WordPress Websites for Engineers: Elevate Your Brand
TACPA_DigitalSpaceConsulting
1. Texas Association of Certified Public Accountants
Digital Space Consulting
Houston, Texas
August 2012
2. The “How To” Social Media Overview
Tips | Tricks | Platforms | Tactics
Digital Space Consulting
Houston, Texas
August 2012
“Nobody ever got a client sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring.” - Me
3. The lines aren’t airplanes - they represent the real time,
constant flow of data across the world
4. B2B – Social Media 201.5
Creating Your Digital
Footprint…
Digital Space Consulting
Create. Connect. Engage.
5. Wait…About Me
• Integrated marketing firm with over 10 years of
direct advertising agency experience
• Extensive expertise in core marketing – including:
– Local search marketing
– Pay Per Click (Google AdWords)
– Search Engine Optimization
– Insights and Web Analytics (Google Analytics)
– Marketing Strategy
– Brand Positioning
– Targeting/Segmentation
• Plus – I’m a dad, husband, and sports junkie
• I sat in your spot and used tools like these to build my business….
• And, If I wasn’t doing this - I’d love to be a PGA tour player, or storm chaser
6. Agenda
• A little background
• What’s this social media thing and why should I care – I’m not 22
• What tools, platforms, and services should I care about
• What is my short and long term strategy
• How do I create the “social media me” and build my brand authority
• What are the five things I can do today to impact my digital footprint,
engage with my customers, and manage my time
• But first – Two little videos to help set the mood…..
• Social media revolution
• Man in the chair
7. Nice video – but seriously, is it really like that?
• 695,000 Facebook status updates
• 1,500 blog posts
• 13,000 iPhone apps downloaded
• 100+ new LinkedIn accounts
• 694,455 Google searches
• 98,000 Tweets
8. The New Reality….
I was suppose to write something witty
here…
But the reality is this
If companies don’t know you’re out there,
you never get the OPPORTUNITY to be
considered
The Customer Is In CONTROL
Your company, product, service,
brand, reputation, etc. is now a search result…
9. The “How To” Social Media for
Business
Hello World……
11. 3 easy ways you can leverage social media
• Market intelligence
• Understand your customer and competitor
• Track keyword mentions for your
products/services
• Identify opportunities
• Listen for keywords
• Find influencers
• Find prospects who are trying to find you
• Build thought leadership
• Become an expert in your niche
• Grow your tribe / create authority
LinkedIn is a great place to learn what businesses are talking about; Twitter
is a great place to learn what businesses are bitching about. – Paul Gilllin
12. Market intelligence
• Overview
• The biggest opportunity – develop a holistic picture of your competitive environment
• Best practice – set up a social media dashboard
• The information you get back is only as good as the keywords you search
• What you can track
• Blogs
• Twitter mentions (keyword, or #hashtag)
• Regulatory filings
• Facebook, LinkedIn, and vertical social networks (Yelp, Trip Advisor)
• Discussion forums (LinkedIn Q&A, Quora, Meetup)
Tactic Platform(s)
Track keyword mentions for your products/services Google Alerts / Twitter
Track keyword mentions for your competitors Google Alerts / Twitter
Listen when customers/prospects talk about your product/service Twitter / Socialmention.com
Listen for opportunities to help solve a problem Twitter / LinkedIn
(Q&A/Groups)
13. Identify opportunity
• Overview
• Scope out opportunities for expanding existing business, or finding new markets
• Listen to what your customers, vendors, and partners are talking about
• A couple of ideas to help get you started:
Tactic Platform(s)
Track hashtags for conferences, topics, brands, etc. Twitter (Hootsuite monitoring )
Track keywords/phrases across the web for specific mentions Twitter (Hootsuite monitoring)
SocialMention.com / LinkedIn
Google Alerts
Follow people/companies on Twitter based on their profile TweetAdder.com (Paid tool)
description, location, or what they tweet about Listorious.com (Lists hundreds of
CEO/COO/CFO’s on Twitter)
Track mentions for, “does anyone know?” or “can anyone Twitter (Hootsuite monitoring)
recommend?”
14. Build thought leadership through blogging
Overview
• Create visibility and credibility as an authority If companies don’t
know you’re out
• Choose a topic in which you have an interest / issues that interest
there, you never get
others
the opportunity to be
• Don’t be frustrated by the number of blogs already present considered….
• Quickly gain ground by simply maintaining an active positing schedule
• Your goal is to educate and inform
Tactic Platform(s)
Create alerts when content about your topic is pushed to the web Google Alerts
Create content filters that automatically sends you top content based on Google Reader
your niche, industry, topic
Learn which content your network values/shares Alltop / Digg / Google Insights / Twitter /
SocialMention.com
Have content written for you based on your keyword(s), niche Textbroker.com / ReliableWriters.com
Create platform to push content directly to your social network Wordpress / Posterous / Ping.fm
Source content from authoritative sites and send directly to your network TwitterFeed.com
automatically (RSS feeds)
16. A few other ideas….
MongooseMetrics.com
• Find out which advertising platforms are driving the most revenue with
call tracking
Surveymonkey.com
• Let your customers tell you how your doing, what they want, or what
they think with a simple survey
Tungle.me
• Let clients/prospects quickly set-up meetings with you based on open
times from your calendar
Dropbox.com
• Store on the cloud and make your data accessible from your
desktop, laptop, tablet, or smart phone (individual, team, enterprise
options available)
Crazyegg.com
• Track user intent and behavior of your website
17. So How Do I Build My Brand……
All you need…
is a PLATFORM
18. What do I need to do first? Create profiles –
engage
• Become a student of each platform
• Engage and start conversations – offer help and answer
questions
• Make sure that your profile is updated
• Share useful content such as articles, etc. that your target
market would value
• Write your profiles for who you are, what you’re about, and
how you help
• Include keywords that are relevant to your type of business
• Optimize your profiles to let customers, partners, vendors, and
maybe some ex’s find you
Go ahead, ask the question - What’s the ROI of social media???
21. Bottom Line:
Make a Home – Claim Your Social Space – Start Engaging
Be findable – What happens when someone Google’s your name?
Offer help and answer questions
Share useful content (Articles, Blogs)
Become a student of each platform
22. Start Writing – Drive Google
• Demonstrate expertise and commitment to your industry, profession, and
community
• Develop your personal voice
• Searchable forever within Google
• Multiple touch points: RSS, email, on your website
• Content is king!!!!
• Top places to contribute
• LinkedIn Questions & Answers
• LinkedIn Groups
• Yahoo Answers
• Comment on blogs:
• Directories: alltop.com, Technoarti.com
• Facebook postings
23. Start Listening – Drive Engagement
People are using the Internet to talk about your brand and your products – are
you listening? Listening is easier then you think, and you don’t have to buy an
expensive monitoring tool to do it, either.
LinkedIn Signal – one of the most powerful sources to find shareable
content. what people are saying about you on Twitter? Facebook? Blogs? Forums? No problem.
Want to know
24. Have A Game Plan
• Create profiles (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
• Establish a simple one page website (About.me)
• Post your philosophy, passion, experience
• Create a blog (WordPress, Blogger, Posterous)
• Tip: Make sure they’re all in your name, or contain your name
• Questions you should always be asking yourself
• Who are you writing for?
• What is the purpose?
• What is the call to action?
• What are you measuring?
The key is to make yourself visible on the Internet –
through your website, by blogging, and via value based
use of social media.
Platform Tools Description Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
LinkedIn LinkedIn.com Anwers, company follow,
Twitter Search Search.twitter, wefollow, twellow.com, KW search
twitterfall.com. listorious.com
Twitter Posting HootSuite Idea, questions, articles,
Facebook Posting HootSuite Build community
25. That was a lot….Can we organize the chaos ?
• What you will be able to do
• Schedule tweets/Facebook/LinkedIn posts automatically
• Manage multiple social profiles
• http://hootsuite.com/help
27. 2 Find Out What People Are Searching For
- Find your top 3-5 terms
- People search (LinkedIn)
- Google Insights
1 Create Profiles
- About.me Optimize profiles
- LinkedIn 3
- Add keywords to headlines, titles,
- Facebook descriptions, summary, skills, links to
- Twitter websites, bios, etc.
4 Find Stuff To Say / Organize Content
- Google Alerts
- Google Reader
- LinkedIn News/Signal
- Twitter List/ Listorious
- SocialMention.com
5 Say Something
- Hootsuite
- LinkedIn
- Twitter
Measure
- Facebook 6 - # Followers
- # Connections
- # LinkedIn Views
- # LinkedIn Searches
28. Site A
Google
Site B Reader
Site C
Connections
Search Query
Google LinkedIn
Alerts Groups
Search Query
Business Intelligence
Signal Dashboard Followers
(HootSuite)
News LinkedIn Twitter
Hashtags
Groups
Connections
News
Social
Mention Facebook Fan Pages
Events
Blog/Comment Groups
Listorious
Hashtags Twitter
Twitter Lists
Created by Digital Space Consulting
29. Social Media Must Be A Part of Your Marketing
Strategy
• Gain visibility
• Unlimited access to professionals , organizations,
prospects, and customers in your target market
• Provide transparency
• Being open and honest allows you to connect with
others on common ground
• Helps you “give to get”
• Ask for help only after offering help to others the
majority of time
• Allow “nobodies” to become somebodies
• Create and cultivate your personal brand
30. My Warning
• It’s your brand - Own it
• Once you engage – you have to stay engaged
• Build community and fans will expect you to be
available
• Expect raving fans who will want to get involved
• You don’t have to do everything – do something
• Perfection is the enemy of good
31. My Resources
Top Tools Professional Content/Design Automation Tools
• Hootsuite.com • oDesk.com • Hootsuite.com
• Tungle.me • eLance.com • SocialMention.com
• SurveyMonkey.com • 99designs.com • Ping.fm
• Dropbox.com • CrowdSpring.com • Google Alerts
• Google Alerts • Textbroker.com • Google Reader
• Google Reader • ReliableWriters.com • SocialMention.com
Blogging Google Tools Who I Read
• Posterous.com • Google Reader • Chris Brogan
• Wordpress.org • Google AdWords • Rand Fishkin
• Google Analytics • Jason Falls
Email Services • Google Insights • Aaron Strout
• MailChimp.com • Google Trends • Brian Clark
• Brian Solis
Twitter Tools
• Search.Twitter.com Market Intelligence Top Resources
• TweetAdder.com • Alltop.com • Socialmediaexplorer.com
• Twitterfeed.com • Digg.com • Mashable.com
• Listorius.com • Google Alerts/Reader • Copyblogger.com
• WP101.com
32. Questions – Let’s Connect
Digitalspaceconsulting.com
James@digitalspaceconsulting.com
Facebook.com/DigitalSpace
Twitter.com/eDigitalSpace
214.263.8522
Slideshare.net/Jloomstein
James Loomstein, MBA