Social Media What’s social media and why

should I care?

What is Social Media?

• marketing, customer service, product marketing, customer service, product developmentdevelopment

• ““word-of-mouth on steroids”word-of-mouth on steroids”

• a vehicle in which people create and share a vehicle in which people create and share “their stuff” “their stuff”

• a “conversation” between brands and a “conversation” between brands and consumersconsumers

• low cost communication channel low cost communication channel

“Sounds Cool but I Don’t Have Time for

that...”

“With 67% of the worldwide internet population visiting,

social networks and blogs are now outpacing email in

popularity.”

-Nielsen Online, 2009

Social Media is NOT...

• blatant advertising

• purely the number of “friends”, “followers” or “fans”

• a flash-in-the-pan tactic to get traffic to your site

• starting various social networking accounts for the sake of having them

• a quick solution to all your problems

Social Media is made up of...

• blogging (wordpress.com/wordpress.org)

• microblogging (twitter)

• RSS (feedburner, netnewswire, newsgator, google reader)

• widgets (modules with content that are shareable and embeddable)

• social networks (myspace, linkedin, facebook, bebo, hi5)

• podcasting

• video and photo sharing sites (youtube, vimeo, 12seconds.tv, flickr, picassa)

• social bookmarks

• crowdsourcing platforms (uservoice, digg, reddit)

• forums (yours and others)

What’s in it for Me?

• Social media helps turn your most passionate consumers, fans, brand evangelists and communities into sales.

• Increase relevant traffic to your site

• Engaging with you via social networks is a “micro-commitment”; an important part in the sales process

• People have questions about the things you sell that aren’t being answered.

• People care about what their FRIENDS say.

How Do I Start?

• Listen to what your customers and community are saying.

• Connect and participate in the conversation. What’s your story? How can you help?

• Enable, inspire and influence your community. How can you contribute to the community?

• Give them something to talk about. Your story. Your products. Your store. Your employees.

Use these Tools to Market Your Store and Your Products

• Google Alerts (media monitoring your industry, store, name)

• Facebook Fan Page (engage with customers. The secret: syndicate all your fresh pictures, news, updates, videos)

• Twitter (for customer service)

• Yelp (for customer service)

• YouTube (show off new products, tutorials with your URL)

• Flickr (pictures of new products with your URL on them)

• Blog (spotlight employees, new products, updates about your store, customers)

• Yahoo Answers (show your expertise, answer questions related to music & musical instruments with your URL)

Social Media tIPS

• Don’t treat it as an afterthought... integrate!

• NO SPAM!

• Quick response time

• Be transparent, be relevant and be real

• Fresh updates and news

Integrated Communications

• Solidify your online efforts with offline efforts

• Don’t forget to leverage your email list

• Don’t forget your store homepage- make it “social”!

• Every effort should point to another (ie: include links to your profiles in your email and invite customers to join)

• Welcome feedback (negative feedback is an opportunity)

• Be a community hub or resource in any way you can

•Questions?