social media for small businesses jenni lloyd

i’m a consultant with social media agency nixonmcinnes one of the UK’s largest dedicated teams of social media specialists hello! I’m Jenni Lloyd

we help create authentic, powerful, and long lasting unions between people and brands. we call it social media goodness. we do this through digital media today.

we design and build social solutions we provide strategic consultancy

hands up who… is on Facebook? uses social media? knows what social media is? is on LinkedIn? is on Twitter?

but these things are just tools if they don’t last the course will social media then be ‘finished’?

the tools are a product. of fundamental, long-lasting change No.

brought about by cheap, easy, mass access to a global publishing platform

we’re seeing a fundamental shift

from a time when we saw our websites as a destination ‘ build it and they will come’

to a recognition that our customers are playing elsewhere

if we want to talk to them we need to be where the conversation is

we need to be useful and we need to be wherever they want us to be

what does this mean?

anyone can have a voice

individual experts can build up global influence without the mediation of publishers

ex-employees with insider knowledge can expose uncomfortable facts

cease and desist doesn’t work in this environment

groups of people can quickly organise themselves: for, or against

Source: eBay.com; Amazon.com customer opinions about products & services are freely available

hands up… if you’ve ever used Trip Advisor or read a review on Amazon?

a landscape of empowered consumers how can we capture their attention?

Rank ordering of activities engaged in by people while ‘using media’ in order of declining popularity: eating doing housework doing laundry cooking talking on the phone buy it? Jan 2008, BIGResearch

Rank ordering of activities engaged in by people while ‘using media’ in order of declining popularity:

eating

doing housework

doing laundry

cooking

talking on the phone

mobile text ads scored 18% banner ads 26% search 34% TV and magazines 56% word of mouth 78% DoubleClick, via The Guardian, May 2008 earn it!

5 tips to get you started

who are they? where are they online? what are they doing? what tools are they likely to use? know your audience

find out who’s saying what about you set up Google alerts use addictomatic / twitter search listen

what is it you’re trying to achieve… know your objectives to listen and understand? to engage in conversations? to generate buzz? to encourage participation?

offer value be authentic, transparent and helpful link to those that disagree disclose your position/interests match your message to the environment -these are social spaces… follow the rules of engagement

a facebook fan page? a blog? ratings and reviews on your site? twitter? choose the right tools an island in second life? use what’s right for your audience and objectives, not the big new thing

a few examples of how we’ve been applying this approach

we helped T-Mobile get the über geeks on board for the launch of the first Google phone network mapping & influencer engagement

we helped Oxfam and CAFOD centralise petition sign-ups across their partner sites through building widgets strategy and widget design, build & deployment

we helped C4’s PR team more effectively promote programmes to niche audiences through social media training training & consultancy

we helped MORE TH>N compete for niche longtail search terms by building a blog around issues that their customers care about consultancy, design & build

hands up who… knows what social media is now?

I’ll get my coat!

any questions? [email_address] nixonmcinnes.co.uk nixonmcinnes.co.uk/ebooks twitter.com/nixonmcinnes

get in touch [email_address] nixonmcinnes.co.uk nixonmcinnes.co.uk/ebooks twitter.com/nixonmcinnes

some must reads… The 17 Rules of Social Media Optimization The New PR Wiki Any online marketing blog (Seth Godin = v.good) The Cluetrain Manifesto by various The Long Tail by Chris Anderson The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Anything by Seth Godin

Image credits hands up 1 http://flickr.com/photos/mic_n_2_sugars/564570276/sizes/o/ shift http://flickr.com/photos/sanbeiji/220645446/sizes/l/ disneyland http://www.flickr.com/photos/denn/160596269/sizes/l/ playing elsewhere http://flickr.com/photos/mugley/2227098069/sizes/o/ conversation http://flickr.com/photos/emdot/32179191/sizes/l/ tools http://flickr.com/photos/22280677@N07/2504310138/ wonderwoman http://flickr.com/photos/bbaltimore/10566018/sizes/o/