SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SMALL BUSINESSES JINAL SHAH

www.jinalshah.com

ME

Blogging Circa 2000

Non-traditional Career Path

Landed every single job via social media

5 Yrs in Digital Media

Aspiring Small Business Owner!

THERE IS A LOT OF INFORMATION

126,000,000 Results on Google for ‘Social Media for Small Business Owners’

2,197 Presentations on Slideshare.net for ‘Social Media for Small business Owners”

15,740 Social Media Gurus and Experts on Twitter

NOT HERE TO ADD TO THE NOISE

Not a Social Media 101. Neither will this be yet another talk meant to overwhelm you.

THE NEXT 60 MINUTES Thinking bigger

1.  Reaffirm the significance of social media for your business

2.  Framework for executing effectively and efficiently

3.  Learn from other SBO’s and how they are incorporating social media into their business plans

4.  Separate social media as an extension of marketing – and think of it as an extension of your business

60

REAFFIRM SM’S SIGNIFICANCE A Citibank survey of 500 U.S Small businesses shows that 75% of small businesses aren’t using social media for business. Social media is at the bottom of their to-do list.

But the 25% that ARE using social media, aren’t denying its impact on their business.

BRAND RECOGNITION: The biggest result is name recognition.For my business, we have created a relatively small but responsive group of followers and fans. I would say that our Brand is bigger than we are. – Stella Gassaway, Heavybubbles

AWARENESS: Without social media we would be unknown except for the various festivals that we have attended like the Brooklyn flea and the renegade craft fair. It is rewarding to hear someone say that they have heard of us and that they like the product. – Umang Shah, Chorbazzar

SALES: Within a few weeks, we'd sold 500 pairs of pants. It was the greatest impact we've had so far in the shortest amount of time. – Chris Lindland, Cordarounds

REAFFIRM SM’S SIGNIFICANCE

MEDIA HITS: The only cost we had was production of the bags and the time spend planting them through the city – the results? Incredible. – Rachel Nasvik Team

CUSTOMER SERVICE: We were able to tweak our product offer and better meet our customer demands, thanks to Facebook! – Kaniskha Jewels

REAFFIRM SM’S SIGNIFICANCE You too can achieve similar results. But it is not going to happen overnight.

What follows is a practical approach to achieving success in social media.

STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

SET GOALS

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

PRIORITIZE INVESTMENT

EXECUTE & TRACK RESULTS

What are your business goals and how can social media help you achieve them better and faster? How do you want to measure your success in social media ?

Where are your audiences spending time on the web? Are they talking about you or your competitors somewhere? What are their needs?

Each platform helps achieve specific goals – align these to your own goals and audiences to evaluate the right platforms for your business. Think about the kind of resources and time you will require to invest in these platforms.

What sort of content strategy will you employ ? What will be the frequency of your interactions and commitment ? How soon can you track results and optimize ?

GOALS & AUDIENCES

You are not a Dell. You are not Zappos. Entertainment networks want to drive tune-in to their programming, magazines want to increase audiences and traffic to their online content. What do you want to do?

Play to the strengths social media offers. Customer feedback loops, building awareness and engagement, building thought-leadership, addressing negative reviews and driving action.

Listen to your customers. Pay attention to their conversations about you, your competitors, their needs and complaints. Incorporate learning's into your execution strategy.

PRIORTIZE YOUR INVESTMENT

Live where your audience does. Social media is in a flux. Spend time where your audiences are - even if that means it is an obscure site without the momentum and numbers that other social platforms have.

Determine your role and time commitment before executing. The time you invest in social media is directly proportional to the results you can expect to see from your efforts.

Understand the platform before you invest in it. Understand the platform, it’s strengths and limitations to help set expectations before you execute.

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FACEBOOK TWITTER

PRIMARY BENEFITS

Brand Engagement; Customer Relations; Sales & Promotions; Showcasing company culture & ideals

Building Thought-leadership; Customer Service; Sales & Promotions; Showcasing company culture & ideals

NETWORK EFFECT

Every example of fan activity on Facebook is broadcast to an average of 130 friends, driving enrollment within the network

Conversations are quick and reactive, Little to no network effect.

SIZE Over 400 Million active users that spend on an average 55 minutes a day

Over 50 Million accounts with the active account numbers being much lower

SHARING & USER BEHAVIOR

Allows media sharing: photographs, videos, etc.

Limits media sharing to links and twitpics which open on a different page

CULTURE Promotes a culture of conversations, debates and interactions.

More of a broadcast and information network. Quick stream of thoughts, ideas and links that encourage less interaction

PRIORTIZE PLATFORMS

Social media humbles you. Just because you’ve launched a new product or are offering a 20% discount does not give me a reason to care about you.

Share of attention is difficult to achieve on the web. Even though users spend an average of 1 hour a day on Facebook, they are spending this time interacting with their friends – not brands or businesses.

Do something different. It’s about content. It’s about providing value. But mostly, it’s about giving your fans and customers something to talk about.

EXECUTE

Social media is not a marketing strategy. It’s a business strategy. Social media pushes you to think creatively. The only platform where you can achieve ten times your monetary investment. Complements not replaces your other efforts.

Attracting and growing audiences. Quality, not quantity. Focus on building thought leadership via compelling content and promotions about what you and your company stand for – it is more valuable to have a small but engaged audience than a larger but passive audience.

Driving results. Results do not always equal sales or revenues. Results may also mean savings, cost reduction on other activities, and other intangible benefits.

DRIVING RESULTS

Build Audience

Drive Awareness

Inspire Action

CASE STUDIES

CASE STUDY: KOGI KOREAN BBQ The first Kogi BBQ truck (and accompanying Twitter account, which now has more than 20,000 followers) debuted in November, and the company is now about to increase its numbers from two to four trucks. Each Kogi truck regularly experiences hundreds of customers per night and sometimes even runs out of tacos. "People search for it," said Alice Shin, Kogi BBQ's in-house blogger and Twitterer. "It's kind of like a treasure hunt for them." - CNET

CASE STUDY: NAKED PIZZA

To be honest, I'm actually stunned at the amount of business driven in by Twitter, even with a modest New Orleans following. Last Thursday we ran some "Tweetie Pie" specials—i.e., you had to be on Twitter to see it and take advantage of the coupon. Tweetie Pie specials that day accounted for more than 15 percent of our business. However, measuring the ROI of all this - and it takes real time and money to explore - is like trying to herd cats. - Jeff Leach, Naked Pizza

CASE STUDY: RACHEL NAVSIK

“Turned the chore of buying a purse into a fun, competitive game that energized Rachel Nasvik’s fan base and caught the attention of media”. – MSN

TAKEAWAY

CHECKLIST In 2010, my business goal is _____________.

My customers are spending their time on _______, _______ & _______ doing _________.

Focusing on _________ & _________ will help me achieve my business goals and serve my customers.

These are the three actions I will take on each platform to achieve my goals. 1) _______ 2)_________3)___________

I will measure my success by ___________ & _____________.

My expectations from investing time and resources into social media are ___________, _________ & _________.

THANK YOU