This document provides an overview of using social media and networking for business purposes. It discusses common social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn and how businesses can use them for objectives like brand awareness, customer service, lead generation and community building. Specific tips are provided on setting up business pages and profiles, engaging audiences and measuring effectiveness.
2. Feel free to ask questions throughout the presentation. Leave me a business card or bring up a thumb drive at the end and we'll provide you with a copy of this presentation.
3. What is Social Media/Networking? The interaction between a group of people who share a common interest using internet technologies to communicate using shared interests, related skills, or geographical location.
15. Who uses social media for business? Local businesses: Sun Feather Soap, McDuffsTavern, Ton's Sports Bar, Slic.com; Brambles Inn, CPHospital, 99hits, Evans & Whites, St. Lawrence Chocolates , The Potsdam Chamber, etc. Colleges: SUNY Potsdam, Clarkson University, SUNY Canton (News), St. Lawrence University
19. Using the right tool Channel Objective Strength Twitter Customer Care Brand Awareness - Real time communication and help - Sharing short updates and links to relevant news - Public collaboration and conversations Facebook Customer Care Brand Awareness - Relationship building with customers - Insight into the personal interests of your community - Sharing valuable content for community members to share Video Sharing (eg - YouTube) Lead Generation Brand Awareness - Visual storytelling - Tapping into client and prospect emotions - Highlighting people and the impact of your brand Blogs Brand Awareness Lead Generation - Constant source of industry news and information - Sharing of multiple types of content such as images, video or embedded media Content Sharing (eg - SlideShare) Brand Awareness Community Building - Demonstrating expertise in respective industry - Appears in search engine results - Providing material and messaging for others to share Photo Sharing (eg - Flickr) Brand Awareness Community Building - Visual aids to bolster branding - Highlighting the human side of a brand with images of employees, fans, customers and partners - Ability for clients and users to tag images associated with you LinkedIn Customer Care Lead Generation - Insight into prospects and current client base through profiles - Establishing credibility as a business - Providing help to customers in questions forums and groups - Presenting Geolocation (eg – FB Places, Google Places, FourSquare) Lead Generation Community Building - Presenting new specials for customers - Provides incentives for repeat visits with badges, pins and mayorships
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21. Average users has 130 friends and spends more than 55 minutes a day on Facebook
26. Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and click on the Local Business or Place button
27. Add your FB URL to your regular e-mail signature, business cards, etc. http://www.facebook.com/username/ (NOTE: Allows you to set a custom URL for your business page)
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29. Post business updates on your wall. Focus on business activities, such as “Working with ABC Company on web site redesign.”
35. People like tips, links to interesting stories and blogposts (they don’t have to be about your company), exclusive deals and a good sense of humor
36. People like the human touch and will appreciate posts with your thoughts and experiences more than you think
37. They also like it when you say hi, respond to their questions, comments, praise, complaints and jokes
38. Don't try to sell – be helpful, post links about industry news, anwer questions, be entertaining, humourus. Once you have established a sense of community, then you can begin to sell through exclusive offers
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41. Creating a Facebook Place Page with an iPhone, iPad Launch FB app Click Check In Search for Location Tag Friends & Check In
42. See where others are Select Places You can also click Map for a visual representation
47. Twitter lets you write and read messages of up to 140 characters, or the very length of this sentence, including all punctuation and spaces.
48. Everyday, millions of users create, share and discover ideas on Twitter (19 million users reported as of October 2009 according to Neilson data as published by eMarketer)
49. A few Twitter success stories Twitter users follow Dell Outlet for exclusive deals on electronics - and have driven more than $3M in sales through Twitter Ice cream eaters in New York give local chain Tasti-D-Lite marketing feedback via Twitter - and sometimes get surprise dessert deliveries Coffee drinkers in Houston choose CoffeeGroundz for the personal relationships they’ve built on Twitter - and the shop’s Twitter-based ordering
50. Before you dive in If you want to spend time listening first, you don’t need an account to search at http://search.twitter.com Try searching for your company and a few key topics in your field Use the advanced search http://search.twitter.com/advanced or “near” and “within” to find tweets in your target market. Example: near:13676 within:25mi “ Listening” can help you get a sense of how you want to engage on Twitter
56. Can be time consuming so set limits and expectations appropriately
57. Avoid distractions like Mafia Wars, Farmville, Quizzes, etc. - block these applications so you don't continue to be bothered by requests
58. Social Media is not a popularity contest. Accept friend invitations/followers only from people that fit your customer profile based on geographic location and other demographics – 100 “friends” that fit your ideal customer profile are better than 1,000 faceless people
59. Create events (MySpace, Facebook) and fan pages (Facebook) to promote specific products and happenings
60. Categorize your friends (MySpace, Facebook) relevant to your products/service and send them invitations/messages that are relevant to them
