Social Media For Small Business Owners

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SMALL BUSINESSES JINAL SHAH www.jinalshah.com

ME Blogging Circa 2000 Non-traditional Career Path Landed every single job via social media 5 Yrs in Digital Media Aspiring Small Business Owner!

THERE IS A LOT OF INFORMATION 2,197 Presentations on Slideshare.net for ‘Social Media for Small business Owners” 15,740 Social Media Gurus and Experts on Twitter 126,000,000 Results on Google for ‘Social Media for Small Business Owners’

NOT HERE TO ADD TO THE NOISE Not a Social Media 101. Neither will this be yet another talk meant to overwhelm you.

THE NEXT 60 MINUTES 60 Thinking bigger 1. Reaffirm the significance of social media for your business 2. Framework for executing effectively and efficiently 3. Learn from other SBO’s and how they are incorporating social media into their business plans 4. Separate social media as an extension of marketing – and think of it as an extension of your business

REAFFIRM SM’S SIGNIFICANCE A Citibank survey of 500 U.S Small businesses shows that 75% of small businesses aren’t using social media for business. Social media is at the bottom of their to-do list. But the 25% that ARE using social media, aren’t denying its impact on their business.

REAFFIRM SM’S SIGNIFICANCE BRAND RECOGNITION: The biggest SALES: Within a few weeks, we'd sold 500 pairs of result is name recognition.For my business, pants. It was the greatest impact we've had so far in we have created a relatively small but the shortest amount of time. – Chris Lindland, responsive group of followers and fans. Cordarounds I would say that our Brand is bigger than we are. – Stella Gassaway, Heavybubbles MEDIA HITS: The only cost we had was production of the bags and the time spend planting them through the city – the results? Incredible. – Rachel Nasvik Team AWARENESS: Without social media we would be unknown except for the various festivals that we have attended like the Brooklyn flea and the renegade craft fair. It is rewarding to hear someone say that CUSTOMER SERVICE: We were able to tweak our they have heard of us and that they like the product offer and better meet our customer demands, product. – Umang Shah, Chorbazzar thanks to Facebook! – Kaniskha Jewels

REAFFIRM SM’S SIGNIFICANCE You too can achieve similar results. But it is not going to happen overnight. What follows is a practical approach to achieving success in social media.

STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK What are your business goals and how can social media help you achieve them better and faster? How do you want to measure your success in SET GOALS social media ? Where are your audiences spending time on the web? Are they talking KNOW YOUR about you or your competitors somewhere? What are their needs? AUDIENCE Each platform helps achieve specific goals – align these to your own PRIORITIZE goals and audiences to evaluate the right platforms for your business. INVESTMENT Think about the kind of resources and time you will require to invest in these platforms. What sort of content strategy will you employ ? What will be the EXECUTE & frequency of your interactions and commitment ? How soon can you TRACK RESULTS track results and optimize ?

GOALS & AUDIENCES You are not a Dell. You are not Zappos. Entertainment networks want to drive tune- in to their programming, magazines want to increase audiences and traffic to their online content. What do you want to do? Play to the strengths social media offers. Customer feedback loops, building awareness and engagement, building thought-leadership, addressing negative reviews and driving action. Listen to your customers. Pay attention to their conversations about you, your competitors, their needs and complaints. Incorporate learning's into your execution strategy.

PRIORTIZE YOUR INVESTMENT Live where your audience does. Social media is in a flux. Spend time where your audiences are - even if that means it is an obscure site without the momentum and numbers that other social platforms have. Determine your role and time commitment before executing. The time you invest in social media is directly proportional to the results you can expect to see from your efforts. Understand the platform before you invest in it. Understand the platform, it’s strengths and limitations to help set expectations before you execute.

PRIORTIZE PLATFORMS FACEBOOK  TWITTER  PRIMARY Brand Engagement; Customer Relations; Sales Building Thought-leadership; Customer BENEFITS & Promotions; Showcasing company culture & Service; Sales & Promotions; Showcasing ideals company culture & ideals NETWORK Every example of fan activity on Facebook is Conversations are quick and reactive, EFFECT broadcast to an average of 130 friends, driving Little to no network effect. enrollment within the network SIZE Over 400 Million active users that spend on an Over 50 Million accounts with the active average 55 minutes a day account numbers being much lower SHARING & Allows media sharing: photographs, videos, Limits media sharing to links and twitpics USER BEHAVIOR etc. which open on a different page CULTURE Promotes a culture of conversations, debates More of a broadcast and information and interactions. network. Quick stream of thoughts, ideas and links that encourage less interaction 13

EXECUTE Social media humbles you. Just because you’ve launched a new product or are offering a 20% discount does not give me a reason to care about you. Share of attention is difficult to achieve on the web. Even though users spend an average of 1 hour a day on Facebook, they are spending this time interacting with their friends – not brands or businesses. Do something different. It’s about content. It’s about providing value. But mostly, it’s about giving your fans and customers something to talk about.

DRIVING RESULTS Social media is not a marketing strategy. It’s a business strategy. Social media pushes you to think creatively.The only platform where you Inspire can achieve ten times your monetary investment. Complements not Action replaces your other efforts. Attracting and growing audiences. Quality, not quantity. Focus on building thought leadership via Drive Awareness compelling content and promotions about what you and your company stand for – it is more valuable to have a small but engaged audience than a larger but passive audience. Build Audience Driving results. Results do not always equal sales or revenues. Results may also mean savings, cost reduction on other activities, and other intangible benefits.

CASE STUDIES

CASE STUDY: KOGI KOREAN BBQ The first Kogi BBQ truck (and accompanying Twitter account, which now has more than 20,000 followers) debuted in November, and the company is now about to increase its numbers from two to four trucks. Each Kogi truck regularly experiences hundreds of customers per night and sometimes even runs out of tacos. "People search for it," said Alice Shin, Kogi BBQ's in-house blogger and Twitterer. "It's kind of like a treasure hunt for them." - CNET

CASE STUDY: NAKED PIZZA To be honest, I'm actually stunned at the amount of business driven in by Twitter, even with a modest New Orleans following. Last Thursday we ran some "Tweetie Pie" specials—i.e., you had to be on Twitter to see it and take advantage of the coupon. Tweetie Pie specials that day accounted for more than 15 percent of our business. However, measuring the ROI of all this - and it takes real time and money to explore - is like trying to herd cats. - Jeff Leach, Naked Pizza

CASE STUDY: RACHEL NAVSIK “Turned the chore of buying a purse into a fun, competitive game that energized Rachel Nasvik’s fan base and caught the attention of media”. – MSN

TAKEAWAY

CHECKLIST In 2010, my business goal is _____________. My customers are spending their time on _______, _______ & _______ doing _________. Focusing on _________ & _________ will help me achieve my business goals and serve my customers. My expectations from investing time and resources into social media are ___________, _________ & _________. These are the three actions I will take on each platform to achieve my goals. 1) _______ 2)_________3)___________ I will measure my success by ___________ & _____________.

THANK YOU

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Social Media For Small Business Owners

by Jinal Shah on Feb 25, 2010

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Social Media For Small Business Owners — Presentation Transcript