4. Today We’ll Cover …
• Social media review
• Common social media platforms
• What to say
• Social media strategy
• Know your audience
• Time-saving tools
• New tools to drive sales
• Examples
6. No Need for Notes
Slideshare link to preso download
7. It’s Not Just for Little Susie
The ROI of Social Media
8. Benefits of Social Media
• It’s FREE!
• Builds deeper relationships
• Increases brand awareness
• Broadens your network
• Drives sales
• Helps SEO
• Increases website traffic
• Can help reach journalists/media
• Empowers fans to be viral ambassadors for
your brand
Source: Social Media for Tourism Pros
9. Social Media User Statistics
Facebook Twitter Foursquare
# of Total Users > 800 million > 200 million > 7 million
# of New Users 460,000 22,000 (3400%
Daily growth in 2010)
# of Mobile Users 350 million (2x as 38 million
active)
Daily Use 50% use daily 28 million ~ 14,000-18,000
Geography 70% from outside 60% from outside 40% from outside
the U.S. the U.S. the U.S.
Connections Average user has 26 million users
130 friends & likes follow a brand (67%
80 pages will buy)
Sources: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics;
http://www.observer.com/2011/media/foursquare-user-no-6000000-signs;
http://blog.hubspot.com;
http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-facebook-vs-twitter-demographics-2010-2011/
11. What Is Facebook?
• Social networking service that allows users
to connect to friends and businesses
• Share content, links, photos, and videos
• Comment on others’ activity
• Remember: Personal profiles are for people,
not businesses. Develop a fan page instead.
12. Facebook Stats
• Over 800 million active users
• Fastest growing demographic is women 55
years old and up
• Average user is connected to 80
pages, groups, or events
• 50% of active users log onto Facebook daily
• 350 million+ users access Facebook from a
mobile device
– This group is 2x as active as those who don’t
Source: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
14. Facebook Benefits
• Low cost
• Engage with fans of your page
• Fans receive your updates and can upload
comments, photos, and video
• When fans engage you on your page, their
activity shows up in their friends’ streams
– This can prompt others to check out your page
and your organization!
15. Facebook Benefits
• Can incorporate content from other social
media platforms
– Ex: blog posts, updates from Twitter, pictures from
Flickr, videos from YouTube, location-based apps
(FourSquare), etc.
• Targeted advertising opportunities (cheap too!)
16. What Is Twitter?
• Free social networking and micro-blogging
site that allows users to send and read
messages known as “tweets”
• Tweets can have no more than 140
characters & are delivered to the author’s
subscribers, known as “followers”
17. Twitter Stats
• 200+ million users
• 460,000 new users sign up daily
• 50% of active users use their mobile phone to
tweet
• Twitter users are 3x more likely to follow a
brand on Twitter than any other social
networking site
Source: http://blog.hubspot.com
19. Twitter Benefits
• Low cost
• Speed of feedback
• Potential reach of message
• Customer engagement/service
• Track what people are saying about your
organization
• Create buzz around upcoming events
• Promote your organization and other content
you create
21. So What Do I Say?
• Customer FAQs
• Tutorials/demonstrations
• News (sales, new products/services, etc.)
• Events you’re attending
• Your own content
• Content from others
• Attractions and events
• Observations
• What you’re reading or watching
22. Rules of Engagement
• Listen more than you talk
• Remember: It’s about them, not you.
• Provide value far beyond your particular
site or service
Source: Social Media for Tourism Pros
24. Formula for Success
70 20 10
• 70% of content = value-added, audience-
based & not about you at all
• 20% of content = spontaneous interaction
with followers, fans, or friends
• 10% of content = unabashed self-
promotion
Source: Social Media for Tourism Pros
26. First, Some Questions
1. Can you describe your event?
2. What are your goals?
a. Generate sales
b. Brand enthusiasm
c. Loyalty
3. What is your relationship with your
audience?
a. Awareness
b. Interest
c. Action
d. Advocacy
Source: Jay Baer (http://convinceandconvert.com)
27. First, Some Questions
4. How does your audience use social media?
5. Who will be your community managers?
6. What social media platforms will you use?
(Hint: Where is your audience?)
7. How will you be human (what is your
“voice”)?
8. How will you know when/if you’re
successful?
Source: Jay Baer (http://convinceandconvert.com)
30. Do You Need a Social Media Policy?
• Maybe. Just keep these basics in mind:
– Be polite
– Be honest
– Be open
– Be inclusive
– Be forthright
– Be legal
– Be helpful
– Don’t try to control the conversation
– Accept, respond, and be gracious to negative feedback
Source: The Potluck Guide To Social Media Strategy
31. Remember!
Social media
is not
an island.
Photo: lisbokt
58. Bottom Line = Sales
• Marketing – increase the awareness of your
brand
• Traffic – drive traffic to your on and offline point-
of-sales
• Loyalty – increase your customers’ commitment
to your brand, products, and services
• Innovation – use social media to add value to
your existing products or services, create new
offerings, or sell more effectively
Source: Social Signal (www.socialsignal.com)
60. Why SMS Text?
• There are 150 million feature phones in the
U.S.
• It’s the dominant form of mobile-to-mobile
communication
• Send on-site reminders/updates to festival
attendees
• Send coupons for discounted tickets
• Make print and radio ads interactive by asking
audience to text a keyword to receive future
announcements
Sources: Tim Hayden (http://www.44doors.com);
Club Texting
61. Smartphone User Statistics
• 31% of US mobile phone users have a
smartphone
• By 2015, 43% will use smartphones
• 69% of smartphone owners have downloaded
an app
• Smartphone users between 35-44 were most
likely to download an app; followed by the
18-24 age range
Source: eMarketer; http://www.mequoda.com
64. Why Use QR Codes?
• Consumers don’t have to type or text
• Engage consumers on the go, on THEIR terms
• Drive them to mobile commerce sites, and
digital experiences
• Provide quick access to useful (RELEVANT)
information
• Costs nothing to produce a QR Code
Source: Tim Hayden (http://www.44doors.com)
65. DO
• Educate your audience on “why” and “how”
• Develop a custom micro-site that truly captures
your audience “in the moment” to take your
desired action
• Provide an AWESOME experience: immediate
conversion is key
– Incorporate audio and video that can’t be duplicated
on paper
– Ask for email or a Facebook “like” in exchange for a
coupon or exclusive information
Source: Tim Hayden (http://www.44doors.com)
66. DO NOT
• Drive the audience to your standard website
homepage
• Translate web pages 1:1 from desktop to
mobile: brevity rules the moment
• Repeat information that is printed or
published on the same real estate as a QR
Code
• Extend the moment for longer than 90
seconds
Source: Tim Hayden (http://www.44doors.com)
67. QR Code Usage
Source: Tim Hayden (http://www.44doors.com)
I’m Sarah Page and I work for the Lower Colorado River Authority providing tourism and economic development assistance to the communities and organizations in our service area. And what XX didn’t tell you is ….
I’m Sarah Page and I work for the Lower Colorado River Authority providing tourism and economic development assistance to the communities and organizations in our service area. And what XX didn’t tell you is ….
We have a lot of ground to cover today. There will be plenty of time for Q&A at the end, but I’m also happy to field questions during the presentation if you’ve got something that just can’t wait.
Can help reach a different demographic – one that doesn’t respond to traditional advertising (no newspapers – can get news on your phone)SEO = getting found onlineViral = now people will tell friends in a more public way
Why should you be using social media? Well, this is why. Your audience is there.
Handout:Ways to Use Twitter
Handout:Ways to Use Twitter
There are some unwritten rules of the road in social media.Sure you want to promote your event. But you want to do it in a way that’s helpful to your attendees.Provide value >>> that way, you’re not always marketing TO them, you’re being helpful.
How do you do that? If you’re someone who likes formulas, you follow the 70-20-10 Rule. This is a great rule of thumb to use at first. After a while it will become second nature to you.
70% = whatever news or information your followers/customers most want to hear about. It can be links to articles or blog posts, tips, info on national trends, etc. It’s sharing information that benefits them, not you.20% = is the back and forth conversation: answering questions, asking questions, or just chatting about topics of mutual interest. This is the part where you show you’re listening and can respond as a human being, not as “big company”. For a good example of this, look at how well Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) does this on Twitter.10% = After all the great interaction and sharing of information, you deserve to toot your own horn a little bit. Go ahead, you’ve earned it! Plus, you won’t come across as being spammy or entirely self-promotional. Talk about your business, recent accolades, links to articles about you, promote an event or a blog post, etc.
You need to be able to describe the value proposition of your event in one sentence. Like a mission statement, but not too mission statement-y. What’s the one thing that makes you unique? With Zappos’s it’s not the shoes, it’s their customer service.2.a. Generate sales – using social media to create first-time customers and drive repeat business2. b. Brand enthusiasm – turning customers into fans2. c. Loyalty – building long-lasting relationshipsSome of your audience has never heard about you. Others are raving fans. Who are you trying to reach? This matters because your messages to these diverse groups will be very different. a. awareness – they may have heard something about you b. interest – heard about you, visited your website, no purchases c. action – they’ve made a single purchase d. advocacy – fans of the brand, told friends, frequent/repeat purchases
Knowing how your audience behaves within social media is critical. This will help you select the social media channels you use, and the types of promotions you run. Are they creators, joiners, critics, or merely spectators?Who from your organization will be the one “talking” in social media? One person, a team? Figure it out in advance and get buy in from those who will be doing it.Which social media tools/channels (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) are the best ones for your organization AND your audience?People love social media. Why? Because they can develop relationships with a brand. Those brands that sound like real people, anyway. You have to put a “face” on your brand. What’s your voice? Fun, urban, folksy? Whatever you choose to measure, make sure it ties back to your goals and objectives. Before you start, establish some baseline metrics so that you have some things to compare. We’ll talk some more about measurement in just a minute.Sit in a room with your team and some flip charts. Go through each of these questions until you have answers for them. This will become your strategy. Once it’s finessed, share it with your organization, your board, etc.
It’s pretty difficult to connect on a personal level with a business or organization. Unless the person doing their social media sounds like a real person. Have a personality. Pick a “voice” for your social media efforts and stick with it. If your community has certain expressions or slang, use them!
Here’s an example of REALLY using personality! How about a ghost? Humor is always effective if done well.
Social media works best when it is a component of an integrated marketing strategy, inclusive of advertising, public relations, etc. It should be a part of your marketing plans, not an island unto itself.
One of the questions I get asked most frequently is “how much time will all this take?!” The truth is, that it does take some time. But there are some tools out there to help you cut down on the time you spend posting content and monitoring your social media channels.
One of the questions I get asked most frequently is “how much time will all this take?!” The truth is, that it does take some time. But there are some tools out there to help you cut down on the time you spend posting content and monitoring your social media channels.
Twitter Feed is a great little tool that can automate sharing of your blog posts to either Facebook or Twitter, or both. Just create a free account,
Twitter Feed makes it very easy to create an RSS feed. Just name it and copy the feed address into the second blank from your feedburner account.
Then just choose where you want your new blog posts to be published.
You can then get stats on how many times people click on your link from Facebook and from Twitter.
UsingHootSuite to manage your Twitter feeds and Facebook pages makes life a lot easier. HootSuite allows you to schedule tweets and Facebook posts in advance. You can do many of your tweets for the week all at once to free up time for other things while you’re at work. Just type your text in the box and click the calendar button.
In the calendar dialogue window that pops up, select the date and time of day you want the tweet to go out.
Any tweets you’ve scheduled will show up in the “Scheduled” area of the Publisher menu where you can check on its progress and even edit it.
HootSuite is also great for helping you monitor your brand or keywords that are relevant to your event. Here I’m pointing at several keywords I’m tracking. These are for presentations I had coming up to help me find good content to share. I’ve circled the “Searches” tab I set up. There, I track mentions of various LCRA properties, LCRA-related topics and more.
This is another cool (and free) service that allows you to post your content at one time and in one place, and have it sent to multiple social media channels.
Just type in your content and select which channels you want the message sent to.
If you manage Facebook pages, this tool allows you to post your content on Facebook and have it automatically sent to Twitter. Login to Facebook and open a new tab. Then go to facebook.com/twitter. Since you’re logged in, Facebook will know what pages you manage. You’ll see a list like this, and you simply click “Link to Twitter” for the ones you’d like to link. Couldn’t be easier.
This is a relatively new one I just stumbled upon a few months ago. HyperAlerts is a free service that will tell you when you’ve had any fan activity on your Facebook page. This feature now exists in Facebook with the new pages redesign. However, the Facebook alerts come to your email as they happen. With HyperAlerts, you can choose to receive a summary email once per day or other frequency settings.
After you create your account or sign in, you can add new alerts for other pages or edit the types of alerts you’re receiving for the pages you already monitor. I set up alerts on 3 of my pages. You’ll notice that I don’t want alerts for my own content on two of them. That’s because I’m the only one who posts content there – I know when I’ve done that.
They’ll send you an email as often as you choose to let you know what’s been happening on your page when you weren’t looking.
Nutshell Mail is another relatively recent find. This is a free monitoring tool from Constant Contact – the email newsletter people. This also notifies you when there’s been fan activity on your Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as activity from your friends on your personal profile.
You’ll receive an email with all the notifications from the previous time period.
You’ll see all your notifications and show you some recent posts from friends it thinks you might like. The cool thing about NutshellMail is that it allows you to RESPOND directly from the email without having to go to Facebook. Very cool.
URL shorteners come in very handy with Twitter, where you only have 140 characters to get your point across. But you can use them on Facebook too. The cool thing about them is that you can track how many times the link you shared gets clicked, and whether the click-through came from Twitter or Facebook. So this is one way to actually account for your social media efforts.There are several other URL shorteners. HootSuite has its own called owl.ly. There’s bud.url which allows you to assign each tweet or post to a category (like food, arts, history, etc.) so that you know what category performs best. Bud.url is not free, however, and also takes a fair amount of work for each link.
Just type in (or copy in) your long link, and bit.ly automatically generates a shortened link for you. Down below it shows the number of clicks I was responsible for out of the total number of times that link was clicked.
QR stands for “quick response”. A QR Code is a 2 dimensional bar code that can be read with a special app on a smart phone. They are linked to a URL (preferably a mobile site) to get more information on something. There are lots of uses for them in the festivals and events world.
It’s always challenging trying to integrate a downtown into a festival experience. This group may have figured out how. The Geneva Chamber of Commerce worked with downtown businesses and the Swedish Days Festival on a promotion that will help market the downtown merchants to festival attendees. Visitors with smartphones will get immediate access to featured specials and discounts exclusively during the event. When you scan the code, you go to the mobile friendly Swedish Days 2011 Hot Deals page that includes all the specials. Some are offering a % off, others are offering BOGOs.
Creating a QR Code couldn’t be easier. If you Google “QR Code generator”, probably the first 10 or so listings will work just fine. This one – QRStuff.com not only generates the code, it connects you to other sites where you can make things with your code (like t-shirts).
Has anyone heard of either of these two services? Anyone using them? I’m not ashamed to say that I’m addicted to both. If you’re a deal seeker, then this is for you! For businesses, it’s a great way to get rid of excess inventory, introduce a new product, get people in the door, as well as an opportunity to up sell. For people like us, it’s deeply discounted products and services that are emailed to you daily based on your location and preferences.
Here Downtown Nashville shares on Facebook the deal for that day. It happens to be for one of the downtown Nashville businesses.
Okay, hold on to your hats. If your mind hasn’t been blown by now, this section will definitely do it! Has anyone heard of Gowalla or FourSquare? Used them?These are applications you can download onto your smart phone. The apps “know” where you are based on your phone’s GPS. When you open the app, you’ll see a list of business or places nearby. You can “check in” to that place via the app.Why would you do this? For the geekiest of the geeks, it’s the game. You can earn virtual pins and badges that laud your check-in prowess. For regular geeks, it’s probably the real (not virtual) perks. On Foursquare, businesses have the ability to reward people for checking in multiple times. Think of it as a virtual “frequent flyer” program. On Gowalla, you can create virtual themed trips for your destination. Each trip has its own URL so you can link to them and promote them on your other social media channels.
Here’s an example of what a check-in looks like on Foursquare, and how you’ll know if there’s a special being offered.
And another example of an “old school” way to promote a “new school” tool. This is just a chalkboard outside a coffee house that lets people know they offer Foursquare deals.
Gowalla and Foursquare also allow you to let your friends know where you are. You can do that through the application itself (on your smart phone), or you can tweet it or share it on Facebook.
Okay, hold on to your hats. If your mind hasn’t been blown by now, this section will definitely do it! Has anyone heard of Gowalla or FourSquare? Used them?These are applications you can download onto your smart phone. The apps “know” where you are based on your phone’s GPS. When you open the app, you’ll see a list of business or places nearby. You can “check in” to that place via the app.Why would you do this? For the geekiest of the geeks, it’s the game. You can earn virtual pins and badges that laud your check-in prowess. For regular geeks, it’s probably the real (not virtual) perks. On Foursquare, businesses have the ability to reward people for checking in multiple times. Think of it as a virtual “frequent flyer” program. On Gowalla, you can create virtual themed trips for your destination. Each trip has its own URL so you can link to them and promote them on your other social media channels.
