IMKT 120 - Unit 1 - Should Northwest Technologies Use Social Media Marketing?
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This presentation is one I created to persuade an IT company called, Northwest Technologies to use social media as part of their marketing campaign strategy. Completed for Dr. Terry Powell's IMKT 120 Unit 1.
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IMKT 120 - Unit 1 - Should Northwest Technologies Use Social Media Marketing?
- 1. Should Northwest Technologies Use Social Media? Brian O’Dowd
- 2. Agenda – Social Media • Welcome • The Beginning • Web 2.0 • Business Impacts • Why Should We Use It? • How Do We Use It?
- 3. Welcome • About Me • 6 Years Web/Social Exp. • Social Media Education
- 4. The Beginning of Social Media • Email – 1971 • Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) – 1978 • AOL – 1985 • Classmates.com – 1995 • SixDegrees.com – 1997 • Friendster.com – 2002 • MySpace.com – 2003
- 5. Social Media – aka – Web 2.0 • LinkedIn – 2003 • Facebook – 2004 • YouTube – 2005 • Twitter – 2006 • Google+ – 2007 • Pinterest – 2009 • Instagram – 2010
- 6. Business Impacts of Social Media • Consumer-to-producer interaction • Client-to-client interaction • Global Reach • Traditional Advertising Ineffective
- 7. Why Should We Use Social Media? • Be Where They Are • Improve Sales • Improve Search Rankings • Build Relationships
- 8. Why Should We Use Social Media? • Community Exposure • Brand Expansion • Gain New Customers • Save $$$$
- 9. How Do We Use Social Media? • Know Your Platform • Showcase Products & Services • Direct Website Traffic • Promotional Offers
- 10. Conclusion • YES, NWT should use Social Media! • Reach Your Target! • Expand Your Brand! • Build Customer Relationships! • Save Money!
- 11. Works Cited • “Ad Set Cost & Budgeting.” Facebook. Facebook.com/help. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. • Bellis, Mary. "ARPAnet - The First Internet." Inventors. About.com, 2012. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. • Carlson, Nicholas. “Pinterest CEO: Here’s How We Became the Web’s Next Big Thing [DECK].” Business Insider. BusinessInsider.com, 24 Apr. 2012. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. • Digital Trends Staff. "The History of Social Networking.” Digital Trends. DigitalTrends.com, 05 Aug. 2014. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. • Fitzpatrick, Laura. “Brief History of YouTube.” Time. Time.com, 31 May 2010. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. • Gilbertson, Scott. “Feb. 16, 1978: Bulletin Board Goes Electronic.” Wired. Wired.com, 16 Feb. 2010. Web. 31 Aug. 2014.
- 12. Works Cited • Johnson, Mark. “The History of Twitter.” Social Nomics. SocialNomics.com, 23 Jan. 2013. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. • Kim, Larry. “Guide to Using Social Media for Marketing.” Wordstream. Wordstream.com. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. • Mangold, W. Glynn & Faulds, David J. “Social Media: The New Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix.” Science Direct. ScienceDirect.com, 2009. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. • “Social Networking Fact Sheet.” Pew Research. PewInternet.com. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. • “You’ve Got… 25 Years! AOL Celebrates 25th Anniversary with Big Birthday Bash.” AOL. Corp. AOL.com, 24 May 2010. Web. 31 Aug. 2014.
Editor's Notes
- Web and Social Media expert for six years. Web Development Student at Sanford-Brown College online, seeking to acquire the official title to go with that experience. Passionate about educating companies on how important it is to use social media as part of a complete marketing strategy that effectively reaches their target audience.
- The first form of social media that ever came into existence was Email. In 1971 the first email was sent over the “ARPANet” which was the first computer network in existence, created to allow research departments of four universities to share information (Bellis, 2012). On February 16, 1978, the first public Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS) was created by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess (Gilbertson, 2010). These systems enabled users to download games and other files (sometimes pirated) and send messages to other users of the ARPANet (Digital Trends Staff, 2014). On May 24, 1985, AOL was born (“You’ve Got… 25 Years!” 2010) and is now considered, for many people, the Internet before the Internet existed (Digital Trends Staff, 2014). Classmates.com, created in 1995, was likely the first actual website to enable social networking features, but was focused more specifically on connecting with people you went to school with (Digital Trends Staff, 2014). SixDegrees.com, created in 1997, was based on an idea, somehow associated with Kevin Bacon, that, “no person is separated by more than six degrees from another,” (Digital Trends Staff, 2014). Six Degrees was the first social network to allow the creation of profiles by its users, as well as enable them to invite their friends, check out others’ profiles, and create groups, but its marketing strategy came off as pushy, and eventually the company went under (Digital Trends Staff, 2014). In 2002, Friendster came on the scene, and turned the concepts created by Six Degrees into a successful social network by giving its users the opportunity to connect with others via their common bonds (Digital Trends Staff, 2014). Despite its success, Friendster fell prey to technical difficulties, poor management, and a lack of funding in North America and is now focused on online gaming (Digital Trends Staff, 2014). For my generation, the first real social network was called, “MySpace”. MySpace.com was launched in 2003 and was king of the social networks until it was dethroned by Facebook (Digital Trends, 2014). MySpace offered many of the same concepts that Friendster offered but appealed to the young adult marked by giving the user the ability to design their own page easily, and combining these pages with pop culture aspects like music, videos, etc. (Digital Trends Staff, 2014).
- LinkedIn, also created in 2003, took social networking to a whole new level of professionalism, giving its users the ability to connect with other working professionals, and helping them advance their careers via social networking (Digital Trends Staff, 2014). Although it hasn’t always been at the top of the social networking food chain, Facebook, originally created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg as a Harvard-only social networking solution, now sits on the throne of the social networking kingdom (Digital Trends, 2014). Very few internet users these days do not have a Facebook account. In May of 2005, YouTube was created by former Paypal co-workers Chad Hurley, Steven Chen, and Jawed Karim as a video-sharing platform whose first video ever posted was of Karim visiting the San Diego Zoo in April of that year (Fitzpatrick, 2010). It is now the source of many peoples’ favorite procrastination techniques and entertainment, and has developed into much more (Fitzpatrick, 2010). “Today more video is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than all three U.S. television networks have created in 60 years,” (Fitzpatrick, 2010). Twitter, created by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone in 2006 was initially created as a way to send text message-style updates via a social network and has now turned into a way for anybody to share just about anything in 140 characters. It has completely altered the way that businesses, celebrities, politicians, and “The Average Joe” connect with their circles (Johnson, 2013). Inspired by its social networking predecessors, Google decided to jump in on the action by creating Google+ in 2007, but decided to focus on being, “a social ‘layer’ of the Google experience,” rather than a full-blown social network (Digital Trends Staff, 2014). The creation of Google Hangouts is likely the most-used feature of Google+, enabling video chat in a way that social media has never seen before. In 2009, Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp founded Pinterest, a bulletin board-style social network for everything on the internet that a user might be interested in. This is a great tool for product-based businesses to gain exposure on the web (Carlson, 2012). Created in 2010, Instagram is likely the most selfie-driven social network in existence but it has its business uses as well. Boutiques, restaurants, and all sorts of other product-based companies can use Instagram to entice their followers to come purchase their latest creation or product.
- “The 21st century is witnessing an explosion of Internet-based messages transmitted through these media. They have become a major factor in influencing various aspects of consumer behavior including awareness, information acquisition, opinions, attitudes, purchase behavior, and post-purchase communication and evaluation,” (Mangold & Faulds, 2009, p. 2). While you may not have the capability to control interactions between your clients, you certainly have the capability to influence them. Positive interaction between your clients via social networking can greatly enhance the amount of business that Northwestern Technologies receives. Social networks are used by people all over the world to connect with each other in many ways. Without social networking you may only be able to reach people within a certain region of a country or best-case-scenario, throughout the nation. But social networking gives you the ability to reach potential clients across the globe. It expands your capabilities to truly access the “worldwide” web. “Consumers are turning away from the traditional sources of advertising: radio, television, magazines, and newspapers. Consumers also consistently demand more control over their media consumption. They require on-demand and immediate access to information at their own convenience,” (Mangold & Faulds, 2009, p. 4)x
- “As of January 2014, 74% of online adults use social networking sites,” (“Social Networking Fact Sheet,” 2014). The greatest bulk of your clients are already using social media. If they are there, why aren’t you? Sales is all about connecting with your target market and giving them a reason to want your product. If you are on social media connecting and interacting with your market for the purpose of increasing sales, there’s no reason why your sales should not increase, as long as you are interacting with them effectively. The more you establish a presence on the web, the more search results your company will be displayed. If a consumer does a search for software companies in your industry and only one result for Northwestern Technologies displays, they are less likely to find your company than if multiple sites have listings for Northwestern Technologies. And just as your website content needs to be relevant in order for the search engine to display your site, your interactions with your clients on social media should be equally as relevant. You have the capability to build positive, lasting, sales-generating, relationships with your clients through social media avenues. Using social media, you can create conversations between your customers that are relevant to your business and use the information that they share with each other to help you understand what your clients are looking for in your products. Not only does this help you develop your relationship with your clients, but it also builds community between the clients themselves (Mangold & Faulds, 2009).
- Your clients will not only use social media to connect with each other but they will also continue to use word-of-mouth, and the combination of these methods could greatly expand your company’s exposure locally, as well as nationally and internationally (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). This exposure, combined with improved search engine results and building relationships online will naturally expand your brand across the globe, helping you to gain new customers and learn more about your existing ones. Social network advertising solutions are immensely more cost-effective than advertising through traditional methods. For example, according to Facebook.com’s Help Center, with Facebook Ads, you create an ad, set a budget that you want to spend on advertising, and your budget is used based on the number of “impressions” or the number of clicks your ads receive. You only pay for these clicks or impressions and nothing more (“Ad Set Cost & Budgeting,” 2014). Not only do you have control over the costs but you can determine who the ad’s audience will be, and see statistics on who is responding to your ad. In my opinion, this is worth much more than traditional advertising methods could ever offer your business.
- The first step to creating an effective social media marketing strategy is knowing the different platforms and how to effectively use them (Kim, 2014). All social network platforms will need a healthly level of interaction-generating content but each one has specific strategies that you’ll need to follow. Using Facebook starts with creating a business page, and is largely focused on generating ads and catering them toward your target audience (Kim, 2014). Google+ is similar to Facebook, but with less advertising, and it’s more about creating circles and targeting your posts to those circles (Kim, 2014). Pinterest is a fantastic way to showcase your products and services and get feedback from your customers (Kim, 2014). Twitter allows you to follow your clients or others in your industry and also gain followers in the process, remembering that the larger your sphere of influence, the greater your sales opportunities are (Kim, 2014). It can also greatly benefit your support staff in reaching your clients and create opportunities for them to brag about your great customer service department to their followers. Additionally, you can share your promotional offers with your Twitter following and direct them to your website for more information (Kim, 2014).
- There are way too many advantages to connecting with your future and existing clients on social media to ignore it and pretend like it’s going way. The social media revolution is here to stay and it’s time for Northwest Technologies to join the revolution! Your target is out there waiting for you to reach them. Take advantage of this opportunity to expand your brand, build relationships with your clients, save money on advertising, and most of all generate sales for your business. You will not regret it!