Notes from the event 'Finding Your Voice Online' by Phil Stephens

1. finding your voice online

2. who am I?
• Phil Stephens
– Managing Director of Fairhill Online
• Bridge between geek and ‘real life’
– IT Professional for more than 10 years
– Background in:
• Web Development
• Project Management
• IT Management
• Systems Analysis

3. who is fairhill online?
• Cardiff Web Company
– Raising Your Profile Online
• Services Include:
– Web Design & Development
– E-Commerce Sites
– Search Engine Optimisation & Pay Per Click
Management
– Web & Email Hosting
– E-Newsletter Templates
– Social Media Marketing Advice/ Consulting

4. what will the cover?
• Why bother with Social Media or Blogging
• Finding Your Voice
• Do I Have To?
• Blogging (options)
• Social Media (options)
• Quick Win
• Tools To Help
• Measuring Success
• Examples
• Bear in Mind
• Questions

5. social media & blogging
why bother?
• Varies for each individual
– Raise the profile of the business
• More brand awareness
• Becoming an expert in a field
– Build Relationships
• Local/similar businesses
• People that are otherwise out of reach
– Keep in touch with customers
• News, Customer Support
– Build links to the site/hits on site
– Promote offers
– ‘Just Because’
• Normally driven by an interest/ Break from ‘the day job’
• Often leads to a business rather than created as one

6. finding your voice?
• The most important thing – it’s all about you!
• The method/social media/blog/tools have to suit you
and your personality
• Questions to think about
– Do you like writing?
– Are you naturally funny?
– Are you controversial?
– Are you permanently on the road?
– Are you or your products visual?
– Are you an ‘industry geek’?
– Have you got anything to say?!
– Best time of day for maximum impact

7. do I have to?
• No!
• It has to be right for you
• To get the most out of it you need
– Strategy
– Plan
– Know your audience
– Take your time
– Manage your time
– Plan ahead
– Target
– Review and Refresh
• Is it Free?
– No
• Time
• Tools (often free)
• Is it Worth it?
– Nearly always ‘Yes’

8. which one for you? blogging
• Wordpress
• Blogger
• Tumblr
• Integrated Blog
• …and lots of others
(it’s about choice)
• Bear In Mind:
– Time consuming
– Tools to help (for instance pre-publishing)
– People to help (copywriters for instance)
– Has ‘Longevity’ if the content is good quality

9. which one for you? social media
• What industry are you in?
• What products do you sell? Are they visual?
• Do you have special offers?
• Do you have a fan base already in place?
• Are you purely business to business?
• Do you have control of your brand?
• Are you prepared to release control?

10. which one for you? social media
• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• Google Plus

11. quick wins
• LinkedIn
– Set up/fill out your profile
– Put a picture to the name!
– Connect to people
– Get testimonials
• Why?
– Low Risk
– Easy to do
– Not time sensitive

12. tools to help you
• Hootsuite
• Phone Apps
• Tweetdeck
• Also lots of ways to integrate
–Between SMM tools

13. how do you measure success?
• Facebook
– Likes/Reach/Talking About/Insights
• Twitter
– Engagements
• Retweets (RTs)/Followers/#FF (follow Fridays)
– Direct Messages (DMs)
• All
– Hits on site (Google Analytics)
– Klout (infleunce)
– Increased Sales
– People getting in touch
• Paid Tools
– Adobe Social
– Web Trends

14. some examples
coca cola
Mentos/ Coca Cola Experiment
2005
• June 3rd 1st Video
• 4,000 hits /1,000 an hour
• June 12th
• Coca Cola spokesperson says ‘Coke should
be drunk and not played with’
• End of June
• Appear on Letterman Show/Seen by 7.5m
• July 9th
• Coke release ‘The Coke Show’ on website
• Second video
• Sponsored by Mentos and Coke/4 million
viewers

15. Did they learn anything?
coca cola
• 2012
• Facebook Relaunch Business Pages
• Coca Cola one of the launch site
• 41m likes! 300k people talking
about
• Your Stories, Video, events ‘apps’
• Release Content Marketing Strategy
• Published to the public
• Focused on ‘Content Marketing’
• YouTube video has had 130,000
hits
• Their own marketing strategy has
itself gone viral!

16. wiggly wrigglers
What they do
• Run a Farm
• Sell Garden and Wildlife
Related Products
• (Online and in Shops)
• Farm Shop
How are they social?
• Just about every way
possible!
• Twitter
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Video on Site
• Blogging

17. wiggly wrigglers
YouTube (104,000 views)
Own ‘Cinema’
Twitter (2 accounts/different messages)
General (Company/Wildlife)
Farmer Phil (Farming)
Facebook Group (3,000 members) Blog (How-To Guide)

18. dreamy delights
• What they do
• Cupcakes
• Café/shop
• Based in Aberdare
• How are they social?
• Facebook
• What do they do well?
• Run Competitions/ Special Offers
• 1,600 followers
• Have recommendations/ fans
• ‘You have to try this shop! amazzzzzing!’
• Encourage posts from customers

19. notes of caution?
• These views are my own
– Are they really?
– Does it reflect on your company anyway?
• Company Policy
– Does your company allow you to tweet/FB?
– If they encourage do they assist?
– If it’s your company do you have a policy?
– Is it reflected in your HR policy?
– Do you offer guidance?
– Do the staff know the strategy?
• Drunk blogging/SMMing
• SMM is not above the law!

20. notes of caution?
• These views are my own
– Are they really?
– Does it reflect on your company anyway?
• Company Policy
– Does your company allow you to tweet/FB?
– If they encourage do they assist?
– If it’s your company do you have a policy?
– Is it reflected in your HR policy?
– Do you offer guidance?
– Do the staff know the strategy?
• Drunk blogging/SMMing
• SMM is not above the law!

21. questions?
01443 887 832
phil@fairhillonline.co.uk
@fairhill_phil
facebook.com/fairhillonline
linkedin.com/company/fairhill-solutions