This document provides an overview of social media and its benefits for businesses. It discusses major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. It explains how businesses can use these tools to find and engage customers, build their brand, promote expertise and measure the ROI of their social media efforts. The document also addresses common concerns about using social media and provides tips on creating an effective social media strategy and daily/weekly content plans.

1. Social Media Primer For Business

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3. The Social Media Revolution Video by Erik Qualman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D08URtovG5s

4. A social structure made of individuals or organizations which are connected by friendship, kinship, business, beliefs, interests, knowledge or prestige. What is a social network?

5. A forum where people share information and make connections with fellow users. Users can share photos, videos and links to interesting websites with all of their “ friends ”, “connections” or “followers”. What is a social network?

6. What can social media do for your business? Social media can: Help you find customers Help prospective customers find you Build your reputation to a local audience Build the brand regionally and nationally Distinguish your products and services from competitors Provide you with a forum to dispel negative/false information

7. How can you take advantage of social media? Connect with your customers Promote expertise Build a following by blogging Gain a presence in social communities Make connections with local business owners

8. Social Media Tools Industry and corporate blogs Social communities such as Facebook Business oriented networking such as LinkedIn Microblogging using Twitter vLogging using tools such as YouTube Forums such as Yahoo Answers

9. Facebook is a social community of 350 million active users, where you can Share common interests with people you know around the world Connect with people through school, work, where you live, interests and hobbies Facebook.com

10. Discussion Forums Forums are a place where people post questions and others post answers. Examples of pet forums: http://www.toppetsites.com/ http://www.dogforums.com/ http://www.bestforpet.com/ http://messages.yahoo.com/

11. Blogs Definition: A web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual or individuals. The heart of your social media marketing strategy – where you share your expertise and successes

12. What’s the value of LinkedIn? Extending relationships Staying connected to colleagues Finding a job or clients Finding experts Expanding your network using your connections Growing your reputation using thought leadership

13. What is the value of Twitter? Listen and learn from customers Connect and interact with customers Promote expertise Build a following Distinguish their offerings and value

14. What’s the value of YouTube? 3 A highly effective and user-friendly business tool Show off expertise, share knowledge, market business, connect with prospects and customers Promote your business with videos— embed videos in blogs and websites, keep people on your site Create cost-effective, short videos to show your listings Answer frequently-asked questions Put a face to your brand

15. Social Media Impacts: human resources –make hiring and firing decisions legal- monitor employee and competitor behavior customer service/retention- listen and serve customers help desk- provide product support research and development- gain valuable customer feedback partner and channel relations- provide sales support marketing – brand recognition and lead generation

16. The Golden Rules (of Social Media) Community is a privilege, not property – you cannot control the community or stop the conversation. But you can learn from it. Be helpful – social media is not a place for direct selling, it is a place to offer value Be human – communicate like one Be passionate – write content that matters to you, make it interesting, and you will gain a following

17. Know your audience by listening Find out What people value about your services and your competitor services what motivates a customer to buy what are your customers top considerations Tools: Twitter Facebook Google Alerts LinkedIn (B2B)

18. Social Media Strategy Monitoring - Listen and learn Identify your niche- what opportunities are there for your business? Content strategy – Develop a social media strategy to take advantage of these opportunities Monitor and refine -- what’s working?

19. Social Media Tactics You social media tactics may include customer and competitor monitoring Positioning yourself uniquely among the competition employee guidelines, education & training content creation – blogging or commenting targeted lead generation customer service and support product development internal community development & support

20. Efficient Content Distribution Expert opinions & advice Audio & video interviews Announcements & case studies FAQs and Answers Industry blogs Online versions of print pubs Industry community sites Substantive Content Channels Corporate Blog Company Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn pages Employees and Stakeholders Facebook & LinkedIn profiles Automatic Feeds

21. ROI of Social Media ROI depends on what you are trying to achieve. Results can be measured in visitor traffic, conversions, community participation levels . Programs need built in measurable triggers Some things, like brand awareness, are not measurable Test and refine programs to deliver measurable results

22. Common Questions and Concerns Why is social media important? This is overwhelming. Won’t this take all of my time? How can I control what people say about me and my business I am afraid to share my personal information

23. Commenting on Wall Street Journal articles drives traffic to blog Blogging about industry books draws comments from authors, other experts in the industry Status posts on LinkedIn draw interest from prospects and competitors Tweets on media trends build thought leadership and create brand awareness

24. Your social media plan Once you decide what you need to do, create a daily checklist of activities- 15 minutes/day Check in with your networks, communicate A weekly checklist – 1-2 hours Read industry information, share with customers

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26. Next Up in Room 103 11-12: The Power of Facebook for your Business 12-1: Open 1-2: Twitter for Business 2-3: YouTube for Your Business 3-4: OPEN: Help Desk 4-5: Linkedin for your Business