Social Media: So What? Benefits and Challenges Presentation for MetroWest Chamber of Commerce

Discussions What is social media? What are the key tools and how are they used? Why is it important to your customers/to you? Making the most of the chamber social site

What is social media?

What are the key tools and how are they used?

Why is it important to your customers/to you?

Making the most of the chamber social site

What Is Social Media? Process of using interactive web-based tools to create and share information in order to establish engagement, online and off

What Is Social Media? One of the most effective and widely used social media platforms is the telephone

What Is Social Media? Level playing field between marketers, journalists, customers, sales and competitors Customer blogs and product reviews Peer-to-peer communication Conversation monitoring Decreasing influence of top-down corporate communication

Level playing field between marketers, journalists, customers, sales and competitors

Customer blogs and product reviews

Peer-to-peer communication

Conversation monitoring

Decreasing influence of top-down corporate communication

Benefits of Social Media? Most are 100% free Rival TV/radio/newspapers in reach and influence Global reach Strong credibility Conversations indexed by Google Optimize traditional communications tools

Most are 100% free

Rival TV/radio/newspapers in reach and influence

Global reach

Strong credibility

Conversations indexed by Google

Optimize traditional communications tools

Benefits of Social Media? Decreasing effectiveness of static corporate Web sites Users are turning to social media for their information A single word of mouth conversation has the impact of 200 TV commercials (Buzz Agent, 2008) YouTube is the second most popular search engine, above Yahoo!, MSN and Bing

Decreasing effectiveness of static corporate Web sites

Users are turning to social media for their information

A single word of mouth conversation has the impact of 200 TV commercials (Buzz Agent, 2008)

YouTube is the second most popular search engine, above Yahoo!, MSN and Bing

What Are The Tools? How Are They Used? Facebook - +200 million users Social networking site Growing relevance for business LinkedIn – 40 million users Professionally-focused networking site Powerful search and group tools Twitter – 32 million users 140 character “micro-blogging” platform Emerging ROI-driven business case studies YouTube - +100 million video views/month Most popular video sharing site Second most popular search engine, above Yahoo!, MSN and AOL

MetroWest Chamber Social Site Purpose: Targeted professional network Get the most out of the chamber Build your reputation Learn from others Expand your networks Tools: Publish blog posts Post videos and images Share local events

Why is it important to your customers/to you? Importance To Customers: Peers are trusted resources Influence on sales process Ask professional network Ask Google Increasingly important role in all buying decisions Importance to You: Increase sales effectiveness Lead generation Competitive intelligence Online conversations live indefinitely Online conversations are searchable If you aren’t using social media, assume your competition is

Importance To Customers:

Peers are trusted resources

Influence on sales process

Ask professional network

Ask Google

Increasingly important role in all buying decisions

Importance to You:

Increase sales effectiveness

Lead generation

Competitive intelligence

Online conversations live indefinitely

Online conversations are searchable

If you aren’t using social media, assume your competition is

Why is it important to your customers/to you? Dell made an estimated $2 million in sales direction from social media Humana Insurance says the PR value they received from social sites topped $72 million Zappos went from $4 million to $2.4 billion in sales in just over 3 years (mostly attributed to social sites) Sony has a social community focused on learning, not selling, and 78% of the community buys Sony products Whole Foods created a Facebook fan page with over 100,000 fans The Southwest Airlines blog has reached over 2 million fans through social media

Dell made an estimated $2 million in sales direction from social media

Humana Insurance says the PR value they received from social sites topped $72 million

Zappos went from $4 million to $2.4 billion in sales in just over 3 years (mostly attributed to social sites)

Sony has a social community focused on learning, not selling, and 78% of the community buys Sony products

Whole Foods created a Facebook fan page with over 100,000 fans

The Southwest Airlines blog has reached over 2 million fans through social media