Social media is growing rapidly and can drive customer engagement if used properly. Some key points: - Social media usage is increasing dramatically, with billions of users on sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. - Younger customers in particular engage heavily on social media and it influences their purchasing decisions. - Companies should create and share engaging content on social media to build communities and get found online by potential customers. - Listening to customers and engaging with them on social media is important to build loyalty and show you care. - Done right, social media can result in increased sales, faster crisis response, and lower customer acquisition costs through organic reach.

1. Does social media drivecustomer engagement? Ilona Hitel Twitter: ilonah

2. A small caveat to start with… Answers? ✖ Insights? ✔ http://brandinfiltration.com

3. Some statistics Forrester Research: social media marketing will grow at a compound rate of 34%, reaching 3.1 billion by 2014 131bn Google searches in December 2009 A business that blogs gets 55% more visitors than a business that doesn’t The average visitor spends 66% more time than they did a year ago 45m monthly LinkedIn visitors, 3.5m UK……..

4. 27 million Tweets…….per day…… 8x last year’s volume 95= The percentage of companies using LinkedIn to find and attract employees 59% use Facebook and 42% use Twitter

5. Not convinced? More than half the population is under 30. They have always known the internet.

6. What are B2B marketers doing?

7. 7 And us users?

8. 8 And b2b buyers?

9. 9 What’s this got to do with leads? 90% or more of people begin their purchasing process in search engines. Blogs and social media make it more likely that your prospects will find you online when they search.

10. 10 So if it’s all about… http://www.slideshare.net/wadds/presentations

11. 11 It’s about getting found online, or = creating remarkable content

12. Rules of good content 1/ entertain or educate… 2/ your products (and services) are boring 3/ it doesn’t have to cost much…

13. 13 Give away content to buildcommunities Recognised by the Forrester 2010 Groundswell awards 35,000 views & downloads, 12,000 visitors to blogs

14. 14 Use Slideshare to extend reach…

15. Have your followers talk about you

16. Rules of engagement Listen – who is your audience?

17. “Social Media is Like a Cocktail Party: Listen Then Respond” Photo Credit: The Dana Files

18. Rules of engagement 2. Engage & participate http://m80im.com and Jon Thomas

19. Be timely and transparent

20. Never sell or spam

21. But you can be opportunistic

22. Get social – join the conversation

23. 3. Analyse and optimise

24. Free tools Engaging Listening

25. Social media in action In 2009 Dell saw sales from Twitter of $6.5m

26. Social media in action Blendtec has seen sales rise 700% over 3 years

27. Social media speeds a crisis if the product is bad

28. But a threat is an opportunity Became de facto source of information during ash cloud Weekend Twitter monitoring won fans when wifi provider Boingo issued swift apology The best brands will win on speed and effort

29. And it’s a great way to show you care 150,000 users helped since 2008

30. 7 reasons to adopt 1/ PR 2/ Service 3/ Loyalty 4/ Collaboration 5/ Networking 6/ Thought leadership 7/ The sum of the above = Customer acquisition?

32. And remember.... We have never had reach like this before http://m80im.com and Jon Thomas

33. Question: Does social media drive customer engagement? Answer? Over to you. Ilona Hitel Twitter: ilonah Credits…

34. Credits http://brandinfiltration.comhttp://m80im.com and Jon Thomashttp://hubspot.comhttp://www.slideshare.net/wadds/presentations