Social Media: Which to? How to? Why to?

Social MediaWhich to? How to? Why to?

Steve ThomasPresident The Net Impactwww.thenetimpact.com

Feb 25th 2011

•Introductions

•Facts and Examples

•Discuss opportunities and hazard

•How do I know I need (want) it in my business?

•Getting started

•Q/A on any and all of the above

3

Who is The Net Impact?– Twenty years Market Experience– Exceptional Technical Staff– Strong Application Design Skills– Design Expertise– Internet Marketing Expertise– Social Media Expertise– Efforts strongly based upon analytics

Social MediaSocial mediaFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content.

It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one to many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.

Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).

Social Media creates instant “stars”

Who is Steve Thomas?• President, The Net Impact

• VP Social Media, AMA-STL

• VP Missouri Venture Forum

• Curriculum Advisory Board Ranken Technical

Where in the World is Steve Thomas?Joining and starting conversations across the globe.

Authenticity reigns. Conversations cannot be bought. Conversation cannot be controlled, they can only be joined.

Marketers have to be willing to listen and learn from the consumers they engage through social media.

Start by listening!

Don’t’ ignore the buzz, good or bad!

Social Media = Earned Media

“Covering your ears is not a viable strategy.” Sarah Hofstetter, social marketer

•Do you want to spread your content and expertise to new audiences?• Do you want to network with like-minded individuals and companies?• Do you want to build a community of evangelists?• Do you want to involve your customers and prospects in co-creation? (UGC)• Do you want to automate the process of repurposing content?• Do you want to reach new audiences in the exact way they choose to communicate?• Do you want to be seen as a thought leader in your industry?• Do you want ways to aggregate and filter content so you and your people can digest it?• Do you want to easily hear literally everything that’s being said online about your brand, products, or industry in real time?• Do you want to be seen as a trusted source of information?

How do I know if I need Social Media?

The primary motivating factor for engaging in Social Media is lead generation.

MS Office Study 2010

The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business, 2010

“While we expect more small businesses to use Twitter as a customer service channel in the year ahead, as it stands, Facebook and LinkedIn have become the predominant platforms for small business owners.”

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”

General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army

Marketing is always changing!

Brands are becoming our friends on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and all of social media

Marketing is always changing!

Where visitors come from today

•The most recent count of blogs being indexed by Technorati currently stands at 133 million.

•The same report also revealed that, on average, 900,000 blog posts are created within a single 24-hour period.

•The online photo sharing site Flickr now hosts more than 3.6 billion user images.

• The online bookmarking service Delicious has more than 5 million users and more than 150 million unique bookmarked URLs.

•Consumer-generated media represents almost 20% of time spent but less than 3% of advertising dollars

Where visitors come from today

Where visitors come from today

Where visitors come from today

Social Media Drives Real Traffic

Blended Search - Mixed Media

Blended Search - Mixed Media

Blended Search – Local & Social

Regular question we get: “Which social networks are best?”

Answer: “The ones that help you get more leads and broaden brand awareness.

Where visitors come from today

•Individually personal •Point of view expected•Conversations not content•There is spam, abuse and misuse•Layers of participation and participants•Essential part of your branding

Basics of Social Media

“the time it takes to use social media sites is more demanding than I expected”

Twice daily minimum• Check Twitter via TweetDeck—preset searches for @tniman, @auctori, @thenetimpact, @unidev—respond as needed, follow some @replies that seem appropriate.•Check Facebook comments and write new updates• Scan Blog and press release data.• Respond to comments on our blogs.

Daily minimum• Write a blog post—RSS , tools sends to Twitter, Linked In, Facebook ,• Scan Twitter followers for relevant conversations to join• Scan Google Reader subscriptions to read and stimulate ideas• Stumble any blog pages desired •Reverberate through Facebook and Twitter accounts• Scan Google Alerts for my name, brand, and products—in Google Reader as RSS feed—respond as appropriate• Add comments to blogs as appropriate•Check Google Alerts for new trending information to write about•Check reviews on Google Place page

Weekly•Planned press releases•Find new authors to engage•Post news on website

Monthly•Put out newsletters (4)•Email campaigns (4)

And oh yeah…•Craigslist• Judy’s Book• Insider Pages• Smalltown.com•Yelp•Google Places/Bing Maps

Avoid: Coolest, latest, sexiest “thing” out there

Build Assets

Measure

Write / Engage

Find Your All-stars

Network

Listen

Plan

How do I get started?

Forrester Research describes six levels of participation or Social Technographics®:

1. Creators2. Critics3. Collectors4. Joiners5. Spectators6. Inactives

How do I get started?

Find Your All-stars

Network

Listen

Online PRArticles

Podcasts BlogTwitter

FacebookLinked In

Local Reviews

VideosImages

YourWWW.

How do I plan?

Construct your social marketing architecture

•Invite your customers, prospects and contacts into your community.•Connect with them over your products, your services and their input.•Engage in real-time conversations with key influencers.•Reverberate their enthusiasm.• Gain immediate feedback; as a real-time focus group• Define your brand as an industry resource for bloggers and the media• Create a human voice for the brand• Proactively manage your reputation, respond to consumer questions and problems.•Use it as a CRM tool.

How do I find my voice?

Increased engagement

Increased brand loyalty

Increased fan base and activity

Real time insight

Improved products

Develop a plan for monitoring and responding to consumer discussions

How do I find my voice?

Brand

Social Media Final Thoughts• Social Media is like a cocktail party.

– The question is, “Who is the host?”

• Social Media is “earned traffic”. – Earned by level of interest and value to the visitor.

• Your level of “interesting” gets you found.

• How can this be employed? Measured?

• “We become who we hang out with!”

Email /Tweet us for a copy of this presentation!Steve Thomas @TNIMAN @TheNetImpactSteve.Thomas@thenetimpact.com

Thank You!

We become who we hang out with!So let’s hang out!

#TNISTLEC