Social Media 101for Business

January 25, 2010

Agenda

• Introduction • What social media network is right for

you?• Getting started • Next steps

Agenda

• Introduction • What social media network is right for

you?• Getting started • Next steps

What is Social Media?

• Social media refers to activities, practices, and behaviors among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media. They transmit content in the form of words, pictures, videos, and audio.

It’s All About Engagement

• The litmus test for social media in business is simple:– Does it allow you to engage with customers,

prospects, employees, and other stakeholders by facilitating one or more of the following:

• Communication• Collaboration• Education• Entertainment

Source: The Social Media Bible

The ROI of Social Media

• 50% of US online adults are content creators• Over 75% are participating in social media in

some form– Approximately 56M adults visit social media sites

monthly– Close to 70% of the social media site users are outside

the US• 1.2M blog posts are created daily• 83% of adults trust opinions of friends and

acquaintances• 1 in 3 internet users say purchase decisions have

been influenced by social media content

Source: The Aberdeen Group, The ROI of Social Media Marketing, 2009

Branding

Over 40% of people have "friended" a brand on Facebook or MySpace.

7Source: 20.decibels

Influence

46% of Facebook users say they would talk about or recommend a product on Facebook.44% of Twitter users have recommended a product.

8Source: 20.decibels

Communications

58% of people said if they had tweeted about a bad experience, they would like the company to respond to their comment.

9Source: 20.decibels

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

• 81% Generated awareness for my business

• 61% Increased traffic/subscriptions/opt-ins

• 56% Resulted in new business partnerships

• 52% Increased search rankings• 48% Generated qualified leads• 45% Reduced overall market expenses• 35% Helped me close businessSource: Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers are using Social Media to grow their busines, Michael Stelzner, March 2009

Pepsi

Pepsi dropped TV advertising for the 2010 Super Bowl. Instead, they're investing in a $20M Social Media campaign – after 23 years of Super Bowl ads.

11Source: 20.decibels

Best Buy

Best Buy has over 2,500 employees helping customers on Twitter as part of the Twelpforce initiative.In fact, Best Buy purchased TV ads to drive awareness for their Twitter initiative.

12Source: 20.decibels

Comcast

Comcast has at least 11 full-time employees dedicated to customer service via Social Media.

13Source: 20.decibels

Dell

Dell has attributed over $6.5M in revenue directly to Twitter

14

+ =Source: 20.decibels

Fortune 500

53% of the Fortune 500 have at least one active Twitter account

15Source: 20.decibels

Social Media Spending

• Expected to increase from $716M in 2008 to $3.1B in 2014 – a 34% CAGR

• Social media spending is growing faster than any other interactive marketing category

• 86% of marketers plan to increase social media budgets in 2010

• 99% of online retailers plan to have a Facebook page by 2011 and 91% plan to have a Twitter page

CMO’s and Social Media

83% of CMOs are tracking their number of fans in Social Media

17Source: 20.decibels

Social Media Inside Your Organization

• Would people in your organization be more effective if they could communicate more quickly and precisely with one another?

• Would people in your organization be more productive if they were about to work in a more collaborative environment?

• Could employee training and development be improved?

Social Media Directed Outside Your Organization

• Do you have a strong relationship with your customers, investors, or vendors?

• Do you know their names, preferences, and needs as they relate to your company’s products or services?

• Have you ever asked them to help you improve your company’s product or service?

• Would they welcome an opportunity to help you improve your company’s product or service?

Experimenting with Social Media

• If you answered yes to any of the previous questions, you need to learn more about and experiment with social media.

• To be effective, you need to consider methods to communicate, collaborate, educate, and entertain within your organization.

• To maximize your impact with customers and prospects, you need to understand how to employ specific social media strategies in an effort to influence the conversation about your company.

Agenda

• Introduction • What social media network is right for

you?• Getting started • Next steps

What Social Network is Right for Your Business?

• What do you want out of a social network?• Social networking should:

– Reflect your business/marketing objectives– Integrate with your existing marketing plans

and campaigns• Many reasons to use social networking for

your business:– Branding, contacts, conversations, influence,

research, events, news, and the list goes on…

Social Networking

Blogs

Social Media Landscape

Source: Omniture Inc, 2009

rss

User-Generated Content (UGC)

Social News

Top 3 Social Media Questions Marketers Want Answered

• What are the best tactics to use?• How do I measure the effectiveness of

social media?• Where do I start?

Source: Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers are using Social Media to grow their busines, Michael Stelzner, March 2009

Aggregators

• Definition: – Tools in this category help in gathering, updating, and storing market

intelligence. Users contribute ratings and reviews of businesses and products.

• Companies: – Digg, iGoogle, My Yahoo!, Newstex, Reddit, Yelp

• Facts:– New form of content syndication– Replaces traditional newswire services.

• Goals:– Seed the clouds with information so they can be discussed in a social media

form.– Include links for more detailed information.– Become a content expert based on your contributions.

• Action Plan:

Blogging or PublishingDefinition:

Publishing and blogging is a fairly large category that includes tools that facilitate email campaigns, blogging, and wikis, and tools to help you manage your online content.

Companies: Blogger.com, SlideShare, TypePad, Wikipedia, WordPress

Facts:There are 133M blogs with 120K new ones added dailyBlogging is the fastest form of online publishing: 0 in 1999 to 78M unique visitors in the US in 2009

Goals:Increase site traffic.Create content for other social media activities.

Action Plan:Add a blog to an established website adding updated content often.Establish yourself as an expert in your field. Communicate with your customers/clients.

Micro-bloggingDefinition:

Tools in this category allow users to communicate and share information in short form, similar to text messaging. Users participate in small, intimate communities centered on topics of interest

Companies: Twitter

Facts:Time investment in micro-blogging in minimal.Responding daily is desirable to be successful and credible.

Goals:Get followers.Get retweeted.Increase site traffic.Drive traffic to other social media sites.

Action Plan:Create corporate buzz through PR, communications, and customer service approaches to your posts.Include links to posts, videos, product pages, and more.Use this tool for Business/Industry networking. Raise awareness for your company and product brands.

Photo Sharing

Definition: The tools in this category help you manage photos.

Companies: Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, Shutterfly, SmugMug, Snapfish, Webshots, Zoomr

Facts:The top 3 photo-sharing sites are:

Facebook (10B+ photos), Photobucket (6.2B+ photos), and Flickr (2B+ photos)

69% of Facebook users look at or upload photosGoals:

Create reusable content.Drive traffic to your store.Helps with universal search.

Action Plan:Put images of your products and services online. Boost ways for viewers/clients/customers to find you.

Source: Tech Crunchies website, October 2008 and February 2009)

Social NetworkingDefinition:

Tools include creation of online communities that converse about and/or share a common interest. It is now a core element of business internet strategies.

Companies: Jobs, Professional – LinkedIn, The Ladders, Monster, Facebook, Kickstart, Bebo, Friendster, MySpaceTips, Answers, Suggestions – Yahoo! Answers Traffic – Digg, Mixx, Reddit

Facts:Best known for businesses to build brand awareness, recruiting, online reputation management tool, to learn about new technologies and competitors, and as a lead generation tool.

Goals:Drive brand awareness.Conduct research and polls.Drive traffic to your store, your events, and opt-in’s.

Action Plan:Get fans.Integrate with your blog or store.Drive traffic to your store.

Source: Marketing Jive, Jody Nimetz, November 2007

Video SharingDefinition:

The tools in this category allow users to manage, share, and watch videos.

Companies: Google Video, Hulu, Metacafe, YouTube

Facts:YouTube served 75B video streams to 375M unique visitors in 2009Every minute, 10-hours of video is uploaded to YouTube51% of users go to YouTube weekly or more often

Goals:Create resusable content.Drive traffic to your store.

Action Plan:Great way to let other people know about your business & what you have to offer. Post videos of your events, industry presentations, or introduction to your company.Show off your products or services. Help with Universal Search.

Getting Started: 7 Key Questions

1. Why are you considering social media marketing?2. What do you know about integrating social media with

your marketing mix?3. How do you measure this?4. Who is your target audience and what forms of social

media re they using?5. Does your company have a blog?6. Do you know the top 20 social media sites relevant to

your business?7. Do you know what impact person-to-person

recommendations and referrals have?

Source: ymarketing.com

Agenda

• Introduction • What social media network is right for

you?• Getting started • Next steps

Getting Started

• Facebook• LinkedIn• Twitter

Facebook

• Facebook is the dominant social networking site, and has the most features useful to the social media marketer.

• Facebook facts:– Facebook has more than 250M users– More than 120M users log in at least once daily– More than 2/3 of users are outside of college– Approximately 70% users are outside the US

• Facebook allows businesses to create public profiles – similar to a user’s profile.– Users can connect with a page and become fans.– Pages can have public messaging walls, events, photos, and

more.

Getting Started• Open an Account on www.facebook.com• Populate the Info tab with company information• Use Fan Pages to post PR, Editorial, and Events• Use Groups to segment content or private/public

information; post text, photos, and videos; and hold discussions

• Use Events to publicize your marketing events, sponsored gatherings, company milestones, product launches, discount sale days, and more

• Use “What’s on Your Mind” to communicate:– Thought leadership topics of interest, ideas, opinion– Events you may be attending, hosting, speaking at– Etc.

• Other ideas:– Add an RSS feed from your blog or store– Connect your Facebook account with Twitter– Spend 15-20 minutes/day posting and reading

LinkedIn

• LinkedIn has many business offerings:– Answers. Allows you to ask a question to the entire community

to help solve complex problems and find answers.– Groups. Searchable groups on a variety of topics, create a

group on a specific topic. Members join as they have a common interest. Similar to a forum.

– Other. Members can conduct polls which are free to your network; $50 per response outside your network.

Getting Started

• Open an Account on www.linkedin.com• Populate your profile• Add your company website• Create Groups based on News and Events that are

important to your company• Use “What Are You Working On” to post:

– Status– Ideas, opinions, and input on your company’s Thought

Leadership topics– Etc.

• Other ideas:– Add an RSS feed to your blog or store– Connect your LinkedIn page to your Twitter account– Post and read for 15-20 minutes daily

Twitter• Microblogging is a form of blogging that limits the size of

each post.• Twitter updates can contain only 140 characters. This

limitation has spawned a set of features, protocols, and behavior that are entirely unique to the medium.

• Companies find Twitter is easy to use, requires very little investment of time, and can quickly prove worthwhile in increased buzz, sales, and customer insight.

• Twitter facts:– 72.5% of 44M users opened Twitter accounts in Jan-May 2009– 93.6% users have less than 100 followers– More than 50% of updates are published using mobile and

web-based tools• Twitter can be used to announce offers or events, promote

new blog posts, or keep your readers in the know with links to important news stories.

Getting Started• Open an Account on www.twitter.com• Develop a company persona and complete your Profile• Create a content plan and editorial calendar so you can organize your thoughts and understand where you and your company are thought-leaders. Topics may include:

• Company value-proposition • Company areas of expertise used as thought-leadership topics• Promotions and specials you might be offering• Events you may be hosting, attending, speaking at, etc.• Customer success stories you may wish to share• Press releases• Etc.

• Other ideas:– Follow everyone who follows you– User Twitterfeed or Facebook to post for you– Read 10 tweets daily– Retweet and respond for 5 minutes each day

10 Social Media Tips

1. Know what you’re talking about2. Always be transparent3. Be yourself4. Post frequently5. Add value6. Respond7. Listen8. Learn from your mistakes9. Be external10. Have fun

Source: Social Media Tips, Kodak, September 2009

Agenda

• Introduction • What social media network is right for

you?• Getting started • Next steps

Next Steps• Create profiles and groups.

– Create profiles and groups before someone else takes your names.

• Participate.– Start by reading comments on a few selected sites and

listen to where the conversation is headed. Once you have an idea about how to respond, participate.

• Build your own network.– Build a following with your blog and conversations.

Consider building a Group.• Develop and communicate a social media plan for your

company.– Define content areas of focus, employee training, etc.– A corporate social media plan will help you manage,

monitor, and control activity.• Get Ready for Social-Mobile

Wrap Up and Questions

• Social networking is just another communication medium --- one which initiates conversations you can participate

• Integration with your existing business and marketing plans is mandatory to maximize the true benefits

Resources• Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow your Business, Steven Holzner, 2009

• Marketing Jive, Jody Nimetz, November 2007

• Printing Industries of America, “Making Sense of Social Networking” presentation, by Julie Shaffer, October 2009

• Printing Industries of America: The Magazine, “How to Survive Web2.0 and Beyond” article, Chuck Gehman, October/November 2009

• “7 Key Questions to Ask Before Venturing Into Social Media Marketing” white paper, ymarketing.com, May 2009

• “Social Media for Business: 31 Stats & Anecdotes” presentation, 20.decibels, January 2010

• “Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses” white paper, Michael Stelzner, March 2009

• “Social Media 201: How To Use Social Media Sites To Increase Traffic” webinar, Armando Roggio and Jeanne Hopkins, January 010

• The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools & Strategies for Business Success, Lon Safko and David Brake, 2009

• The Social Media Marketing Book, Dan Zarella, 2010

• Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your market one Tweet at a Time, Joel Comm, 2009

Jeffrey StewartCTO

Phone: 815-262-7252stew@trekk.comwww.Trekk.comTwitter.com/jeffreyastewartFacebook.com/jastewartLinkedIn.com/jeffreyastewart

Robin TobinVP, Key Accounts Phone: 617.460.2619rtobin@trekk.comwww.Trekk.comTwitter.com/rltobin63Facebook.com/robinltobinLinkedIn.com/in/robinltobin

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