This document discusses the importance of social media for businesses and provides strategies for engaging with customers and potential clients online. It defines social media and lists popular platforms like blogs, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The document advocates using social media for branding, marketing, recruiting, and business development. It provides tips on developing a social media plan and strategy, including deciding which platforms to use, who will engage online, and how to provide value to communities. Statistics on major social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are also included.

1. Social Media Matters! An Introduction to Online Relationship Building Prepared by: Consultant, Robin M. Eads 813.420.7645 [email_address]

2. What is Social Media? As defined by Wikipedia : “ ..media designed to be disseminated through social interaction , created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM). Social media utilization is believed to be a driving factor in the idea that the current period in time will be defined as the Attention Age .”

3. Social Media Platforms Include: Blogs Micro-blogging (Twitter) Social networking (LinkedIn) Social network aggregation (FriendFeed) Events scheduling & promotion (Meetup.com) Picture & Video Sharing (Flickr, YouTube)

4. Why is Social Media Important to Your Business? Branding & Accessibility Marketing & Advertising Recruiting & Business Development Social media provides a cost effective vehicle by which your company can engage and communicate with potential clients and consultants. By establishing the company “brand” via social media, you perpetuate brand trust and accessibility. The best advertising for any company is word of mouth. Social media is viral in nature; it fosters rapid & explosive marketing results. Recruiting through social media fosters relationship-building, which is essential for pipeline development, diversity and consulting initiatives. For most businesses, a lack of social media presence & integration is nearly the same as not having a website.

5. Recruiting & Social Media Recruiting is one of the fastest growing industries within social media. Many companies are now investing in relationship building as a means to pipeline development and identification of better talent. OFCCP compliance has been an issue raised but many are finding ways to incorporate social media while remaining compliant. Active and passive candidates have shown strong preference toward the use of social media & networking as a way to learn about true opportunities through people that they trust. Many are tired of the “black hole” effect of traditional job boards. Here are just a few of the resources available online for recruiting that incorporate social media: http://jobshouts.com http://www.youtube.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/ http://www.facebook.com/ http://www.myspace.com/ http://www.twitter.com/ http://www.indeed.com/ http://www.simplyhired.com/ http://www.jobvite.com/ http://www.blogtalkradio.com http://www.unisfair.com/ http://www.ejobfairs.net/ http://www.enticelabs.com/ http://adwords.google.com/ http://www.ning.com/ http://www.optijob.com/ http://www.jobs2web.com/ http://www.typepad.com/ http://wordpress.org/ http://www.blogger.com http://www.flickr.com/ http://www.slide.com/ http://www.slideshare.net/ http://animoto.com/

6. Business Development & Social Media Just like recruiting, business development is more social these days than ever before. Most of us want to do business with people we like. The internet allows the creation of relationships across the country & around the world. Compare it to a large networking event where you engage in conversation with other like minded professionals & exchange business cards. Only in this case, the conversation is ongoing; you have an opportunity to really get to know the people you are doing business with. Identification of opportunities are often found through simple engagement of others. There is no need to broadcast your advertising or sales message; by offering support, helpful advice & brand representation, people are going to notice you. They will want to know more. It’s very passive and it works.

7. An Example of Social Media Success Dell has over 650,000 followers on Twitter. Although they are only following 23, they are known as a value provider: Coupons: Dell distributes valuable discount coupons through Twitter Customer Service: Dell answers questions and solves problems by engaging with their audience Crowdsourcing: like their efforts at Ideastorm , they crowdsource their Twitter network for ideas on products, services, processes, and anything related to making their consumers satisfied Network: Dell brilliantly and seamlessly integrate their Twitter network of followers with their Facebook fans for their Facebook company page. They convert many Twitter followers to Facebook fans and vice-versa Source: http://innerarchitect.com

8. How Do You Want to Engage? What platforms will you use? It is important to decide what social media vehicles are most beneficial to your online presence. Twitter, FaceBook Fan Pages, LinkedIn Groups, Blogging and online collaboration sites like Wikipedia are a great place to start. Will you allow multiple employees to engage as company representatives? If so, what policies need to be implemented to make this happen? Establish guidelines up front and make these guidelines clear to employees. For brand protection, enforcement of these guidelines/policies is crucial. Who will be in charge of monitoring and enforcement? What contributions as a company do you want to make? The fastest way to establish trust and brand recognition is to provide “community” support through your social networks. Will you provide this support primarily through blogging, tweeting, group discussion? Are you prepared to invest the time? As with any new business venture, there is a time investment that must be made in order for social media to provide ROI. You can expect that implementation and fluency of your campaign will take at least 6 months, with a continued investment of 40 hours per week (recommended minimum).

9. Planning for Success A successful social media campaign requires: Investigation Planning Implementation Follow through It is highly recommended that you follow this methodology, one platform at a time, with the help of a social media professional . Don’t try to be everywhere all at once! Engaging your network is the single most important task in utilizing social media and if you fail at this task your campaign will follow suit. For example: What good is a Facebook Fan Page if you haven’t posted any content in days/weeks? People will become disinterested and stop engaging. Like a sinking ship, this is hard to correct once it has begun.

10. Social Media Statistics Twitter.com is a top 50 site that reaches over 27 million U.S. monthly people! Source: http://www.quantcast.com/twitter.com

11. Social Media Statistics Twitter’s user base is a diverse mix of professionals: Source: http://www.quantcast.com/twitter.com

12. Social Media Statistics Facebook: Facebook currently has more than than 300 million active users 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older Average user has 130 friends on the site More than 2 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week More than 3 million events created each month More than 45 million active user groups exist on the site There are more than 65 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. Source: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

13. Social Media Statistics Facebook offers more than just the ability to engage through groups and fan pages. Consider the possibility of developing an interactive application to engage users and collect valuable user data. Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with Platform applications More than 350,000 active applications currently on Facebook Platform More than 250 applications have more than one million monthly active users More than 15,000 websites, devices and applications have implemented Facebook Connect since its general availability in December 2008 Source: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

14. Why Should You Be Blogging? Blogging offers 2 significant benefits: Develops brand trust, by way of educating, enlightening or entertaining your target audience. Assists in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of your site.

15. Return on Investment 2 main elements in social media engagement control branding and ROI: The ability to gain trust. The ability of your blog (or website) to call visitors to action. You must listen to your target audience to determine their needs before engaging them.

16. How Do I Get Started? Contact Robin M. Eads @ 813.420.7645 or [email_address] Who Am I? I’m an industry expert with more than 15 years of Recruiting, Management & Business Development experience. Throughout my professional career, I have utilized the Internet for lead generation, recruiting and networking. Long before social media was mainstream, I was proficient in the use of Newsgroups and search engines. With this knowledge and experience I’ll help your company: Investigate your business needs and determine your target audience. Develop a comprehensive social media plan. Implement the and assist you through the first 6 months of your campaign. Assist with any documentation including OFCCP compliance, research, training, blogging, tweeting. Rate: $50/hr 6 month/40 hr per week commitment (estimated for successful campaign execution)