Marketing For Small Businesses Social Media Marketing

© Natalie Griffiths Associates 2010

Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses

Understanding Social Media and leveraging as a marketing tool to promote your business By Natalie Griffiths Associates

Created using Created using WordleWordle

Date 11.05.10



• Content

– Social Media: an introduction

– Social Media: networking sites examples

– Developing your social media strategy

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Social Media: an introduction

3


Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses 4

What is Social Media?

“ …. designed to be disseminated through social inte raction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing tec hniques”

_________

“… . media that is created to be shared freely”_________

“ … based on user participation and user-generated co ntent. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn or Fa cebook”

Social media has grown phenomenally since the emergence of Web 2.0 (second generation of the World Wide Web.) This has provided users with tools to build social & business connections as well as being able to share information or collaborating with projects online.

Social Media can be described as being user generate d; shared freely; highly accessible; and disseminated through social interac tion



How can this help my business?From a business perspective, Social Media can be a relatively inexpensive promotional tool when integrated as part of your marketing communication strategy. It can work as an additional advertising mechanism, or it can offer interactive means by which to talk directly to your customers and prospects – some of which is still free.

The key however is not to simply launch into this space because everyone else is – but to think through what you want to achieve, plan your communication strategy and finally make sure you have something relevant on offer to your prospects. Otherwise, much time and energy can be invested for limited or no results.

Note: Traditional principles in marketing still apply to Social Media marketing.

Examples of how Social Media is used by businessesFacebook may be used for customer service and broadcasting updates; Twitter may be used for promotions; LinkedIn helps to establish credibility; YouTube could give a behind the scenes look at your business

Social media takes many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, pictures, vi deo, rating, social bookmarking


• Social Media Marketing can be used to compliment your communication strategy and enables businesses to:

– Test new ideas (with limited investment)

– Launch campaigns / viral networking

– Gain credibility through endorsements and by providing expertise on specific subjects

– Conduct polls to determine opinion

– Collaborate / exchange ideas

– Gather a following

– Provide a sense of “community”

– Encourage direct feed back



Social Media: networking site examples

7Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses


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Blogging - various• Used to share resources,

experiences or views; report on new services/ideas; or as a reflective tool.

• Utilised by businesses to promote expertise and to generate a following / fan base (top ten tips etc)

• UK government and the USA presidential election candidates used blogs to support their campaigns



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Microblogging - Twitter

• Similar to blogging, but only facilitates short updates “Get short, timely messages …”

• Contains some personal information and encourages a following / fan base

• Most business sites now feature the Twitter symbol

• Notable celebrities that tweet include Stephen Fry, Ashton Kutcher (millions of followers!)




Social networking - Facebook• Facebook came into existence as an

internal friendship network for students of Harvard College (Feb 4 2004.) Since then it has grown phenomenally with over 40 million active users.

• Features:– Connection with friends– Real time newsfeed updates

– Profile incl: pictures, video, web links etc

– Event calendar (and invitation function)– Ability to set up groups or join other groups

– Give virtual gifts; gaming; market place etc

Business usage has increased significantly with Facebook now becoming a part of company’s social media marketing. This is not for however for all businesses as they may find their marketing budget is better spent elsewhere. everyone. Many “savvy” facebook members prefer simply use the site for finding or maintaining friendships rather than anything else.



Social (professional) networking – Linkedin• This social network can be used to find jobs,

people or business opportunities– You can input information to a “Profile” (company or

individual) and include a photo plus details of your (or company) website and link to Twitter

– The “Profile” itself either reflects details about the company or a personal c.v.

– “Connections” are built by sending invitations, or through LinkedIn invites

• Features include:– Company / Employee Research

– LinkedIn Answers– LinkedIn Groups

– Recommendations (from your connections)

– Real time updates “Share an update …”

– Network updates and daily / weekly digest by emailResources: http://learn.linkedin.com/new-users/ http://learn.linkedin.com/consultants/ http://learn.linkedin.com/job-seekers/

As of 8 April 2010 LinkedIn had more than 65 million

registered users


Developing your Social Media strategy (extract only)




Developing your Social Media Strategy

• Determine objectives• What do you want to achieve?

• Generate awareness; stimulate a “following”; launch a product; lead generation;

enhance reputation / expertise

• Note you may have different objectives if using multiple platforms

• Agree goals• Define up to 5 key “goals” which can be measured (SMART)

• Define strategy• Outline your communication and brand strategy

• Ensure you have determined who your target audience; the image you want to

project; and relevant timely messages

• Draw up a plan• Keep on track by outlining specific actions on a time based plan



Developing your Social Media Strategy

• Other considerations:

• Find people to follow / encourage people to join, follow you (establish

fans) or recommend

• Use the tools regularly, even if only for short updates (keep it fresh)

• Link to other Social Media platforms (blogs, twitter, newswires etc)

• But be aware of the time this can take!

• Integrate with other forms of communication / marketing collateral

• Include to your email sign off etc

• Integrate directly on your website

• Stick to the PLAN … and make sure you are doing only what you set

out to achieve.


Natalie Griffiths Associates

• Overview– Natalie Griffiths Associates is a London based marketing consultancy resource

offering flexible executive level support for small to large sized organisations.

– During a time of economic uncertainty, increasing your permanent work force can be hard to justify. The aim with Natalie Griffiths Associates is to ensure you get the right help on an interim basis.

– Whether it’s developing strategic marketing plans for 2011, determining brand direction or integrating social media into the communication mix, Natalie Griffiths Associates brings both a track record and corporate level experience to help drive your business forward.

• Common Issues & Challenges– Rapid change to your organisation has led to a senior level skills shortage– Your product launch will miss its deadline without leadership support– Fresh impetus is required to get things moving on a complex project– It's time consuming to find executive level resources with a track record

Providing expert marketing support to help drive your business forward


• For more information contact Natalie on:

• Mobile: 07904972864• Landline: 02070891439

– Or Skype for free

• Email: [email protected]

Natalie Griffiths Associates

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Marketing For Small Businesses Social Media Marketing