Social Media Management - Phase 5 (Professional Brand)

© 2015 AZBlue | www.AZblueinc.com
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SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT SERIES
PHASE 5 – BUILDING A PROFESSIONAL BRAND
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THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS
1. Overview
2. Social Management – Phase 1 (Imaging/Create)
3. Social Media Management – Phase 2 (Optimize & Plan)
– Deliverable: Operational Roadmap
4. Social Media Management – Phase 3 (Design)
5. Social Media Management – Phase 4 (Build)
– Deliverable: Operational Management Document
6. Social Media Management – Phase 5 (Manage)
– Deliverable: User Scenarios
7. Social Media Management – Phase 6 (Professional Brand-building)
8. Social Management – Phase 7 (Sales)
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ACCORDING TO…
Jim Keenan (author of “A Sales Guy
Blog” - CustomerThink.com 5/13)…
• 78% of sales people using social media
outperformed sales people who did not.
• 33% of social media users exceeded their
quota by 10% while only 26% of non-social
media users exceeded it.
• 48% of social media users hit their quota
while only 44% of non-social media users
hit their quota.
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PURPOSE, PROCESS AND THE PAYOFF
• Payoff: Know…
 The current state of social
technology
 Who is using social today and
where
 How to build your professional
online presence (brand)
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 Find and use existing content to engage [prospective] customers early and often, in
the buying process…
 AND become a trusted voice of your company across social

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WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN???
This training program will help you…
• have an understanding of what the Social
Media landscape looks like today
– who and where [potential] customers
are, and what they are doing/need
• build credibility and visibility as a professional/
influencer
• find and build relationships with customers by
sharing information they value
• find and use existing content to engage
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[prospective] customers early and often, in the buying process…

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SECTION 1
Getting Started…

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THE B2B WORLD IS CHANGING…QUICKLY
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Customers now have more
choices,
More channels than ever
to engage
and are able to speak their
minds!
Advocates have become
madvocates
less time,
Minimal attention span to view
and consume information

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AS ARE THEIR ENGAGEMENT BEHAVIORS!
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Traditional Behaviors New Behaviors
Like
Call
Pin
Comment
Write a
Review
Add to
Cart
Fill Out
Profile
Email
Direct Mail Fax
Face 2 Face
Engagement has evolved from personal interaction…to the click of a mouse!

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WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO SALES REPS
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PurchaseCustomer First Serious
Engagement with Sales
Customer Due Diligence
WITH SALES REPCOMPLETING BY THEMSELVES
Customers are choosing to delay
commercial conversations with suppliers
Awareness Discovery Consideration Decision Validation
* The Digital evolution in B2B Marketing - Research Conducted by Marketing Leadership Council
On average,
customers progress
nearly 60% of the way
through the
purchase decision-
making process
before engaging a
sales rep.

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THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL ON THE SALES FUNNEL
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Attention – Potential customers are using
search & social to learn about companies,
products & people.
Interest – Sales teams & loyal customers can
focus the conversation to specific need.
Desire – Ability to tap into a customer
preferences by providing tailored content to
support interest.
Action – Ability to guide prospects through
the purchase process by providing
personalized support.
Advocacy – Amplifying the voice of a
satisfied customer to bring in new prospects!
The Tradition Sales Funnel The Social Sales Funnel
Prospect – Researching databases and
cold calling/ emailing
Cultivate – Meetings & phone calls with
clients to assess needs
Position – Building credible
relationships with customers to
demonstrate value
Close – Delivering a proposal that
exceeds customers needs and
objectives
Retain & Grow – Providing Post-sale
support to customers to drive satisfaction,
loyalty & advocacy
Prospects
Customers

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THE BASICS OF SOCIAL

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SOCIAL PILLARS IN PLAIN TERMS
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INFLUENCERS
COMMUNITIES ENGAGEMENT
Content

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INFLUENCERS
Influencers – Are the most active
participants in social spaces, they lead
the conversation, help create
awareness and inspire action.
• Influencer status is based on several
components including:
– how many connections they have in their
networks
– how often they post/tweet/like content
– how often others engage with them (e.g.
likes, comments or re-tweets)
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• Social platforms use algorithms to track the most active users/ influencers and drive
their activities to the top of Activity/News feeds.

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COMMUNITIES
Communities – Are groups of people
who share a common interest or need,
vary from public to private and range
from personal to corporate/brands
• Examples include:
– Facebook Fan Pages & Groups
– LinkedIn Groups
– Google+ Circles
– Branded Pages (Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn)
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• Three options are typically available to access Communities
1. Opting in (creating a profile with email)
2. Requesting membership
3. Invitation by existing members

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ENGAGEMENT
Engagement – Is digital interaction with
another person, group or brand ranges
from viewing an article, clicking on a
page, liking a Facebook page, putting
items in a cart, sharing photos or having a
chat with other people/groups.
• Examples include:
– Viewing a page or comment
– Liking or Following
– Watching a video or viewing a photo
– Tweeting or Retweeting
– Taking a poll
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– Posting comments or responding to other comments/conversation threads
– Copying a URL and embedding in another web page/blog/channel (e.g. LinkedIn)

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CONTENT
Content – Is providing a piece of digital
information online, using stories, photos,
videos etc., that is viewed & engaged
with by others.
• The most common types of content are
text, photos, videos, voice recordings
(Podcasts), files, presentations and
documents (e.g. PDF’s).
• The most common ways to distribute
Content are:
– Aggregation/Bookmarking – Finding top
sources of daily content and bookmarking
them and/or having daily RSS feeds sent to
you on stories of interest
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– Curation – Collecting online content from different sites and posting it with personal context
(comments).
– Publishing – Producing your own content (e.g. articles, presentations, videos or photographs
etc.).
• Social platforms use algorithms to track the most active users/ influencers and drive
their activities to the top of Activity/News feeds.

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THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLAYING FIELD

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THE SOCIAL MEDIA ECOSYSTEM – TODAY
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1.43 Worldwide Users of Social Media
67% of US Population (212M) Users
Instagram
50M Users
Blogger
Networks
Tumblr
20M Users
Pinterest
20M Users
Twitter
500M UsersFacebook
1B Users
Foursquare
20M Users
YouTube
800Users
Twitter
500M UsersFacebook
1B Users
Google+
343M Users
SlideShare
60M Users
Wikipedia
365M Readers
LinkedIn
200M Users

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WHERE TO START LOOKING FOR CUSTOMERS
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Blogger
Networks
Tumblr
20M Users
Twitter
500M UsersFacebook
1B Users
YouTube
800Users
Twitter
500M UsersFacebook
1B Users
Google+
343M Users
SlideShare
60M Users
Wikipedia
365M Readers
LinkedIn
200M Users
Ability to work
with businesses
owners 1-on-1
Send out fast
facts & stay on
top of instant
trends
Share branded
content with
clients & peers
Connect with
fans of B2B
brands
Connect with
business and
share with
professionals &
peers
Research your
customer and
competitors

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SOME CHANNELS ARE BETTER SUITED FOR B2B
OPPORTUNITIES THAN OTHERS
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Personal Professional
QualityofEngagement

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THE PLAYING FIELD – PROFESSIONAL PROFILES
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LINKEDIN: The first place you go to create, establish and grow your
Professional brand. No longer just a “digital resume,” this has
become the premier channel to establish connections,
share/publish content and expand your professional graph.
SLIDESHARE: Integrated into LinkedIn (as well as Facebook &
Twitter), this gives you the ability to publish and share your content
across professional channels within your connections news feeds.
61% of Professionals use LinkedIn as their primary professional network vs. Facebook 22% & Twitter 4%

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THE PLAYING FIELD – NEWS & RESEARCH
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TWITTER: A top source of quick, breaking news and immediate trends
that impact your customers’ business & marketplace on a real-time
basis.
WIKIPEDIA: The best place to begin researching your customer, their
business, their industry and competitors.

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THE PLAYING FIELD – INDUSTRY NEWS & INFLUENCERS
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CORPORATE BLOGS: In addition to Professional & Industry blogs,
Corporate blogs are a great place to read, comment and share what’s
going on especially in the B2B space.
PROFESSIONAL BLOGS: Sites like The Verge are the best sources of
professionally-created, real-time content for you to share & comment
on with your customers, providing them with relevant insights that
makes you a trusted partner to their success.
Nearly 40% of US companies use blogs for marketing purposes.

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THE PLAYING FIELD – THE BEST OF THE REST
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PHOTO SITES: Although used less frequently by B2B brands, the
popularity of Pinterest, Instagram and Video Sites like Vine are
becoming more popular with consumers which will impact how B2B
brands market to their clients much more in the near future.
GOOGLE+: Rapidly becoming one of the top social platforms because of
its integration with Google Search and YouTube, has great potential for
B2B brands looking to set up specific communities using “Circles” and
“Hangouts” can provide more socialized WebEx-like functions for
smaller businesses.

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SECTION 2
IMPLEMENTING YOUR SOCIAL STRATEGY
Building Your Professional Brand

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FIRST THINGS FIRST…
• Before you begin the process of using social to build and manage a sales pipeline, you
need to start with growing your own professional brand.
• Your professional brand is what your customers, prospects and peers see when they
search your name, and what they associate you with, in terms of your:
– accomplishments
– level of influence
– professional graph (connections)
– experience
– education
– value you bring to them if connected…
• CAUTION – Who you are/what you do personally is your business…just remember to
separate the two as they rarely mix well together!
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YOUR ACTIVITIES ONLINE LEAVE A DIGITAL TATTOO!
• Which one represents you when you are searched online?
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or….

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THE JOURNEY FROM FOLLOWER TO FOLLOWED
• The journey to building your professional brand will ultimately tell your
customers and peers why they should spend their valuable “3 minutes a day”
viewing and engaging with, the content you share…
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Random Participant – Responds to unrelated posts (e.g.
Clicks, Likes, Following, Pins, Check-ins, & Shares) from
multiple user names, profiles and handles when
convenient.
Thought Leader – Establishes a professional brand that is
trusted, engageable and sharable by driving conversation
across all channels!
Personal
Professional

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When people search your name or company…what do they see?
WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSIONAL BRAND?
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• Is it instantly clear to them that you can add value as their
business partner?
– Does your education and experience tell your story?
– Do the pictures you use give, them confidence that you
are a professional?
– Do the stories you write, share or comment on,
demonstrate your knowledge, experience and
influence?
• Do you separate the person from the professional
and more importantly… should you?

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THE BEST PLACE TO START BUILDING YOUR BRAND
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Personal Professional
QualityofEngagement

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BRAND BUILDING – USING LINKEDIN
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LINKEDIN: Your Professional Brand begins with your LinkedIn profile so it
is essential to complete your profile complete with professional
photograph, education and work experience. Look through the
Influencer section as well and find industry experts to follow and
ultimately engage/share their content to expand your professional
graph.
NOTE – LinkedIn is a “searchable” database so the more keywords you
use to describe your value…the more times your profile will come up in
searches.

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BUILD YOUR PROFILE TO HIGHLIGHT EXPERIENCE
LinkedIn profiles resemble resumes, including current and past professional
experience and a brief summary:
• Top summary
– Name
– Headline (title or field)
– Current & previous positions
– Number of connections
• Background
– Summary
– Experience
– Skills & expertise
– Education & additional info
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MAKE CONNECTIONS TO SHARE INDUSTRY INSIGHTS & RAISE
YOUR VISIBILITY
LinkedIn users receive updated information about industry trends and insights,
customized to their profile and connection lists. Users can tailor this information
through regular activity on the platform.
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• Building a robust connection list gives
users access to industry insights shared
by relative professionals
• Sharing industry news and trends
spreads individual and company
awareness.
• Interacting with connection list and
groups amplifies influence within
industry space.
Jeff Weiner – CEO LinkedIn

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RECOMMEND AND ENDORSE CONNECTIONS TO BUILD
RELATIONSHIPS
LinkedIn encourages users to interact with their connections after creating their
profiles:
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• Recommend current and past colleagues by
leaving testimonials highlighting positive
working relationships and experiences
• Endorse colleague’s skills and expertise

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SHARE NEWS & FOLLOW COMPANIES TO MAINTAIN INFLUENCE
LinkedIn users can also interact with connections on the activity stream by sharing
and following connections’ status updates:
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• Share news updates and industry
developments with connections. News
shares show up on users main activity
stream, providing interaction
opportunities including “Liking” and
commenting.
• Follow company profiles to view
updates on new hires, industry
developments and news shared by the
company

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GROW YOUR NETWORK AND INFLUENCE THROUGH
CONNECTING YOUR EMAIL
Connecting an established personal and/or company email
address can instantly create or expand a LinkedIn network by connecting you with
existing email contacts
• LinkedIn will search email contacts and inbox for potential connections.
• When using this feature, LinkedIn does allow users to manually select or de-select
discovered members before sending connection invitations.
• LinkedIn does not store user passwords or send emails to any of your contacts without
permission.
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DISCOVER OTHER POTENTIAL CONTACTS TO EXPAND YOUR
REACH
LinkedIn search features allow users to quickly find potential connections.
Members can search for connections by:
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• How You’re Connected shows the connection
degree between yourself and the selected
profile; LinkedIn allows you to get introduced
through mutual connections
• In Common feature shows locations, companies
and skills you have in common with that user
• People Also Viewed shows profiles of users who
have been also been viewed by others who
looked at the current profile
• NOTE: LinkedIn tracks viewed profiles and allows
users to see who has viewed their profiles by
default.

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GENERATE ADDITIONAL CONTACTS THROUGH LINKEDIN
SEARCH
LinkedIn search features allow users to quickly find potential connections.
Members can search for connections by:
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• Name
• Company
• Updates (activity)
• Jobs (seekers)
• InMail Inbox (LinkedIn on-
platform messaging)
• LinkedIn Groups
Search: People “MXM Social”

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CONNECT WITH OTHER INFLUENCERS BY JOINING
PROFESSIONAL GROUPS
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LinkedIn allows users to join
professional groups that share news
and information, making it easy to
connect with people out of your
current LinkedIn network. Groups
provide a platform for discussion
around current industry trends and
developments.
• Groups can be open or closed
– Open groups are public; all information
can be viewed by any user
– Closed groups restrict information to
members only

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STAY INFORMED THROUGH THE ACTIVITY STEAM
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LinkedIn’s Home Page – The Activity
Stream shows your connections
interactions:
• New Connections
• New Endorsements
• New Recommendations
• New Positions Acquired by Connections
• Shared Stories
• News From Followed Companies
People You May Know and Who’s Viewed
Your Profile allow users to expand their
network by connecting with users of
similar background (company, education),
those who have previously viewed your
profile, and connections that match e-mail
databases a user has uploaded

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BRAND BUILDING – USING SLIDESHARE
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SLIDESHARE: Once you have created your LinkedIn Profile make sure tp
create a SlideShare account. The best results come from creating it by
linking (or creating) a profile with your LinkedIn account.
NOTE – Once you begin to like, comment and share content within
Slideshare…it shows in your connections’ Newsfeeds.

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SLIDESHARE IS…
Considered the YouTube for presentations, SlideShare was created
in 2006 for businesses to share content with employees and clients.
It has quickly become one of the world’s largest communities for
sharing presentations.
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• More than 130M page views/month, 60M
monthly visitors & 16M registered users
• Its popularity is a result of the ease with
which users can post, share, like and
comment on a variety of content
including presentations, videos,
documents, and webinars
• It has become a quick, low-cost
alternative to expensive production of
digital content
• Although the website is primarily a slide
hosting service, it also supports
documents, PDFs, videos and webinars

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SLIDESHARE IS…
Content is a key asset for professionals to define their brand and one of the most
powerful means to connect with other professionals to engage in thought
leadership.
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• The acquisition of SlideShare by LinkedIn
now provides a platform for
professionals to connect using it as a
content hub and a distribution and
engagement channel.
– Until recently, LinkedIn was primarily used
by professionals to network via their
personal profiles to connect with peers
– Sharing content was limited to reposting
within the Newsfeeds and publishing was
limited to attachments in LinkedIn Groups
– Now, users can produce, share and engage
with others via content to increase
engagement, establish credibility and grow
their professional networks

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CONNECTING SLIDESHARE TO SOCIAL SITES
• In addition to easy linking of SlideShare content into a LinkedIn Newsfeed, the platform
makes it extremely simple to post content to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest
as well as embed into personal blogs created on WordPress.
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• By accessing SlideShare
using Facebook or
LinkedIn users can
instantly Like, Share or
Comment on Content.

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HOW SLIDESHARE WORKS
• Recently acquired by LinkedIn, SlideShare has a similar look and feel to most social
platforms, with social homepages connecting the user to their networks.
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– General visitors to SlideShare.net will see a
screen with the most popular (top viewed)
presentations
– Registering is a simple process using
email/password or can be done directly
through LinkedIn or Facebook access
– Members create a profile and can
customize what is shared, notifications,
etc.
– When entering the site, members are
taken to the newsfeed page, which shows
the most popular views as well as what is
hot on the top social network pages

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Newsfeed of Content
Top Trending Articles
Ability to Like &
Comment
Who your network is
following
Featured Publishers
Recommended
Articles
Recent Articles
Viewed
Search Bar for Articles

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• There are several ways to find specific content on SlideShare. The simplest method is to
use the search box at the top the page to locate a specific article.
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• Relevant content is posted, ranked by:
– Age and size of the document
– How many “likes” it has received
• After selecting, users can:
– Like and comment on the document
– Share it on social networking sites
– View other content from the same author
– Email, download or embed into
blogs/websites
• Posting content is equally as simple.
Users can upload a file, with the ability
to:
– Add tags to make it more searchable
– Mark the file as private or publicly available

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RESEARCHING THE COMPETITION
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THE KEY TAKEAWAY TODAY
• Most websites that you access will ask you if
you want to log in using Facebook, Twitter or
LinkedIn.
• BE AWARE…when you comment on a
personal site (ESPN, Political Blogs etc.) those
comments will show up in Newsfeeds for all
to see…
• Make sure you ALWAYS separate your
personal brand from your professional brand!
They rarely mix!
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Your Personal Life Online
Your Professional Life Online

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Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without
strategy is the noise before defeat – General Sun Tzu
azurite blue inc. - we are a consulting firm that has the
experience and ability to help clients articulate their needs
with regards to “all things social,” and create an operational
roadmap to get there!
More importantly, we help design strategies that are based upon executable
tactics and tactics that support achievable strategies!
Contact:
Jim Clark – 908-305-8475
jim@azblueinc.com
www.linkedin.com/in/azblue/

Social Media Management - Phase 5 (Professional Brand)

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