Social Media

The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue…

It introduces substantial and pervasive changes to communication between organizations, communities, and individuals enabled by ubiquitously accessible and scalable communication techniques. Blah blah blah lol ;) etc…See Wikipedia

The Big Guns, That We Use• Facebook – Reconnecting, Staying Connected, Family,

Friends, Photos, Events, One place for email, messages, video chat and more

• Twitter – More immediate, similar to instant messaging, texting, blogging and email, tapping into a collective consciousness

• Youtube – Video, User Generated, Subscriptions, free hosting, well integrated, big community

• Myspace - Sort of old and out, still a lot of users• Google+ - is coming, but not yet.• To many - more to talk about here…see what works

best for you.

Why We Like It• Should Be A Part Of A Multi Channel Engagement

Strategy• Fulfills An Age Old Need Of Marketing –

Communication• Rapport With Your Fans• Opted In• 1/3 Of The World’s Population• Amazing Technology To Streamline Delivery Of A Lot

Of Information• Users Are Also Producers -- Of Content• Cost And Time Effective

Some Techniques & Models

• Fan Gating – a practice where you require a “like” in order for the user to view content on your page

• Polling / General Questions - ask questions of your audience to stay engaged, build rapport

• Integrate All Your Sites – Link your blog, youtube, twitter etc… to auto post (see other tools)

• Places – Offer deals or promos when one checks in with a smart phone (facebook or 4square)

Some Techniques & Models Cont’d

• Reciprocation – like mentions in Twitter, now on Facebook, Tag other business or public pages in comments, posts, photos

• Events – Create events where guests can contribute, rsvp, and invite others (tweetups too)

• Social Buttons – Put on your website and blog: share, like, send, tweet,

Facebook Social Pluginshttps://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/

Some Tools of the Trade

• Hootsuite – post to multiple social networking sites, schedule posts, use mobile, admin and users, approval, bulk upload, import rss

• Tweekdeck – same, but allows for long tweets and doesn’t include scheduling

• Ping.fm similar to both has more syndication options, no scheduling, works with hootsuite

• The list goes on, search “Social Media Aggregators”

Be Ready• Cover all bases before going live.– Have a corresponding website, – A personal Facebook account (not for the business) – Check out the tutorials, videos, tips and tricks

provided by the sites and industry gurus (follow / like them)

– Have a response plan for compliments and complaints– Some will be better then others figure out what works

best for you– Preferably DIY, last resort is to outsource– Start looking at Paid Ad campaigns (Ultra Targeted*)

Some Resources

• http://mashable.com/social-media/• http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/• https://developers.facebook.com/• http://www.digitalworldexpo.com/• http://adage.com/channel/digital/20