leveraging blogs & facebook for your business
DESCRIPTION
Presentation on how to leverage blogs and Facebook for small businesses.TRANSCRIPT
Leveraging Blogs & Facebook For Your Business
Rachel Melia
Online & Mobile Marketing Consultant
Agenda
My background Marketing paradigm shift Social media stats Social media business use Case studies Is it for you? Business reasons to jump in Do’s & Don’ts Getting started Resources
Background
15 years online advertising experience on clients including Kodak Mobile (part of Kodak Gallery), Macromedia, Microsoft, Palm, Tivo
3+ years as marketing consultant for Cellfire, Attainia, and others
Acquisition, activity/retention, website development, user research
Recent emphasis on social media marketing Women In Consulting Facebook Coordinator
Marketing Paradigm Shift
Hubspot, 2009
Marketing used to be one-way..
… now marketing is two-way
Social Media Stats
Facebook has 350 million users Facebook reaches 56% of the internet universe with
an average usage of 6 hrs/mo per user Facebook is the #3 site visited by users 65 and older Twitter grew 500% year-over-year Time spent on social networking sites in the US
increased 277% year-over-year The average US worker spends 5 hrs/mo visiting social
networks at the office
Source: Mediapost.com
Social media has become mainstream and continues to grow rapidly
Business Use
•62% visit company pages on social media sites•55% visit company blogs•55% search for info on social media sites
•Of companies using social media, 70% of maintain profiles on social media sites•60% of companies maintain blog/s
*Business.com 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking StudyRespondents: 3,000 business North American business professionals
Business Use
•Website traffic most popular success metric•Engagement with prospects and brand awareness also popular metrics
•Website traffic, useful product feedback, and lead volume are measured most successfully (very well/well vs. not at all/barely)
Business Use
•Of those with company social media profile, 80% have a Facebook page
•Approximately 50% say social media sites impact business results well/very well – varies minimally across sites •48% report Facebook impacts business results well/very well
Business Use
•Employees at very small companies are the most likely to use social media as a business resource and employees at very large companies somewhat less likely
•Real estate & construction most likely to use social media as resource•Law and industrial goods & services least likely to use social media as resource
Additional Research – B2C & B2B
•Driving traffic most used Facebook tactic
•Creating a Facebook application and creating a survey worked best for B2C•Creating a survey and “friending” recent customers worked best for B2B
Case Studies – Big B2C
1. Company: Dairy QueenObjectives/Tactics: Blog – humanize brand and connect with customers, Facebook – consumer engagement, Twitter – reputation monitoring, customer service, DQ promotion, identifying/rewarding brand evangelistsResults: Blog – 50,000 visitors and 560 comments, Facebook – 748,908 fans, Twitter – 5,090 followers
2. Company: StarbucksTactic: Facebook – varied/fun status updates (video, blog posts, all aspects about coffee) Results: 5,535,433 very engaged/loyal fans
Case Studies – B2B
3. Company: Spherion (recruiting and staffing)Objective: Access to active and passive job seekersTactic: Facebook - Partnered with CareerBuilder to provide robust contentResults: 8,339 fans, valuable candidate feedback used for improved business model and communication strategy, plethora of job applicants (10% placed)
4. Company: Louis E. Page (fencing supplier)Tactic: Blog (“How To Use Woven Wire Fencing To Build A Horse Paddock”)Results: 1,500 views, media coverage, 850% increase in sales leadshttp://www.necn.com/Boston/SciTech/2009/07/28/Business-finds-success-through/1248823389.html
Case Studies – B2B
5. Company: Business.com (business how-to site)Objectives: Build awareness as source for business solutions and drive higher quality traffic to siteTactics: 2 blogs (“What Works For Business” and “B2B Online Marketing”), Twitter – 2 accountsResults: Learnings – volume of blog posts important for consistent following and SEO rankings, importance of editorial planning – intermix long posts w/ frequent short ones
6. Company: Women In ConsultingObjectives: Awareness as resource for consultants/small businesses, thought leadership, grow affiliate and member baseTactics: Blog, LinkedIn, Facebook, TwitterResults: LinkedIn – 1,060 members, Twitter – 305 followers, Facebook – 320 fans (started 4 mos ago/limited promotion)Next: Survey to learn what types of content people want, role social media plays in acquiring new members
Should You Do It?
Business Reasons
Blog
Thought leadership – credibility/PR
Content for Facebook and other social media
Drive traffic to site, etc.
SEO – search favors frequent updates
Customer/ prospect engagement
Drive traffic to site, etc.
Customer feedback and suggestions
Profile customer demographics and interests
Surveys
SEO – search now indexing social sites
Do’s & Don’ts
Always remember POST – People, objectives, strategy, tactics. Use social media to achieve objectives.
Don’t take on too much – Social media takes significant time to execute well and see results. Focus is important.
Don’t spam – Producing quality content is critical to success. Remember your company’s reputation is on the line.
Do figure out what works for you – Some social media best practices apply to many companies, but not all. No one knows YOUR brand better than you. Look at social media outreach as an opportunity to open a dialogue with core audience and find out what they want from YOU. Every company has to experiment with social media and find out what works best for them.
Business.com 2009
2009-dabbling with tools, 2010-all about strategy
Getting Started – Blog Choose blog service - Blogger (Google), Typepad, WordPress
Use of company domain (blog.company.com vs. company.typepad.com) Allows subscriptions by RSS and email Themes/customization Integration with social media
Create blog Template, customization, widgets
Develop content strategy and publishing schedule Designate writer/s and manager/s Develop promotion strategy
Site, email/newsletter, social media, signature, guest articles Analysis
Blogging services offer reporting tools 3rd party tools such as Hubspot, Omniture
Getting Started - Facebook Create page (or group)
Logo, company information Develop content strategy and publishing schedule
Blog posts, industry insights, relevant articles, interesting company information, events, photos/videos
Designate administrator/s Develop promotion strategy
Site, email/newsletter, social media, signature Analysis
Facebook has reporting tools 3rd party tools such as Hubspot, Omniture
Resources
Hubspot http://www.hubspot.com/Mashable http://mashable.com/MarketingProfs
http://www.marketingprofs.com/
