Demystifying Social Media 6

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What exactly are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and how could they help me grow my business?

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Demystifying Social Media

How Twitter, Blogging and LinkedIn Can Help Grow Your Business

Lynda PartnerGillian Brouse

Agenda

• What exactly is social media, why should you care?

• Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn in action• Break• Using Social Media to grow your business

Case Studies Your own Case Study

• Getting Started – Do’s and Don’ts

A bit about us

• Lynda Partner, Partners Inc• www.partnersinc.biz

• Gillian Brouse• www.gilliebee.com

Where does your business come from?

• Discuss

What these channels have in common

• Broadcast – you to them• If they wanted to talk to you or about you,

choices were limited: Phone Email

Web 2.0 – social media

• Internet tools and applications that: Made it easy for people to talk to each other on-

line in groups Made it easy for people to share information on-

line with lots of people simultaneously Made it easy for people to talk to companies on-

line

Power is shifting to the People

• People are talking to each other about you more often then you are talking to them about you Opportunity – join in the conversation, it’s another

channel for your message and another way to build relationships

• People are expecting you to create more ways for them to talk to you Opportunity – invite them in, its easier to sell if you

can create a relationship with people and relationships require conversation

It’s a busy place

What all social networks have in common

• Communities of interest engaged “readers” and content creators around common issues

• Decentralized content creation. Decentralized power. Decentralized voice.

• Speed with which information can travel Accurate or not

Blogs

Blogs

• Good for writers, thought leaders• And also for the rest of us

Easy way to build and maintain a website and keep the content fresh and changing

Helps you get found on the internet - Search Engine Optimization

A way to demonstrate your personality, and in the case of a services business – show how you think, a sample of your wares “people buy from people”

Twitter

Twitter

Why people tweet

TO BUY TO

SELLTO FIND LINKS

TO PUBLISH CONTENT

TO STAY CURRENTTO LISTEN

TO TALKTO COMPLAIN

TO HELP SOLVE PROBLEMSBUSINESSES: how can you leverage that?

8 Business Uses for Twitter

• Market intelligence Customer sentiment Competitors Employees

• Influence/Creating Awareness• Prospecting• Selling• Building community (partners, customers,

others)• Customer service• Recruiting talent

Twitter

Twitter

Twitter

Twitter

Twitter

Exercise

LinkedIn

• Directory• Way to be found. Must be in there.• Build from there, if appropriate

where are your customers?

Facebook

• 81% of Canadians age 18-34 have a Facebook profile

• The average Facebook user has 130 friends• Fastest growing segment is the group aged

35-44• 50% of Facebook users log in every day

Facebook

• A parallel universe on the internet• A free company website – Fan Pages• A market research engine• A marketing channel – awareness and

advertising – direct and indirect, free email marketing

Case Studies

Case study # 2 – Twitter for local retail

• @coffeegroundz • Think globally, follow locally• Be yourself, natural, generous

Results

• Owner credited it with doubling clientele in first several months

• Earned name as a cool place to go among urban hipsters. (PS they buy lots of coffee.)

• Twitter followers at more than 5000• Business has increased 20-30% from October

levels.

Case studies # 3 – LinkedIn

• Event marketing

• “If she is going, maybe I should too.”

LinkedIn – for SM marketing event

LinkedIn – for SM marketing event

Results

• Event sold out• 5-fold increase in event page traffic

Topic AND campaign

Of tracked results, 22 percent from social media sites: Linkedin: over 10 percent of total Twitter: 7 percent Blog of presenter: 4 percent (higher bounce rate) Facebook: 2

• Earlier registrations from SM links versus regular list More apt to act on impulse? More committed because

endorsement built in?

Some Added LinkedIn Uses

• Research your customers - warm your cold call• See (and post) blog and twitter feed• Find suppliers and partners• Start a group, your own marketing database• Improve your SEO rankings• Join the conversation - meet new prospects • Advertise

Case study # 4 – local blogger

Crazy successful

• 2006 184,950 monthly visitors 65,000 unique

• 2007 293,198 monthly visitors 86,000 unique

• Comparative Biggest magazines in the space have circulation of

25000- 60000/month

Crazy successful

Brainstorming your business needs

Getting Started

• Ask, Listen & Learn from your audience• Match your communications strategy to your

audience’s needs• Get the right tools• Be prepared to invest time• Measure success, be prepared to be flexible & patient

Questions?

• @gilliebee, gillian@brouse.org

• @lpartner, lpartner@partnersinc.biz

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