Navigating The Social Web

Navigating the Social Web Mike Dunca n Sage Island CEO www.SageIsland.com

What is Social Media Marketing Many marketers think that doing a sponsorship on MySpace or posting a one-off campaign channel on YouTube is social media marketing Social Media is About Socializing! It is about: Weaving your content and messages into the social web Joining the customer conversation Making friends Communicating with those friends Listening to those friends Measuring impact

“There are now at least 1.6 billion of us connected via computer and 3 billion mobile devices that touch the Internet. The rise of "social" technologies - such as wikis, blogs, Twitter, SMS and social networks - means that the barriers to participation across the planet (in terms of the cost, access and skills required) are rapidly approaching zero” Joshua-Michele Ross on O’Reilly Insights – March 2009

Why Social Media? • Connect with customers on a personal level. • Targeted interaction with clients. • Benefits marketing efforts, search engine rankings, and traffic. • Social networking sites and blogs reach 67% of the global online population, compared to 65% who use email. (Nielson)

Rule 1 - Strategize What do you want to accomplish through social media? • Provide customer service. • Share knowledge. • Give followers inside information on deals, promotions. • All of the above. Your ultimate goal will determine the tactics you use and the networks you join.

Social Networking • Spend some time exploring websites to determine if they can work for you. • Come up with a strategy for how to implement these tools and integrate them with your current marketing efforts. • Be sure you’re using a network that your target audience is using. • Designate someone within your company as the online “face” of your brand. Social media works best when it’s used to connect people with people. Use a real person as the online persona of your brand instead of a faceless logo. • Your online profiles are an extension of your company, so make sure your company’s online persona positively represents your brand.

Blogging Pros • Informs customers with industry and company news. • Provides a personal voice to your website. • Establishes you and your business as an authority in your industry. • Benefits search engine rankings by increasing keyword-rich content. Cons • Time consuming. • Requires ideas and writing skills. • Can become detrimental to your brand if misused or abandoned.

Blogging Keep in mind • It’s all about quality content. • Your blog is not the place to sell your products. • Share information that is helpful and interesting to your readers.

Building your Blog • Don’t blog from an outside website. Your blog should be a part of your website http://www.yourdomain.com/blog, not part of an outside website http://yourdomain.blogspot.com. • By placing the blog on your website, you’re placing all of the content from your blog directly on your site. Search engines love frequently updated, keyword- rich content, so blogging directly on your website allows your website to reap the search engine benefits of keyword-rich blog content. • Install open source software like WordPress on your site to manage and maintain your blog with ease. • Write fresh, original content regularly (at least three times a week), and keep blog posts under 500 words each.

Promote your Blog • Promote your blog to your client base by adding it to your email signature, Web site, and promotional materials. • Connect with other bloggers in your industry by linking to them, commenting on their posts, and submitting your content to social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon. • Just remember, focus on the content to keep readers coming back for more.

Blog Dos • Pay attention to headlines. Many people scan blog posts in a feed reader like Google Reader. If the headline isn’t interesting, they won’t click through. • Link to other blogs in your industry to get their attention and encourage them to link back to you. • Keep blog posts under 500 words and break up large chunks of text with photos, headlines, and bullets for easier reading. • Focus on quality content, but keep SEO in mind by favoring high traffic keywords over lower traffic phrases. • Solicit feedback from your readers. Ask questions, include polls, and encourage community building through comments and participation.

Blog Don’ts • Never copy and paste content from other websites to fill your blog posts. This creates duplicate content problems and violates copyright law. • Avoid keyword stuffing. Your primary concern is quality content that interests readers. SEO should always be secondary. Use keywords only when appropriate and only if it doesn’t compromise good writing. • Don’t expect feedback on every post. For every commenter there are nine “lurkers” who read without participating. Keep soliciting feedback and trying new ways to engage those readers, but don’t give up.

Facebook • Facebook is the largest social network on the Web. • The website boasts more than 200 million active users with more than half of them logging on at least once a day. • More than two-thirds of users are out of college, and the fastest demographic is 35 years and older. • Creates a social media hub for your business with content, photos, video, and networking capabilities.

Profile vs. Pages Facebook does not allow businesses to build personal profiles. You have two options for promoting your business: • Build a business profile page • Create a group for your business. Use the page as a central hub for information about your business on Facebook, and use the group as a forum where fans and friends can interact with you and each other. Remember, profiles are for people; pages are for businesses. Your business page will need to be connected to a personal profile if you want to reap all of the benefits of Facebook. Build your personal profile first, and keep it business appropriate. Then connect a business page to your profile.

Reaching your fans on FB • Keep a constant stream of fresh content on your wall by uploading photos, videos, and links to your Facebook page. • Create a community by building a group where members can upload their own photos and videos and discuss your brand. • Link your Facebook page to an RSS feed for your blog.

Twitter • Twitter allows users to broadcast short, 140-word messages to other users who “follow” them. • Reaches more than 13 million people in the United States each month. (Nielson Online) • Converse with your customers. • Monitor what they’re saying about you in real time.

Build your Twitter Network • Twitter Search (search.twitter.com) – Search for your brand name and key phrases associated with your industry to find users who are interested in you and your products. • We Follow (www.wefollow.com) – User powered Twitter directory helps you find users that may fit in your network. • Just Tweet It (www.justtweetit.com) – Another Twitter directory where you can find followers. • Mr. Tweet (www.mrtweet.com) – A Twitter networking client that helps you discover new people in your industry, find relevant followers, and track usage stats.

Helpful Twitter Tools • URL shorteners (like tinyurl, bit.ly and is.gd shrink long URLs to Twitter- friendly sizes for sharing links. • TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com) – The Twitter client of choice for many busy users, this free program allows you to track your feed, specific searches, and replies in one window. Monitor your conversation & brand • TweetScan (www.tweetscan.com) notifies you when your brand or keywords are mentioned on Twitter. • Twollow (www.twollow.com) allows you to auto-follow people who are talking about your brand and products.

Tips for Twitter • Initiate conversation about your industry, offer tips, listen to what people are saying about your company. • Be proactive in responding to @ replies and direct messages. • Offer information that customers and other people in your network will find interesting — not just marketing and PR speak. • Don’t toot your own horn too much, bombard users with links, or repetitive marketing messages.

Why Twitter for Building Your Brand? • Twitter is 3rd largest social network after FaceBook (1st) and MySpace (2nd) – Over 6 million active Twitter users – Over 55 million monthly visitors to Twitter • Est. 5,000 new Twitter accounts every day • Most users access via mobile • Shouldn’t you be where your customers are?

Real Time Search Alerts • Find Immediate Responses or Advice • Niched Communal Information • Absolute Real Time Search • Online Customer Service

Finding a Twitter Strategy that Works • Everyone is listening. Who do you want your audience to be? – Consumers, businesses, strategic partners, industry experts (including bloggers), colleagues, etc. • Will your tone be corporate or casual? – Research has shown users prefer Twitter interactions to be on a more personal level • Who will Twitter? – Hiring a Community Manager whose job is to engage in social media – Should employees Twitter? • Twitter Usernames – Claim your brand name (http://www.twitter.com/yourbrand) Also popular: employee + brand names, CEO names

The Do’s • Initiate discussion around your brand • Listen (really) to what people are saying about your brand; be proactive in responding • Keep it positive - this is reputation management • Respond timely to @ replies and DMs • Keep things interesting; vary tweet style and subject matter

The Don’ts • Don’t toot your own horn too much • Don’t just bombard followers with links; introduce links with useful/meaningful discussion • Don’t disrespect the Twitter community • Don’t have a cavalier attitude about Twitter - it’s not a fad • Avoid auto-DMs and low quality @ replies – it’s annoying, makes followers think you’re a robot • Don’t sound like a broken record

Monitor Your Brand • TweetScan | www.tweetscan.com Set up alerts for mentions of your brand and related keywords; never miss @ replies • TweetBeep Twilert | www.tweetbeep.com Like Google Alerts for Twitter • Twollow | www.twollow.com Auto-follow people that mention your brand • Twitterless | www.twittlerless.com Graphs your followers and tells you who stops following. • ow.ly | cl.ig | tr.im | adjix.com | etc. Shrink your URLs

Build Your Follower Base • Twitter Search | search.twitter.com/advanced – Find your audience • We Follow | wefollow.com – User powered Twitter directory • Just Tweet It | www.justtweetit.com – Great Twitter directory; are you listed? • Mr. Tweet | www.mrtweet.net Discover new people, get relevant followers and usage stats.

Engage Your Followers • TwtQpon | www.twtqpon.com Create coupons for Twitter. Give incentive to follow you. • StrawPoll | www.strawpollnow.com Poll your followers. Ask questions about your brand, get instant feedback • TwitPic | www.twitpic.com Share interesting photos of new products, office antics, and other cool stuff

Viral Marketing & Social Tagging Add social bookmarking buttons for sites like Digg, Del.ici.us, and Stumble to blog posts and other content on your site to encourage users to “vote” for it.

YouTube Optimization • Use keyword tags to tell readers and search engines what your video is about. • Create a compelling headline to encourage viewers to watch your video. • Keep videos as short and engaging as possible with the most important messaging in the beginning. If viewers get bored, they won’t watch the whole thing. • Pay attention to your thumbnail image to entice viewers to click and watch. YouTube automatically selects a thumbnail by selecting an image from about halfway through your video.

Product Reviews • 70% of shoppers trust consumer reviews on products. (Nielson) • Offer users the opportunity to rate products, provide reviews, to encourage consumers to trust your products/brand.

Make it an all Inclusive Process 1. Post video on YouTube or photos on Flickr 2. Post to all the other video sites 3. Post to profiles 4. Alert friends and fans on Social Sites 5. Twitter tweet 6. Alert bloggers with Blog Outreach 7. Email blast to house list 8. RSS feed release 9. Posting to blogs 10. Promote with paid media 11. Track, report and analyze

MIKE DUNCAN mduncan@sageisland.com www.sageisland.com

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Navigating The Social Web

by Sage Island on Jan 11, 2010

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