Marketing For Small Businesses Social Media Marketing

Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses

Understanding Social
Media and leveraging
as a marketing tool to
promote your business
By Natalie Griffiths Associates
Date 11.05.10

Created using Wordle

© Natalie Griffiths Associates 2010

Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses 2

• Content

– Social Media: an introduction

– Social Media: networking sites examples

– Developing your social media strategy



Social Media: an introduction



What is Social Media?

“ …. designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created
using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques”
_________
“…. media that is created to be shared freely”
_________

“ … based on user participation and user-generated content. They
include social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook”

Social media has grown phenomenally since the emergence of Web 2.0
(second generation of the World Wide Web.) This has provided users with tools
to build social & business connections as well as being able to share
information or collaborating with projects online.

Social Media can be described as being user generated; shared freely; highly
accessible; and disseminated through social interaction


How can this help my business?
From a business perspective, Social Media can be a relatively inexpensive promotional
tool when integrated as part of your marketing communication strategy. It can work as
an additional advertising mechanism, or it can offer interactive means by which to talk
directly to your customers and prospects – some of which is still free.

The key however is not to simply launch into this space because everyone else is – but
to think through what you want to achieve, plan your communication strategy and finally
make sure you have something relevant on offer to your prospects. Otherwise, much
time and energy can be invested for limited or no results.

Note: Traditional principles in marketing still apply to Social Media marketing.

Examples of how Social Media is used by businesses
Facebook may be used for customer service and broadcasting updates; Twitter may be
used for promotions; LinkedIn helps to establish credibility; YouTube could give a behind
the scenes look at your business

Social media takes many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, social
blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, pictures, video, rating, social bookmarking


• Social Media Marketing can be used to compliment
your communication strategy and enables
businesses to:
– Test new ideas (with limited investment)
– Launch campaigns / viral networking
– Gain credibility through endorsements and by providing
expertise on specific subjects
– Conduct polls to determine opinion
– Collaborate / exchange ideas
– Gather a following
– Provide a sense of “community”
– Encourage direct feed back



Social Media: networking site
examples



Blogging - various
• Used to share resources,
experiences or views; report
on new services/ideas; or as a
reflective tool.

• Utilised by businesses to
promote expertise and to
generate a following / fan base
(top ten tips etc)

• UK government and the USA
presidential election
candidates used blogs to
support their campaigns



Microblogging - Twitter

• Similar to blogging, but only
facilitates short updates “Get short,
timely messages …”

• Contains some personal
information and encourages a
following / fan base

• Most business sites now feature
the Twitter symbol

• Notable celebrities that tweet
include Stephen Fry, Ashton
Kutcher (millions of followers!)



Social networking - Facebook
• Facebook came into existence as an
internal friendship network for students of
Harvard College (Feb 4 2004.) Since then
it has grown phenomenally with over 40
million active users.

• Features:
– Connection with friends
– Real time newsfeed updates
– Profile incl: pictures, video, web links etc
– Event calendar (and invitation function)
– Ability to set up groups or join other groups
– Give virtual gifts; gaming; market place etc

Business usage has increased significantly with Facebook now becoming a part of company’s social media marketing. This is not for
however for all businesses as they may find their marketing budget is better spent elsewhere. everyone. Many “savvy” facebook members
prefer simply use the site for finding or maintaining friendships rather than anything else.



Social (professional) networking – Linkedin
• This social network can be used to find jobs,
people or business opportunities
– You can input information to a “Profile” (company or
individual) and include a photo plus details of your
(or company) website and link to Twitter
– The “Profile” itself either reflects details about the
company or a personal c.v.
– “Connections” are built by sending invitations, or
through LinkedIn invites
• Features include:
– Company / Employee Research
– LinkedIn Answers
– LinkedIn Groups As of 8 April 2010 LinkedIn
– Recommendations (from your connections) had more than 65 million
– Real time updates “Share an update …” registered users

– Network updates and daily / weekly digest by email
Resources: http://learn.linkedin.com/new-users/ http://learn.linkedin.com/consultants/ http://learn.linkedin.com/job-seekers/



Developing your Social Media
strategy (extract only)



Developing your Social Media Strategy
• Determine objectives
• What do you want to achieve?
• Generate awareness; stimulate a “following”; launch a product; lead generation;
enhance reputation / expertise
• Note you may have different objectives if using multiple platforms

• Agree goals
• Define up to 5 key “goals” which can be measured (SMART)

• Define strategy
• Outline your communication and brand strategy
• Ensure you have determined who your target audience; the image you want to
project; and relevant timely messages

• Draw up a plan
• Keep on track by outlining specific actions on a time based plan



Developing your Social Media Strategy
• Other considerations:

• Find people to follow / encourage people to join, follow you (establish
fans) or recommend
• Use the tools regularly, even if only for short updates (keep it fresh)
• Link to other Social Media platforms (blogs, twitter, newswires etc)
• But be aware of the time this can take!
• Integrate with other forms of communication / marketing collateral
• Include to your email sign off etc
• Integrate directly on your website
• Stick to the PLAN … and make sure you are doing only what you set
out to achieve.


Natalie Griffiths Associates
Providing expert marketing support to help drive your business forward

• Overview
– Natalie Griffiths Associates is a London based marketing consultancy resource
offering flexible executive level support for small to large sized organisations.

– During a time of economic uncertainty, increasing your permanent work force can
be hard to justify. The aim with Natalie Griffiths Associates is to ensure you get
the right help on an interim basis.

– Whether it’s developing strategic marketing plans for 2011, determining brand
direction or integrating social media into the communication mix, Natalie Griffiths
Associates brings both a track record and corporate level experience to help drive
your business forward.

• Common Issues & Challenges
– Rapid change to your organisation has led to a senior level skills shortage
– Your product launch will miss its deadline without leadership support
– Fresh impetus is required to get things moving on a complex project
– It's time consuming to find executive level resources with a track record


Natalie Griffiths Associates

• For more information contact Natalie on:

• Mobile: 07904972864
• Landline: 02070891439
– Or Skype for free
• Email: info@nataliegriffithsassociates.co.uk


Marketing For Small Businesses Social Media Marketing

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