Social Media in Today’s Business World The document summarizes a presentation about the importance of social media for businesses. It discusses three essential online marketing initiatives: 1) having a mobile optimized website and harnessing mobile power, 2) using Facebook and preparing for Graph search, and 3) managing local business listings. It emphasizes that social media has become a game changer and that personal recommendations now influence much of the economy. Business must have a presence on the major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to engage customers and build their brands.

1. Social Media in Today’s Business World
West Nashville Chamber Coffee
May 15, 2013

2. About Us
Nashville-based JTMarCom was founded in 2009 by John and
Christine Taylor.
John
Began career as a reporter for Nashville Banner
10 years in corporate PR with Bridgestone
10 years with two ad agencies in the Carolinas
Christine
Began career as nuclear plant emergency planner for TEMA
Owned a promotional merchandise firm
Our Services
Social Media Marketing Clients include: China’s largest
Content Marketing tire co., international farm tire
Online Reputation Management co., Hennessy Industries

3. Social Media Trivia
What is the second largest search engine in the world?
1. Bing
2. Facebook
3. YouTube
4. Google

4. Social Media Trivia
What is the fastest growing age group using
Facebook?
1. 18 – 24
2. 55-65
3. 90-100
4. 25-35

6. Today’s Agenda
• Social Media and its impact on today’s business
world
• 3 essential online marketing initiatives
• Q&A

7. A Total Game Changer
“Technology is shifting power away from the editors,
publishers, the establishment. Now it is people who are
taking control.”
- media baron Rupert Murdoch
14% of people trust ads
78% trust consumer recommendations
2/3rd
of the U.S. economy is now influenced by
personal recommendations

8. Importance of Online Ratings
Each ratings star on a Yelp review translates to a 5 to 9%
effect on revenues.
- Harvard Business School
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6836.html
“A simple half-star improvement on Yelp’s 5-star rating makes
it 30-49% more likely that a restaurant will sell out its evening
seats.”
- Research by Berkeley University economists
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/02/berkeley-study-half-star-chang

9. Largest Social Media Platforms
1.1 billion users worldwide
222 million in North America.
They spend an average 20m46s per day on the
site.
50 percent of smart phones are connecting to Facebook
every hour every day.
20% of Facebook users have purchased something
because of ads or comments they saw there.
More than 500 million users worldwide (142
million in U.S.) 15% of online adults use Twitter.
79% of U.S. Twitter users are more likely to
recommend brands they follow.
75 million users worldwide.

10. Largest Social Media Platforms
More than 400 million users (100 million “active” users)
after launch a year ago.
Important because Google gives it SEO preference.
Like an online scrapbook that you share.
Now the third most popular social network in the U.S.,
behind Twitter and Facebook.
60% female (primarily 35-54 years old).
More than 50 million users over past 2 years (global).
300 million pictures uploaded to Facebook a day
800 million unique visitors each month.

12. 3 Online Marketing Steps
that Every Business Must Take

13. #1 – Harness the Power of Mobile
More people on planet Earth own a mobile phone (5.1 billion)
than own a toothbrush (4.2 billion). Gross but true.
70% of all mobile searches result in action within 1 hour.
95% of smartphone users looked up local information,
and of those, 61% called and 59% visited the business.
Mobile coupons get 10 times the redemption rate of
traditional coupons.

14. #1 – Harness the Power of Mobile
with a Mobile Optimized Website
• Nearly 60% of web users say they expect a website to load
on their mobile phone in 3 seconds or less.
• 57% of global mobile web users had a problem accessing a
website in the past year.
• Mobile users do not have much patience for retrying a
website — one third will go to a competitor’s site instead.
• Nearly half of mobile web users are unlikely to return to a
website that they had trouble accessing from their phone.

15. For demonstration purposes only; this is not a real site.

16. #1 – Harness the Power of Mobile
We are talking about two different sites – one for mobile
searches and your traditional website for the larger desktop
and laptop screens.
The Googlebot-Mobile crawler recognizes searches from mobile
phones and directs users to mobile-optimized sites.
Make sure your mobile site links to your traditional site.

17. #2 – Get Busy with Facebook
Facebook Graph Search is a Game Changer!
With Graph Search, a person can check his or her Facebook
friends’ views on brands. Let’s say you are a consumer
considering buying tires from ACME Tire. You can find out if
any of your friends “like” ACME Tire and get their opinions.
Traditional search engines return relevant content from the
entire web; Facebook’s Graph Search returns highly
personalized content from the searcher’s own personal
network (social graph).

18. #2 – Get Busy with Facebook
Graph Search is not here yet. What do you need to do to
prepare?
First, if you are a multi-store business, manage your
corporate page but also build out pages for each store
location. Make sure the store information is complete and
correct, and links to your corporate page.
Secondly, build your fan base! The more fans you have, the
more potential references you will have in Graph Search.
Also, engage with your fans; the more interactions a page
receives the more likely it will appear in Graph Search results.

19. Growing Your Fans
Facebook Advertising
Define your target. How about off-roading enthusiasts in
your local market? There’s 700 of them in Palm Springs.
Set a daily budget for cost-per-click or cost-per-thousand
impressions – Say $25 per day.
Measure the results:
* store traffic
* coupon redemptions
* new fans

20. Facebook Best Practices
People are on Facebook to have fun, to connect with others
who have similar interests, and to get deals or win stuff.
– Don’t make every post about selling products.
– Make your company a trusted resource.
– Ask smart questions and you will get great insights.
Use Facebook widgets to increase engagement and build
fans through contests, coupons, contact forms, polls,
customer service.
Use your existing email database to invite them to
become fans.

21. #3 – Manage Your Local Business Listings
Changes in search algorithms have made it easier than ever
for small businesses to harness the power of local search.
73% of all online activity is related to
local content (Google).
Find relevant niche directory sites and
make sure you have a profile updated
with the most recent information.

22. #3 – Manage Your Local Business Listings
• Get a lot of reviews. The amount of reviews does affect ranking. But
the quality of the reviews does not affect ranking—yet.
• Get Google reviews. Third-party reviews, like Yelp, don’t affect rank as
much as Google reviews do.
• Use images. Upload your business pictures and tag them with keyword-
relevant descriptions (for example, “Picture of our Palm Springs
location”).
• Leverage Google+. Set up a Google+ page. There is no clear evidence that
merely having it set up helps rank, but there are indications that the
following actions do help:
– When people click on your “Driving Directions”
– When people view your Google+ profile
– When people share your Google+ page

24. What About LinkedIn & Twitter?
Very important! We just don’t have time today to discuss.
LinkedIn, for instance, has become much more valuable for
companies.
Now businesses can update their individual company pages
to enable their followers to receive updates and
insights about job opportunities, company news, employee
moves and more.
You can integrate rich media content such as images,
hyperlinked banners, links to your website and blog and
videos from YouTube into your company profile.

25. A Final Thought
This is too important to hand over to your nephew,
your cousin, or your kid right out of college.

26. Questions
For further information, contact John Taylor
at 615-477-3099 or john@jtmar.com