Social media 101: Connecting with your customer

DesignStamp Social Media 101Connecting with your customer

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I am craving a nice juicy steak, and want to find a place close-by with good food

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Flashback: 1999, I;d go to the phonebook or worse, just walk around looking for what I could find and hope to find something good.

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or call a friend...

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But I forgot my friend Anna is a vegetarian, who mainly eats tofu and spinach.

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Introducing your always on, always available network

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Why trust one or two people, when you can call upon your network to offer up recommendations and suggestions on something I am looking for.

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Flash Forward to today, you can now go to a site like Yelp, and find the wisdom of masses. Yelp is a review site for such things as restaurants, cafes, bars to name a few.

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You can have a network that shows you what is best and floats it to the top.

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What is Social Media?

•evolution of the Internet that now allows us to do what comes to us naturally--socialize and share with others and create communities around these shared interests.

•People are naturally social and this new medium help us be social in a much larger community.

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By nature people have always liked to share. People have always done it; we have the tools to do it much better than we ever did before.

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We can now share things with our friends/family/neighbors/network in blogs, forums and social networks.

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•Upload picture to flickr to share with friends/family/neighbors/network.

•flickr is an online photosharing site that allows people to upload and share their photos with their network.

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No matter where they are I can now share with them in real time.

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A Changing Landscape for Small Businesses

What does that mean for you?•BIG opportunity for small biz and a great time to get into the action as the market is not saturated•Social media doesnʼt exclude you by the size of your budget, the only limit is your creativity.

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Direct Mail has a 2% Open Rate

•Social Media is more measurable than print. •Cost of entry is much cheaper than traditional media•People choose to listen to you and connect with you. Your message can be kept fresh, not wait for a re-print or a new brochure, keep the lines of communication open and two-way.

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•Activewear clothing (UK). Succeeded in giving their brand a real personality, visitors get to know the individuals within the company.•Blog - unique personalities. •SM allows companies to engage in direct, two-way conversations with customers.

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Maintain an active company playlist on last.fm (letting their customer know a little more about them)

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•Close to 2300 fans. •Another way to communicate with their fans, where their fans are. •Fan photos, Howies stickers on bikes gondolas•Right mix of product updates, such as t-shirt of the month, and quirky posts, such as Peteʼs decision to sell his BMX.

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•Clearly communicating expertise in their area, by joining niche social networks such as Rumplo.•Members share artistic t-shirts from around the web.•Communicating their quirky personalities which is connecting their customers with their brand.

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People are making buying decisions based on “word of

mouse”.

•Unbiased advice vs. company website. Who do I turn to, to make smart buying decisions?

•I turn to people I know. People like my friends, family and neighbors.

•Not all are friends IRL - I communicate with them regularly in virtual communities such as Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

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Picture: screenshot of epinions.com homepage.

Epinions.com is a good example. Millions of users are visiting the site looking for reviews from user who have purchased a product that they are looking at purchasing themselves.

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•Consumers choosing to listen to online product reviews instead of your marketing materials. •This is an opportunity for you to participate and become a trusted voice.

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Using Social Media4 Steps to get Started

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Step 1. Get to Know Yourself (again)

Who are you as a business? What do you sell or what service do you offer? How would you describe your offering to someone in a few words?

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Who is your customerdefine your audience, and get to know them

•Who is your customer? What do you mean to them? •What are their needs and how can you fulfill those needs.

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Who is your customerdefine your audience, and get to know them

•The end goal is to find your customers and align your business objectives with your customers' goals.

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Step 2: Where are your customershanging out?

Find out where your customers are. Facebook has 300 million users, but If your customers arenʼt on Facebook, then thats not where you want to be.

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Facebook and Twitter get the most buzz, but there are many communities out there and it is important to locate where your customers are congregating.

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People are gathering in many places (wine - corkʼd, music - last.fm, photography - flickr ) You need to figure out where your customers are and decide which networks to participate in.

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Photography - flickr, photobucket, picasa...

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Step 3: Participate

Two ears and one mouth. don’t just focus on selling, join in conversations and eventually the business will work its way in.

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Build RelationshipsWhat will make your customer your fan?

Build a relationship with customers. Develop this relationship with trust and transparency. Be a part of the conversation in a helpful meaningful way and turn them into an advocate.

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•Allegiant Air: Meets customers where they are most comfortable, in this case: Twitter.

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•Allegiant Air: Response is timely and meets the customer where they are. No need to pick up the phone and listen to long recorded messages.

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Step 4. Commit

•not be seen as a “me-too”, flash-in-the-pan effort on your part, but an activity that really becomes part of how you engage with your customer.

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•Before you begin, important to understand, fully commit the resources for the short and long term to create a lasting, thriving community.

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To Sum up...

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1.Get to Know Yourself (again)

2.Where are you customers hanging out?

3.Participate

4.Commit

•How would you describe your offering to someone in a few words?•Find out where your customers are.•Join in conversations in a helpful meaningful way.•Commit to SMM becoming a part of how you engage with your customer.

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Questions?

www.designstamp.com/getsocial

getsocial@designstamp.com

•Visit designstamp.com/getsocial for more information. Thank you!