CIM social media kendal jan 11

Getting the most out ofsocial media
Andrew Armitage
Armitage Online Limited
Kendal College
26th January 2011

Andrew Armitage
Armitage Online Limited
Digital consultancy
Website design
Web applications
Online marketing
Social media
Clients include
Zeffirellis Ambleside
Windermere Lake Cruises
Various hotels

Getting the most out of social media
Do we know what social media is?
Why social media?
What do we want to get out of social media?
How can we achieve ‘it’?
How will we know when we’ve achieved it?
The answers may not be clear cut – and will almost certainly be different for everyone in the room.

What are social networks?
Forums
Blogs
Multi-media sharing
Feeds
Bookmarking
Comment platforms

Any place that real people are engaging online

The impacts of social media
Fundamental shift in online communication
All major sites now have a social influence
Social networks and blogs now account for 20 per cent of the total time spent online.

Is it all good news?
Roughly 1% of users are responsible for 34% of all visits on Linked In
41% of users haven’t tweeted since signing up
Only 20% of Twitter users have tweeted 10 times or more
24% of twitter users have no followers
Only 1.5m local business pages on Facebook
Major privacy concerns on Facebook

The social media landscape
TripAdvisor
41.6m visits
over 40m reviews
6m photos uploaded
Linked In
Roughly 1% of users are responsible for 34% of all visits!
62% are passers-by and responsible for 18% of visits

“Companiescan now communicate with their markets directly. If they blow it, it could be their last chance”

“Consumers can now influence the marketdirectly. If companiesblow it, they may never get their chance”

“we don’t have a choice whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it”
Erik Qualman
socialnomics.net

Twitter
Micro-blog
140 characters to share your message (tweet)
People follow each other
Use ‘#hashtags’ tags to categorise your posts or emotion
Re-tweet (RT) to share posts you like and support your peers
Informal conversation

Facebook
Join networks organised by city/workplace/school
Engage with interest groups
Set up a business page or pay per click advertising
Add ‘social connectors’ to your website
Most effective for B2C businesses
Can business audiences even get to Facebook?
The “noticeboard”

Linked In
Business oriented
Join groups and engage in discussion with peers
Link to your blog and twitter feed
Add presentations about your company
My CV

Slideshare
upload presentations
add to your linked in profile
easy to upload and share content in word, powerpoint, pdf and more
add pre-recorded audio – slide casting

Rules of participation
Participate in conversation
Make new connections
Help people
Listen to your audience
Don’t block the competition!
Gently ‘feed’ your other online spaces

Rules of engagement
Users aren’t necessarily engaged
Allow customers and followers to engage in their own time
Review individual behaviour and respond accordingly
Don’t get too bogged down with broad metrics
Engagement could be more valuable than conversion

What should I say?
Reference interesting statistics
Share your followers posts
Link to your other online profiles
Occasional special offers
Add value to your followers
Don’t bore people – say something remarkable!
Develop a content strategy

What about the impact of mobile?

What about the impact of mobile?
50% of the mobile Internet traffic in the UK is for Facebook
Social apps
Location based services with GPS positioning
The ability to quickly upload photos and links
The ability to share anything instantly

Location based services

What social media is not!
A sales pitch
PR
Search engine optimisation
…but it does support the above

What goes online stays online!
Messages should be consistent
Always be transparent
The professional/personal divide
Dissatisfied customers now have a very public voice
It’s now more expensive to remove content than create it

Be ‘on brand’
Support your brand in all you say/do
Use corporate and personal accounts
Add value to your followers
Who will be ‘the voice’?

Setting your strategy
Driving traffic alone is not effective lead generation
Define a success metric
visits
followers
number of conversations about you
new leads
Go where your audience is
Use tools that are relevant for that audience

Social media barriers
High risk
Bad press
Not saying the right things
Not enough time
However…
There’s a risk to take by not engaging
People can still say bad things about you
Is saying nothing the right answer?
Speculate to accumulate

Managing the commitment to social media
Engagement
Expectations
Commitment

Making the most of Twitter
Join in conversations
Offer your opinions
RT tweets by leading industry thinkers
Acknowledge the value offered by others
Context and content is vital
Use #hashtags to link to your subject
Set searches for your subject area

Making the most of Facebook
Secure your custom URL eg. facebook.com/armitageonline
Facebook.com/usernames
Customise your profile page
Add some glue!
Encourage participation and sharing
Don’t make unreasonable demands on people’s downtime
Add a ‘Like’ button to your website

Tools of the trade
Make use of a social media ‘client’
Tweetdeck
Hootsuite
Add all your profiles
Update from a single place
Check and update regularly
Monitor
Google Analytics
Raven Tools

Measuring your success
Google analytics
Number of ‘likes’, ‘views’ and ‘followers’
Social media ‘sentiment’ tracking
Direct campaign analysis

“social media is visible to everyone. A small mistake can soon go ‘viral’ causing huge damage to your brand”

“Don’t forget about your website”

Your own website
Make sure the content is up to date
Use landing pages – how strong is the funnel?
Do the links work?
Does it support your digital strategy?
Is your website optimised for the search engines
Your website will be the ultimate authority on your business

Getting started
http://twitter.com
http://facebook.com
http://linkedin.com
http://slideshare.net
http://wordpress.com
and for those looking for more information…
http://socialnomics.com
http://mashable.com

Summary
Linked In for business discussion
Twitter for customer/peer engagement and conversation
Facebook is the notice board
Use these to feed other channels such as
Your website
Online video
Email signups
Blog posts

What we now know
Social media affects us all whether we like it or not
Social media has unrivalled power and reach
We should have some ideas of why we want to use social media and therefore some idea of what we want to achieve
We know this is a marathon, not a sprint
Find your audience, and engage with them.

“Don’t miss out on the conversation…
…even if you just mostly listen in”

Where to follow me…
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/andrewarmitage
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewarmitage
http://www.slideshare.net/aarmita
@aarmitage and @armitageonline on twitter
awarmitage on facebook
www.armitageonline.co.uk
andrew@armitageonline.co.uk
015395 61956

Sources and references
Socialnomics.net
http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/twitter-follow-stats
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/jan/25/tripadvisor-duncan-bannatyne/
http://www.globalrecruitingroundtable.com/2010/05/05/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-linkedin-statistics-and-trends-2010/
http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/facebook-statistics-facts-figures-for-2010/
http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/4402-20+-more-mind-blowing-social-media-statistics
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/06/21/15-essential-social-media-facts-and-figures-for-b2b-marketing/
http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-twitter-statistics-facts-figures/

CIM social media kendal jan 11

by Andrew Armitage

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