Social Networking How It Can Help Your Business 13 07 09

www.miuk.comSocial Networking – How it can help your business

ebusiness solutions

Social Media / Buzz Marketing / Web 2.0

- How Social Media can help your business

Robert MassonManaging Director

Marketing Interactive UK [email protected]

01284 777444

13th July 2009


ebusiness solutions

Agenda Who are mi? Brief overview of social networking sites What is social networking? Where has social networking come from? How you can benefit from social networking How to get started Tips to help you on your way


ebusiness solutions

mi background Award winning ebusiness

consultancy 13 person team Launched June 1998 Broad UK and international

client base of over 200 clients Corporate and SME

ebusiness consultancy Web development Ecommerce systems Database integration Content management Integrated ebusiness systems Hosting


ebusiness solutions

Social networking sites, brief overview Facebook (100+m users pm, mainly 18+)

3 in 10 Internet users visit every month Visited by 47% of UK net users

MySpace (60+m users pm, mainly teens) Bebo (Mainly teens) LinkedIn (40+m mainly professional business)


ebusiness solutions

Blogging / micro blogging / RSS feeds Twitter (20m+ users pm, mainly 18+) Blogger Wordpress YouTube (video/podcasts) Flickr (Photos) Slideshare (presentations)


ebusiness solutions

Social bookmarking & tagging del.icio.us digg.com Stumbleupon.com AddThis.com


ebusiness solutions

Where has social networking come from? Internet time-spent-viewing soon to over take TV Majority of purchases now researched online first Customers now way more knowledgeable than at

any time before Social Networking 4th in web usage terms (Nielsen)

But growing twice as fast as other sectors

1 in every 6 minutes spent on social networks in UK 2m in UK access via their mobile But Facebook is not the top site in all EU countries


ebusiness solutions

Benefits of using social media Enables direct customer engagement Ability to influence opinion of your followers Improve and manage your reputation Support your brand & its values


ebusiness solutions

You can use social media to… Disseminate information about your products/brand Publicise product updates, promotions & news Gain direct feedback on the market’s expectations Direct followers to your website & blog updates Create goodwill among customers Follow industry thought leaders Research social trends Monitor your company / brands Respond publicly to negative statements


ebusiness solutions

Revenue generation most likely when used for Mass communication

Barack Obama - Twitter

Rapid dissemination of news / offers ASOS - Facebook

Promote discounted stock Dell - Twitter

Community building Facebook forest


ebusiness solutions

Questions to ask yourself before starting: What do I want to talk to people about? What would my customers be interested in? Who is doing this well and what can I learn from

them? How can I link this back to my website? How do I promote myself without using social media

purely as a sales channel? How do I position this internally so people get it?


ebusiness solutions

First steps Add a bookmarking facility Become a follower of some Tweets (especially your

products/brands) Setup TweetDeck to monitor keywords and filter

incoming tweets Create a LinkedIn account and connect with your

contact list Create a blog (using Blogger/Wordpress) and link to

LinkedIn profile Start tweeting links to your Blog/Site


ebusiness solutions

First steps Create a Facebook page and link to your

Blog/Site/News/Promotions Add a "Find us on Facebook" button to your website Add a "Follow us on Twitter" button Create a Facebook username (fast!)

Search for, join and post *relevant* wall posts to Facebook groups

If you sell, create reviews facility & shareable wish lists


ebusiness solutions

A few tips to help you on your way... Use TinyURLs to get most from your 140 characters Install TweetDeck for easier tweet management Use Mr Tweet to identify useful contacts Follow everyone in your industry

Including potential customers

Send a direct welcome tweet (with your URL) to all new followers

Use Twitter search / TweetDeck to monitor brand conversations or use a monitoring service (£££)


ebusiness solutions

A few tips to help you on your way... Retweet (RT) interesting posts that you have

discovered Respond to negative comments about you and your

brand But only where necessary and appropriate

Reinforce positive comments Try to recruit advocates and brand champions Always check your direct messages and replies,

and respond when necessary Make your tweets interesting – don't just sell, inform


ebusiness solutions

Thank you for coming!

Documents

Social Networking How It Can Help Your Business 13 07 09