Social Media & Small Business : Taking your first steps in Social Media

Calvert County Chamber Women to Women Networking Group Social Media Tools in Small Business Marketing March 10th

Thank you all for coming today

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We service over 3 million SMB customers and manage 7.5 million domain names.

Social Media audience is growing
Gartner : By 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary communications vehicle for 20 % of business users.
With 400M users Facebook could be the 3rd largest country in population (China and India are larger for now)
LinkedIn Now 60 Million Strong
Nearly three quarters (73%) of online teens and (72%) of young adults use social network sites
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1293114
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults.aspx

Traditional media usage is changing
92%) use multiple platforms
33% access news on their cell phones.
28% of internet users have customized their home page
37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Online-News.aspx

Once you have a web presence your business is global
Web searches for a local business
Searches on Maps
Get a website free to start today : http://www.networksolutions.com/free-website/index.jsp

25% Small Business use social media presence – Doubled since last year
Network Solutions – University of Maryland Small Business Success index http://growsmartbusiness.com
See the full study at http://www.GrowSmartBusiness.com

Ready to jump on the Social Media Bandwagon ? Graphic credit : http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthamm/2945559128/

Reasons why
Free (requires time commitment)
Flexible options
Help Your Search Engine Rankings
Traffic to your website / business
Good Word of mouth
Leads

Business Objectives
Connect with customers
Get ideas, trends, buzz
Find peers and network
Easy distribution of content
Greater reach
New Clients

Become an expert yourself
You have to learn the tools
Spend your own time
Find other enthusiasts/partners in crime
Invest time in attending offline events

3 step process
Integrate Social media into your marketing campaign
Make your existing marketing collateral social
Engage with your existing customers

Make your email social
Consolidate all your contact lists
Tweet news about your email offers
Make your email available online
Tip : Add your social media links to your email signatures

Add your social media channels to your website Encourage visitors to join your social media properties

Share your happy moments

Use Google Alerts as a business intelligence tool
Get alerted to conversations about your product
Trends and competition
Tip : Use Google alerts to get content ideas

Build your profile in sites like Linkedin Tip : Ask for recommendations to include you in Service provider directory Links to your website and appear in searches for LinkedIn users

Websites and Blogs Blog has a call to action with a contest Call to Action to visit the company website

Blogging Basics: Reasons to Blog
Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Gain Visibility as a Thought Leader
Generate Real Conversations
Display Brand Personality
Perform Market Research
Improve Customer Service
Share Company Announcements

Blogging Basics: Getting Started
Take 15 minutes a day to write a blog post
Find a topic
Keep it around 400 words or less if possible
Write in short paragraphs. Not more than six lines of text.
Write and embed any content (pictures, videos)
Check copyrights and licensing and give attributions
Preview Your Post
Publish or Schedule It

Engage with blog visitors Talk to your audience who read your content Comments Reviews Newsletters Tip : Look for other blogs where you can be a guest poster and get links to your blog/business

Twitter Business Info here – Your conversations will lead your connections to your page Tip : Consider having a separate account for your products and tweet a special offers and blog feeds

Southern Maryland Twitter

Using Twitter: Buzzwords
Follow: To friend someone (or follow their updates)
Direct Message (DM): Pseudo-email someone following you
“ At” reply: Speak to someone directly in the public stream (@stevenfisher)
Re-tweet (RT): Repost content with credit
Block: Restrict access to updates
# (hashtags): a kind of tag or description – great for search
Source: Ogilvy Twitter Webinar

If chips can have their own page so can you! Tip : A Facebook page is different from your personal profile. You can create multiple Facebook pages

Facebook
Add a newsletter sign up widget
Give special Facebook offers
Ask for feedback
Ask website visitors to become your Facebook fan
Encourage customers to join the Facebook page

Your Social Media Plan
Setup Alerts
Join and setup profiles in 3 social networks
15-20 minutes a day tracing the alerts and responding
Choose 3 blogs on your field to read and comment
Converse, don’t sell
Answer questions and become an expert in your niche on LinkedIn
2 hours a week - Learn and write about the products you promote
Measure your efforts
How many times were you mentioned
How many people read your posts
Inbounds links
Are your customers evangelizing
Attend one local event a month
Ask for help from the community if you need it

Blogs to Follow
Small Business Trends http://www.smallbiztrends.com
Get Elastic http:// www.getelastic.com /
SMART Ecommerce Blog ( Network Solutions ) http://www.smartecommerceblog.com
GrowSmartBusiness http://www.growsmartbusiness.com
This presentation will be on http://blog.networksolutions.com tomorrow

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@WgBiz
@GrowSmartBiz
Special Offers for the Calvert County Chamber: Register your domain name for only $9.99 by using coupon code WOWDOMAINS http://www.networksolutions.com/domain-name-registration/index.jsp

Questions ?
Shashi Bellamkonda [email_address]
Twitter: @shashib
Small Business Success Index : http://www.GrowSmartBusiness.com
Network Solutions Blog : http://blog.networksolutions.com
Web Community Network : http://www.LinkTogether.com
Small Business Network : http://www.MySolutionSpot.com
Women Entrepreneurs : http://www.WomenGrowBusiness.com
Other Media:
Technology & Social Media: http://www.shashi.name
Digital Thoughts: http://readythoughts.blogspot.com
Restaurant Reviews: http://www.carryoncurry.com
Examiner Column : http://bit.ly/dcexaminer Tech Cocktail Column: http://bit.ly/shashitechcocktail What I am reading: http://shashib.amplify.com

Resources

http://www.networksolutions.com/education

Document sharing Sites
Docstoc – http://www.docstoc.com
Slide Share – http://www.Slideshare.net
Scribd - http://www.Scribd.com
Tip : Add a custom offer for each channel and monitor traffic from these sites

Videos : Tell your Story Tip : Create a How to video, talk about your community Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera

Podcasts & Your Own Radio Shows Flickr photo by Mark J Hunter http://www.flickr.com/photos/tartanpodcast/283456030/ Tip : Interview your users, promote their business

Story telling with photos - Flickr Tip : Make your story interesting with pictures . Flickr cannot be used for commerce

Review Sites Tips : Claim your profile , thank reviewers and answer any negative comments with grace

Social Media & Small Business : Taking your first steps in Social Media

by Shashi Bellamkonda on Mar 11, 2010

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Social Media & Small Business : Taking your first steps in Social Media — Presentation Transcript

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