Marketing Products, Services or Unique Ideas:

Using WordPress and Social Media

Aaran Duncan, Digital DeceptionsGlenn McKnight, Global Catalysts

Consulting

Presentation Agenda

1.  About Us2.  Social Media Basics3. The Power of Wordpress4. Intro to WordPress

1. About Us:   Glenn McKnight

IT consultant working with Business and non profits to help them use the power of digital storytelling to convey their message

BackgroundICANN Member for Internet Standards,IEEE HTC Data Connectivity committee 

1. About Us

Duncan is a Durham Region Graphic and Web Design expert

Helps promote products, services or unique ideas through print, SEO, accessible standards based web design, social media and marketing.

Winner of WordCamp Toronto 2009 Best WordPress Theme  www.digitaldeceptions.ca

2. Social Media

What is Social Media

Wikipedia:

“Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures.”

Growth There are currently 112 million active blogs (

Technorati). 10 billion videos are viewed online each month in

the US (comScore). Consumer-created content is the No. 1 aid to a

buying decision (J.C. Williams Group). Reviews generated by fellow consumers have a

greater influence than those generated by professionals (The Kelsey Group).

 

socialstudiezblog.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/the-ultimate-social-media-marketing-guide/ 

It's not your grand-daddy's internet

“I think it’s the way to reach fragmented audiences. The model before was you could take a shotgun approach through newspapers and traditional media like TV and it would be very effective. 

Now audiences are looking for communication resources that are specific to their interests so it’s harder to reach them traditionally. But you can still connect with them through social media and viral marketing.” 

Agenda

2a. Why is Social Media Important?2b. Social Media State of Mind2c. Project Example2d. Three Types of Social Media2e. Measuring Results

Rethink Marketing

Outbound Marketing

• Telemarketing• Trade shows• Direct Mail• Email blasts• Print ads• TV/radio ads

Inbound Marketing

• SEO• Blogging• Social Media• RSS• Free tool and Trials• Viral videos

Social Media is Inbound Marketing

• Social Media helps with SEO• Social Media promotes your Blog• Social Media is Permission Centric• The conversation has already started…

Agenda

2a. Why is Social Media Important?2b. Social Media State of Mind2c. Project Example2d. Three Types of Social Media2e. Measuring Results

“I’m 48. I don’t understand this Social Media stuff.”

• Similar to a business cocktail reception • Without constraints of time or space

Business Cocktail Party Advice

• Meet people and start conversations• Answer questions – help others, share• Ask questions – trust others’ advice• Have fun• Develop relationships first, sales will come

Social Media = Cocktail Party

• Become a real member of the community• Add value to the community

o Ask and answer questions• More effective than live cocktail parties• No boundaries of time or space• Other people can listen in easily• Content is searchable, leading back to you

Agenda

2a. Why is Social Media Important?2b. Social Media State of Mind2c. Project Example2d. Three Types of Social Media2e. Measuring Results

Project Example: CharityHaunt.ca

We created a W3C standard compliant website so that it can be used as an effective communication vehicle to easily publish content (audio, images, video and text), sell and promote tickets to the Haunt Attraction and utilize the website as the hub for all online marketing, promotions and social media campaigns by measuring and targeting users.

We did this by using 

WordPress, Facebook, YouTube and Google Analytics

Agenda

2a. Why is Social Media Important?2b. Social Media State of Mind2c. Project Example2d. Three Types of Social Media2e. Measuring Results

Marketing Tips for SM-Publishing

• Publish: “Everything you have anywhere you can”• Monitor what others publish, promote it• Empower your customers to publish

Monitor What’s Published

Monitor What’s Published

Monitor What’s Published

Promote Flattering Content

Marketing Tips for SM-Share

• Monitor what’s being shared about you• Find where your audience hangs out• Promote your content and other content• Produce content your audience will love

Marketing Tips for SM-Network

• Make friendso Find your existing connectionso Network through groupso Add to your email signature, blog articles, bio orprofile…

• Be helpfulo Answer questionso Share interesting contento Make connections

Agenda

2a. Why is Social Media Important?2b. Social Media State of Mind2c. Project Example2d. Three Types of Social Media2e. Measuring Results

Lets look at some Social Media stats

modernlifeblogs.com

Facebook Fans & Activity

mashable.com/2011/10/21/facebook-infographic

Other Metrics

• Friends on Facebook. Twitter or LinkedIn• Votes and Comments on blog articles• Posts in forums• Questions answered on Yahoo Answers

Part Three:  Wordpress

History • It was first released on May 27, 2003, by Matt Mullenweg

• Version 3.0 downloaded over 65 million times.

• (CMS) powered by PHP and MySQL and is the most  popular CMS on the Internet

• A Free and Open Source Blogging tool 

WordPress comes in 2 flavours

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is a web hosting service from Automattic which hosts fantastic websites

WordPress.org

WordPress is free software which you can use to create fantastic websites.

en.wordpress.com/stats/

wordpress.org/download/counter

From July to Dec 2011 WordPress 3.2 downloaded 

15 Million Times

15.7%of the top million websites run

WordPress(the nearest competitor has 2.8%)

w3techs.com

WordPress is a CMS(Content Management System)

Why use a CMS?

When you have a lot of content, managing it becomes very complex.

A CMS makes things much easier

• Content lives in the database• The "look" of the website lives in the theme• The CMS brings the two together in real-time

WordPress is written in PHP

PHP is a language designed for web

• Native HTML support• Has functions to do the types of things web pages do• Actively being developed• Works on any platform• Works with any web server software

PHP is easy to learn as far as programming languages go

WordPress is Extensible

wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ 

wordpress.org/extend/themes/ 

wordpress.org/extend/mobile/ 

core.trac.wordpress.org/

Active Developement

The Best Part

The Community

wordpress.org/support

wordpress.stackexchange.com

codex.wordpress.org/Mailing_Lists

central.wordcamp.org

wordpress.tv

wordpressfoundation.org

Now Let Me Introduce You To

WordPress