on site
◦ “Shopping list” for ideas
◦ Unknown who uses today

Parting Thought
 Yes, the Web 2.0 world is confusing and
time consuming!
 Don’t assume that tools you use today will
be there in future
◦ Web is continually evolving
 But if you don’t jump in, you can never be
part of this world
 Your reputation belongs to you, so best not
to rely on others solely to develop and
maintain your online reputation
◦ Ok, to hire a Web 2.0 marketer to assist you

 THANK YOU!