INTRODUCTION

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
Social media is a
conversation online.
Look who’s talking:
o your customers
o your employees
o your investors
o your critics
o your fans
o your competition....
o anyone who has internet
access and an opinion.

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
The conversation is not:
controlled
o
organized
o
“on message”
o
The conversation is:
o organic
o complex
o speaks in a human voice
Social media is not a
strategy or a tactic –
it’s simply a channel.

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
Social Networks
o
News & Bookmarking
o
Blogs
o
Microblogging
o
Video Sharing
o
Photo Sharing
o
Message boards
o
Wikis
o
Virtual Reality
o
Social Gaming
o
Related:
o
Podcasts
o
Real Simple Syndication (RSS)
o
Social Media Press Release
o

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
The power to define and control a brand
is shifting from corporations and institutions
to individuals and communities.

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
o 91% say consumer reviews are the #1 aid to buying
decisions - JC Williams Group
o 87% trust a friend’s recommendation over critic’s
review - Marketing Sherpa
o 3 times more likely to trust peer opinions over
advertising for purchasing decisions - Jupiter Research
o 1 word-of-mouth conversation has impact of
200 TV ads - BuzzAgent
* Slide courtesy of Digital Influence Group

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
Social media sites are the fastest-growing category on the
web, doubling their traffic over the last year.
o 73% of active online users have read a blog
o 45% have started their own blog
o 39% subscribe to an RSS feed
o 57% have joined a social network
o 55% have uploaded photos
o 83% have watched video clips
Universal McCann’s Comparative Study on Social Media Trends,
April 2008. 17,000 respondents from 29 countries, *using internet
at least every other day

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
Learn what people are saying about you
o
Create buzz for events & campaigns
o
Increase brand exposure
o
Identify and recruit influencers to spread your message
o
Find new opportunities and customers
o
Support your products and services
o
Improve your search engine visibility
o
Gain competitive intelligence
o
Get your message out fast
o
Retain clients by establishing a personal relationship
o
Be an industry leader – not a follower
o

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
Reach Engagement & Influence
o Website visits / views o Sentiment of
reviews/comments
o volume of
reviews/comments o Brand affinity
o Incoming links o Commenter
authority/influence
o Time spent
Action & Insight
o Favourites / Friends / Fans
o Sales inquiries
o Viral forwards
o New business
o Number of downloads
o Customer Satisfaction /
loyalty
o Marketing efficiency
Source: The Digital Influence Group, Measuring the Influence of Social Media

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?
Build an actionable game
plan for your Social
Media Marketing
o Who are your Best Buyers?
o How can you educate
them?
o What’s their reason to
engage with you?
Go where your buyers are
o Start and build Groups
o Give buyers ways to
interact and engage with
you
o Provide a channel to
communicate with them

KEYS TO SUCCESS
10 KEYS
TO SOCIAL MEDIA
SUCCESS

KEYS TO SUCCESS
o Experiment personally
before professionally
o Try a variety of social
media tools
o Be yourself, make some
friends, and share

KEYS TO SUCCESS
o Spend time upfront
planning how you will
use social media
o Think POST:
People
o
Objectives
o
Strategy
o
Technology
o

KEYS TO SUCCESS
o Find where your
audience is participating
and indentify the
influencers
o Read industry blogs
(including comments)
o Google your company
name & your competition
o Find tools that can help
you listen

KEYS TO SUCCESS
o Avoid puffery
(people will ignore it)
o Avoid evasion and lying
(people won’t ignore it)
o Companies have watched
their biggest screw-up's
rise to the top 10 of a
Google search
o Admit your mistakes
right away

KEYS TO SUCCESS
o Don’t be afraid to share.
Corporations, like people,
need to share information
to get the value out of
social media
o Make your content easy
to share
o Incorporate tools that
promote sharing:
o Share This, RSS feeds,
Email a friend

KEYS TO SUCCESS
o Don't shout. Don't
broadcast. Don’t brag.
o Speak like yourself – not
a corporate marketing
shill or press secretary
o Personify your brand –
give people something
they can relate to.

CASE STUDY

KEYS TO SUCCESS
o Think like a contributor,
not a marketer
o Consider what is relevant
to the community before
contributing
o Don’t promote your
product on every post
o Win friends by promoting
other people’s content if
it interests you

KEYS TO SUCCESS
o Don’t try to delete or
remove criticism (it will
just make it worse)
o Listen to your detractors
o Admit your shortcomings
o Work openly towards an
explanation and
legitimate solution

KEYS TO SUCCESS
o Don’t wait until you
have a campaign to
launch - start planning
and listening now
o Build relationships so
they’re ready when you
need them

KEYS TO SUCCESS
o You need buy in from
everyone in the
organization
o Convince your CEO that
social media is relevant to
your organization
o Get your communications
team together, discuss
the options, then divide
and conquer

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?
Build your Social Media
presence NOW (your
competition is too)
o Get involved in Linked-In
groups
o Create a following with a
Facebook Business Page
o Develop your Twitter
following
Reset your market’s
‘buying criteria’ with
education
o Send regular info articles
o Be a viral resource

THE TOOLS
SOCIAL MEDIA
TOOLS

THE TOOLS
Social Networks
o
News & Bookmarking
o
Blogs
o
Microblogging
o
Video Sharing
o
Photo Sharing
o
Message boards
o
Wikis
o
Virtual Reality
o
Social Gaming
o
Related:
o
Podcasts
o
Real Simple Syndication (RSS)
o
Social Media Press Release
o

THE TOOLS
o People and organizations
connect and interact
with friends, colleagues
and fans.
o Facebook and MySpace
pages provide a micro
site for your business
within the social
framework.

THE TOOLS
o create online profiles
o share photos, video, and
audio, links
o send private message and
instant message
o learn more about people and
organizations
o join groups and gain fans

THE TOOLS
Do Don’t
o create a page to promote your o create a page and fail to
brand maintain it
o point your fans to your o try a hard sell approach
company blog or contest
o censor comments
o encourage a discussion and
participate frequently o spam your fans/friends with
frequent private messages –
o explore targeted advertising you’ll drive them away
opportunities
o post false information

THE TOOLS
o A blog is a website with
regular entries of
commentary or news
o Blogs serve to establish
your company as
transparent, relevant,
active, and expert

THE TOOLS
o engage in dialogue with your
customers
o improve your search engine
visibility
o promote product launches
and events
o gain expert status by
providing useful tips

THE TOOLS
Do Don’t
o post on a regular schedule o write press releases – be real
about why something is
exciting
o encourage conversation by
asking questions
o let complaints go unanswered
o respond to customers'
questions and concerns o make users register to
comment – they won’t bother
o use a few bloggers from your
company for more viewpoints o delete fair but critical
comments
o post product reviews from
customers or industry experts

THE TOOLS
o Microblogs are blogs
limited to a sentence or
two (about 140
characters)
o People use microblogging
to follow their friends
o Companies use it to
market their product or
services by giving them
a voice/identity.

THE TOOLS
o promote contests
o share timely information
o spread useful links
o personify your brand
o build credibility and influence
o follow competitors

THE TOOLS
Do’s Don'ts
o sound like someone who just o sound like a press release
happens to work at your
company o spam with constant links to
your company website, either
o put a friendly face on your in tweets or private messages
product
o pose and answer questions
o announce sales, deals, news,
updates, and build buzz for
big releases or events

THE TOOLS
o Video sharing sites let
you upload videos and
share them with people.
o They’re a perfect
repository for video
blogs, taped seminars,
witty Power Points,
commercials, how-to’s
and a behind-the-scene
look at your organization.

THE TOOLS
o helps you gain exposure and
direct traffic back to your
website
o sparks interest without a
hard-sell
o videos can be low-fi and
cheap to produce -
immediacy and content is more
important than quality.
o videos can be a place to
showcase your leadership in
a field, and spread customer
testimonials

THE TOOLS
Do Don’t
o be informative, useful, or o just upload infomercials
entertaining
o be afraid to experiment until
o create a summary and find a formula that works.
detailed description
o pull down other people’s
o post video replies to others videos showcasing your
product for copyright
infringement
o allow commenting and
participate in the conversation
o make your video longer than it
needs to be – keep it concise
o save bandwidth costs on your
and entertaining
website by hosting videos on
YouTube

THE TOOLS
o An Internet forum, or
message board, is a
bulletin board system in
the form of a discussion
site
o conversation takes place
between registered
members who post
topics (threads) and
make public comments
(posts) on those threads

THE TOOLS
Do Don’t
o keep the message board active o build it and expect people to
by regularly participating in start participating without
the conversation encouragement and seeding
o collect minimal information o forget to moderate -
during registration spammers and trolls will drive
users away
o keep focus and attract users by
clearly identifying your o censor or allow militant
community purpose and moderators to take too much
target audience control over the conversation.
You want to encourage open
discussion, not stifle it.
o promote popular discussions
throughout your website

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
6 Steps to Social Media Marketing Success
1. Follow a proven
successful game plan
o Trial and error on your own
o Utilize a proven plan
2. Determine the strategy
best for your business
o Understand your buyers
o Establish your time vs. the
investment
3. Set up your profiles and
group pages
o Optimize your bio
o Strategically create groups
of interest to your buyers

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
6 Steps to Social Media Marketing Success
4. Reset the ‘buying
criteria’ with education
o Systematize your info
o Provide regular content
that’s resourceful
5. Engage in conversation
o Provide ‘viral’ info that
encourages conversation
o Allow an open platform
6. Monitor and measure
o Have systems in place to
track results
o Only utilize practices that
are profitable in revenue

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SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
A Due Diligence Cost ROI
AVERAGE COST AND TIME ANALYSIS
o Troubleshooting an Ongoing and Successful
Social Media Marketing Strategy:
TIME: 8 hours / INVESTMENT: $800.00
o Creating, Optimizing and Updating Multiple
Profile Pages, Groups and Bios:
TIME: 5 hours / INVESTMENT: $500.00
o Researching and Creating Monthly Resourceful
Educational Articles:
TIME: 7 hours / INVESTMENT: $700.00
continued >

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
A Due Diligence Cost ROI
AVERAGE COST AND TIME ANALYSIS
o Strategizing, Creating, Engaging In and Writing
Communications via Discussion Board Posts,
Wall Posts, Feedback Responses, etc.:
TIME: 6 hours / INVESTMENT: $600.00
o Managing Multiple Strategic Group Interactions
and Discussions:
TIME: 6 hours / INVESTMENT: $600.00
o TOTAL TIME: 32 hours / TOTAL
INVESTMENT: $3,200.00

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED
A Due Diligence Cost ROI
AVERAGE COST AND TIME ANALYSIS
o TOTAL TIME: 32 hours / TOTAL
INVESTMENT: $3,200.00
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