Overview of social marketing by Traction Group LLC Owner & Chief Strategist, Sally Witzky. First presented at River City Express Network, Willow Oaks Country Club, Richmond VA. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn covered.

1. Finally. Practical advice on building your brand on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebookand why you should. Sally Witzky All slides © 2009 Traction Group LLC. All rights reserved.

2. First…relax. Really. For copy of presentation, go to slideshare.net In search box, search for “Traction Group” My presentations will show up Give me a day or two to load this particular one, ok?

3. Why you should embrace social marketing. Social marketing doesn’t make sense for all, but most Applications for both personal and business brands For business owner – large or small, employee and job seeker Even more critical for job seeker Persuasion starts with awareness but word-of-mouth referral is best ad

4. Random stats… 54% of Fortune 100 companies are choosing Twitter as social network platform of choice Of top global brands, media and technology companies ENGAGE in social media much more than lagging financial services segment

5. Engagement = financial performance Source: The World’s Most Valuable Brands: Who’s most engaged? Wetpaint & Altimeter. http://engagementdb.com July 2009 Revenue Growth (last 12 mos.) Gross Margin Growth (last 12 mos.) Net Margin Growth (last 12 mos.) Mavens Mavens Mavens Butterflies Butterflies Selectives Selectives Butterflies Selectives Wallflowers Wallflowers Wallflowers

6. Why RU here? Why did you come today? To learn? To network? To converse? To socialize? Other?

7. Social networking… Works the same way Provides opportunity to learn, network, converse, socialize online In essence, build relationships and stay in touch when you can’t be there in person all the time (leverage) But has deeper applications

8. Twitter(growing the fastest of all sn’s) What’s this thing called

9. Twitter basics. Micro-blog @ 140 characters A real-time, short messaging service Works over multiple networks / devices Around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from businesses and friends

10. Very similar to… LinkedIn: “What are you working on now?” Facebook: “What’s on your mind?” Only that’s all it is…nothing more.

11. Organic Blueprints page.

12. Tweets as traffic drivers. Measure tweets w/links Shorten the link; use ow.ly of Hootsuite Test! Copy approach Times of day Measure tweet click-throughs and website traffic sources w/analytics

13. Sweet tweets.

14. Tweet stats.

15. Twitter 101 terms. Handle, i.e. @sallywitzky Tweet (140-character message) Retweet (tweeting others’ message) @reply (reply, not private) Direct Message or DM (private) Bio (important – target audience) URL (to send ppl for more info) Hashtag (#RVA, #SMCRVA)

16. Twitter 101 managers. Tweetdeck (most popular) Hootsuite (multi-accounts, tracking) CoTweet (esp. for larger companies) Seesmic Desktop (fun) PeopleBrowsr (more advanced) Twitterberry (Blackberry) Tweetie & TwitterFon (iPhone) Digsby (IM, eMail + social networks)

17. What do I tweet? Not your meals or where you are unless tres cool What relevant content is on your blog or on your website? Challenge yourself to engagewith others vs. always talk about you Find a style that works for you

18. What’s the use? Many reasons to tweet… To learn, fast To converse, quickly (kind of like working a room only at warp speed) To help others by promoting them To build awareness, consideration To drive traffic to blog, site, articles To show appreciation; thank publically To ENGAGE with target audience To provide customer service

19. Twitter access… From your computer or phone Best to utilize a Tweet manager vs. Twitter.com Automate small % of your updates w/ SocialOomph & Ping.fm Update Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn status all at same time

20. I even tweet to blog… 

21. Art of ENGAGEMENT. There is both an art and science to conversation: Listening (requires patience) Learning (keeps ‘ole ego in check) Sharing (what value do I bring?) Promoting (how can I help others) Twitter only one small puzzle piece

23. Twitter is where to get… Your news, local and global To know ppl better in shorter time To connect B4 U know people Creates deeper conversations when you both meet; no intros needed Strange at first; much appreciated tho Creates ability to know and connect with people you wouldn’t otherwise

24. Twitter is voracious… For learning… I learn more from Twitter from more people than I could meet in a lifetime For connecting with lots of ppl fast Social interaction For ENGAGING w/ a fewppl fast And often deeper

25. Tweeting barefoot… Carrie Wilkerson @barefoot_exec or http://twitter.com/barefoot_exec 67,000 followers (her peeps) She’s tweeted over 25,000 times She knows many of them personally Very loyal brand following who buy

26. Twitter… Doesn’t replace in-person connections; makes them richer Keeps your name in the minds of others; and their names in yours Get to know each other over time…that’s the basis of any advertising/marketing campaign

27. A great ad campaign… Advertising campaigns measured w/ reach, frequency and GRPs include direct mail, email, banner ads Keys to success are… Relevancy, consistency and emotional tie… whether to make one laugh or cry creates memorability and desire for product or service

28. Twitter works same way. Reach Are you reaching your target audience and advocates? How many followers do you have? Frequency How often do you tweet? Relevancy What is your content? RU providing value? Consistency Can y0u be counted on to always provide good content?

29. But the difference is… There’s no media cost (that doesn’t mean it is free) There’s the ability to converse One person or more at a time, quickly Critical piece remains: search engine optimization – an important aspect even B4 Twitter

30. Twitter not holy only. Use as part of marketing strategy With other online efforts Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn..) Paid media (Google AdWords…) Google / Bing directories, profiles Blogs (you can have multiple) Websites, particularly e-commerce Pay attention to keywords!

31. LinkedIn(most upscale demos of all sn’s) What’s this thing called

32. LinkedIn can be… A provider of SEO value Static or active; you decide. Active = frequent updates Change your status (include links); comment on others’ status updates Add books to your Amazon read list or a presentation to your SlideShare account Ask or answer question

33. Are you using LinkedIn? Add connections or introduce others Join and be active in groups Use LinkedIn profile to begin to create your multi-media VisualCV resume / online profile at http://visualcv.com/yourname

34. Facebook(the largest and mother of all sn’s) What’s this thing called

35. Facebook’sstaggering stats. General Growth More than 250 million active users More than 120 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older User engagement Average user has 120 friends on the site More than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide) More than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day More than 8 million users become fans of Pages each day

36. Facebook’sstaggering stats. Applications More than 1 billion photos uploaded to the site each month More than 10 million videos uploaded each month More than 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week More than 2.5 million events created each month More than 45 million active user groups exist on the site User engagement Average user has 120 friends on the site More than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide) More than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day More than 8 million users become fans of Pages each day

37. Facebook’sstaggering stats. International Growth More than 50 translations available on the site, with more than 40 in development About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States Platform More than one million developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with Platform applications More than 350,000 active applications currently on Facebook Platform More than 200 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

38. Facebook’sstaggering stats. There are more than 30 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are almost 50% more active on Facebook than non-mobile users. There are more than 150 mobile operators in 50 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products Mobile

39. Using Facebook… Keep your personal profile private Use Fan page for business Integrate blog posts, Twitter updates into your FB stream Draw people back to content on your blog or website Promote others w/ relevancy

40. Integrated marketing example: Home Instead Senior Care of Richmond Virginia Just launched!

41. Home Instead Senior Careof Richmond, Virginia Two Twitter Background Pages Torsten Steinfatt @HomeInsteadRVA Teresa Steinfatt @TeresaSteinfatt Two LinkedIn accounts Facebook Fan Page Local Blog Local Website

42. Two Twitter accounts.

43. Local blog.

44. Facebook Fan page

45. Websites

46. Plus ancillary services… FriendFeed StumbleUpon Digg Tumbler Delicious NetworkedBlogs Hootsuite Google Analytics Twellow PeoplePond Technorati TwitPic YouTube BlogCatalog Ping.fm SlideShare And more…(x 2)

48. Home Instead tweets… Relevant articles / Point of view RTs (retweets) others Events / activities Community partnerships Focused on RVA / local Goal: build local brand awareness & consideration to generate opportunities and targeted leads

49. Parting thoughts. Focus on building your online brand with a strategic approach, then decide on which social networks are right for you You wouldn’t launch an ad or PR campaign without at least some semblance of a plan!

50. Parting thoughts. Social networking and social media is simply social marketing, as opposed to traditional advertising, PR and direct response marketing The core elements of traditional don’t go away; simply shift

51. Parting thoughts. A business still requires an acquisition, retention and cross-sell strategy that includes event and product promotion The way in which a business overlays the marketing tactics to meet goals won’t change; What tactics or tools one uses will; higher engagement tools and staff.

52. Questions? Thank you. What’s on your mind?

53. Where to find me? Google Sally Witzky Twitter.com/sallywitzky Twitter.com/tractiongroup PeoplePond.com/sallywitzky Find me on peoplepond and find me everywhere sally@tractiongroup.com 804.402.0804 TractionGroup.com