Social media for Small Business

An Introduction to SocialMedia for Small Businesses Prepared by Aimee Carmichael http://www.easywriting.co.uk

I will Cover1. Overview on social media2. Why use social media3. Who uses social media4. Common misconceptions5. Starting Out6. Intro to Facebook7. Intro to Twitter8. Beyond just a presence..

1. Overview of Social Media

Social Media Points Back to YOU

Social media are media for social interaction, using highlyaccessible and scalable communication techniques. The termrefers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turncommunication into interactive dialogue.Businesses may also refer to social media as user generatedmedia (UGM). A common thread running through all definitionsof social media is a blending of technology and socialinteraction for the co-creation of value.

Messages Have Further Reach

2. Why Bother With Social Media?

Business Examples

• By the end of 2010 – Dell had generated over 6 million pounds worth of sales from social media alone!!!

• Starbucks has been busy with a bunch of successful social media campaigns across a range of networks. The coffee giant offered mayorships on Foursquare, give away for tax day via Twitter, and then made use of Promoted Tweets.• They also enhanced sales of pastries which were not doing so well in store by promoting a free pastry day in all stores across both Facebook and Twitter .

3. Who Uses Social Media

• More than 750 million active users• 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day• Average user has 130 friends• People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook• There are more than 250 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.• There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events• (Facebook Press Site, 2011)

#tweets 3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.• 1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.• 50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.• 140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month.• 177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.• 456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).• 6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day. #accounts 572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.• 460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.• 182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.#employees 8. 29. 130. 350. 400. Number of Twitter employees in Jan 2008, Jan 2009, Jan 2010, Jan 2011 and today.

4. CommonMisconceptions

• You cannot measure social media ROI• You cannot target• The more friends/followers the better• Younger generation and tech savvy are the only users• Only used by larger brands with huge budgets• Replaces traditional marketing

5. Starting Out

First decide what you want to achieve...• Set Goals and Objectives• Listen to what is already happening – competitor and consumer research• Learn where your audience is and what media they consume• Decide what social media will do for you (start one step at a time)• Define goals Short-term and Long-term• Stay active with your initiatives• Integration with other marketing efforts• Personalise your social media brand• Listen, think, and then respond to conversation

Set your base this is where you will direct people back to..

Plan your communication, select your channels and use them to engage and drive traffic and activity

How to engage• Ask Questions• Answer Questions• Share useful information• Make existing content easy to share• Add value, make you audience want to and have a reason for staying in touch with you on social platforms – one way messaging is a NO!

Social Etiquette• AVOID blatant self promotion – no one likes an arrogant idiot!• Share interesting info that will enlighten and engage your audience• Promote others to build connections• Refer other businesses (you will look good)• Be professional, yet interesting and inject your personality

6. Intro to Facebook

Facebook – Profile or Page?Set Up a “Profile” for yourself but only use this for actual friends, don’t add people you don’t know its unprofessional.If you want to build yourself as a BRAND or promote your business.. You need a PAGE!

A Facebook PageBUSINESSES Create a “Page” for your business and then local community can engage with you!• With this you can:• Monitor your Facebook ad campaigns• Create Facebook pages• Post updates to the page• Add photos and videos• Link your page to the rest of your marketing• Like other pages – good for increasing business awareness and building b2b relations

Facebook Strategy1. Secure your company name and place2. Once you get 25 likes you can customise the url: e.g. www.facebook.com/mybusiness3. Tell people about your page – Word of mouth, inviting existing contacts from your email database,, add social links to email marketing, and other collateral4. Use the page to educate and add value – other wise those who have joined will leave5. Find existing content that you have and share this on Facebook6. Once you have activity on the page – maintain it7. Start Small8. Facebook Ads are a good way to add likes

What a business page can and cant doWhat a business page can do•Communicate updated content and engage community• –Interactive• –Exclusive contentWhat you can’t do• –Cannot see profile of fans, only name & photo• –Do not receive a news feed about what fans are doing• –Cannot send messages to individual fansThe power of a Fan Page• –Promotion• –Custom iframe interface – facebook pages can be designed like mini websites (www.asos.com)• –Applications• Can direct users to your website or to contact you• Sustain relationships for as long as some one likes the page

Facebook Ads

Why Use Facebook ads?• An extremely efficient method of targeting a specific• demographic or criteria of individual that your• product may appeal to.• Just by looking at the adverts that appear on your• facebook page you will see that these are in some• way or another relevant to your profile.• This is the real strength of the advertisements• through Facebook.• The Facebook system picks up the information from• the millions of profiles of individuals and places the• adverts in their side bar.• This means that only your chosen niche market see• your product.

7. Intro to Twitter

What is Twitter• Free micro-blogging platform. Answers the question “what am I doing now?” • Updates of 140 characters or less • The sharing of content, ideas and data .

Twitter for Business• Network and communicate–Build and maintain relationships–Engage customers and share information–Humanize your company• Real time conversation–Communicating and engaging with people–Customer Service, quick responses to user’s needs–Monitor opinions of your brand• Friend, follow, share, and discover• Market and advertise your business• Recruiting

Strategy• Branding your Twitter account(s)–Business–Personal• Securing your company name• Following other users- Use twellow.com- Use tweepsearch.com- Use Wefollow.com•Tweeting- Develop a schedule and twitter guideline• •Monitoring• –search.twitter.com• -set up searches on nutshell mail• Reacting

Sending A TweetGet started sending tweets set a target of 3-5 per day to startwith:•Reply to a follower (show interest)•RT someone’s post (show active participation)•Tweet a useful link that others will find interesting•Tweet a piece of news or content (self promotion)•The Key is to mix up your activity•Many businesses go about twitter the wrong way as they use it asa one way communication tool to push out own messages!

How to write a tweet• 140 characters• Answers the question: what am I doing right now• catchy tweets – think newspaper headlines• (Catchy title or subject matter) with the (Link)• Want to say more? Use Bit.ly• Desktop applications will auto shorten or enable you to send longer tweets

Finding FollowersThere are many ways to find othersto follow on Twitter. Tools: twitter.search.com is easy to use. So are twellow & tweepz. Search by interest, name, location, key words. Follow competitors to see what they’re doing & saying! Follow industry related tweeters: automotive news, car reviews, top gear If you find someone interesting, see who THEY are following. This is a great way to build a network of people.

Building a community on TwitterHave a strategy Pay for tools that promise to get youFollow people with similar interests 1000s followersLook at competitors engage with some Send Spammy Auto DM’s of their followers Mass follow (account can get blocked)Set up targeted searches and build Follow people just to get followed back conversations from those – always think about adding valueUse offline methods to integrate social Follow too many celebrities media – incentivise customers to follow you for special discounts, Forget to tell your friends, clients and exclusive news etc contacts that you are on TwitterShare existing content from your Tweet things that add no value to your website or marketing materials via community Twitter Think that having thousands ofLearn how to use hashtags and followers demonstrates effective common twitter etiquette to build use – Quality not Quantity! rapport

Useful Twitter AppsFIND PEOPLE• Twellow: the “yellow pages” of Twitter.• Tweepz: search for other users by location, bio or name.UPDATE• Tweetdeck: create lists/columns, update Facebook and Twitter simultaneously.• Hootsuite: column functionality, statistics tracking, synch all social networks.• Ping.fm: Update all your social networks at once.MONITOR• Tweetbeep: Get Twitter alerts by email.• Nutshell Mail: Get Twitter alerts by email

Twitter Etiquette• It is ok to use short hand /txt language – but make sure this is consistent and within your brand guidelines and personality• RT = retweet, is when you re send out someone else’s tweets to your followers gaining extra exposure for that Tweet.• #ff on Fridays• Hastags #• Reveal who is updating the company page• Make sure you have a profile pic• Be polite and reply to all @’s• Don’t swear• Read more here: (http://www.chrisbrogan.com/a- brief-and-informal-twitter-etiquette-guide/)

8. Beyond Just a presence

Going beyond just a page...Twitter Facebook• Background • Custom profile image• Logo • Custom landing page to• Encourage employees encourage likes/ other to have a personal interaction account and link to • Combine certain company page (again sections of website on adhere to any social facebook through media guidelines and iframes talk to employees about • Survey customers how how you want them to they would use use Twitter. Facebook to communicate with you

Thanks..• Hope you found this presentation useful...• More coming soon!!If you are after anything specific email me : aimee@easywriting.co.uk or click the links below:

http://www.linkedin.com	40
http://paper.li	11
http://twitter.com	4
url_unknown	4
http://www.twylah.com	2
https://twitter.com	1
http://newsrivr.com	1

Social media for Small Business

by Aimee Carmichael

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