Social Media/Networking
for Business

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Presented By

Jeff Yette Ryan Jones Romeyn Prescott

Feel free to ask questions throughout the presentation.

Leave me a business card or bring up a thumb drive at the end and we'll provide you with a copy of this presentation.

What is Social Media/Networking?

The interaction between a group of people who share a common interest using internet technologies to communicate using shared interests, related skills, or geographical location.

Examples of Social Media

Blogs (Web Logs)

Blogger.com

Wordpress

Networking Sites

LinkedIn

MySpace

Facebook

Twitter

Other

YouTube

Groups/Forums

Google Local Business Center

FourSquare

Who uses social media for business?

Local businesses:Sun Feather Soap, McDuffsTavern, Ton's Sports Bar, Slic.com; Brambles Inn, CPHospital, 99hits, Evans & Whites, St. Lawrence Chocolates, The Potsdam Chamber, etc.
Colleges:SUNY Potsdam, Clarkson University, SUNY Canton (News), St. Lawrence University

Why Social Media?

Brand Awareness

Customer Service

Community Building

Lead Generation

Using the right tool

ChannelObjectiveStrength

TwitterCustomer CareBrand Awareness- Real time communication and help- Sharing short updates and links to relevant news- Public collaboration and conversations

FacebookCustomer CareBrand Awareness- Relationship building with customers- Insight into the personal interests of your community - Sharing valuable content for community members to share

Video Sharing (eg - YouTube)Lead GenerationBrand Awareness- Visual storytelling- Tapping into client and prospect emotions- Highlighting people and the impact of your brand

BlogsBrand AwarenessLead Generation- Constant source of industry news and information- Sharing of multiple types of content such as images, video or embedded media

Content Sharing (eg - SlideShare)Brand AwarenessCommunity Building - Demonstrating expertise in respective industry- Appears in search engine results- Providing material and messaging for others to share

Photo Sharing
(eg - Flickr)Brand AwarenessCommunity Building - Visual aids to bolster branding- Highlighting the human side of a brand with images of employees, fans, customers and partners - Ability for clients and users to tag images associated with you

LinkedInCustomer CareLead Generation- Insight into prospects and current client base through profiles- Establishing credibility as a business- Providing help to customers in questions forums and groups- Presenting

Geolocation(eg FB Places, Google Places, FourSquare)Lead GenerationCommunity Building - Presenting new specials for customers- Provides incentives for repeat visits with badges, pins and mayorships

Is THE most popular social networking site with over 500 Million active users 1/2 of which access Facebook via a mobile device
(up from 400M in 2010)

Average users has 130 friends and spends more than 55 minutes a day on Facebook

3M active pages & 3.5M events monthly

55% Females, 18-24 = 40.8%, 25-34 = 26.7%, 35-54 = 16.6%

Must create a personal profile (facebook doesn't allow a business-only accounts)

Create Pages to promote your business

Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and click on the Local Business or Place button

Add your FB URL to your regular e-mail signature, business cards, etc.
http://www.facebook.com/username/ (NOTE: Allows you to set a custom URL for your business page)

CUSTOMER CARE | BRAND AWARENESS

Invite existing contacts to be your FB friends
http://www.facebook.com/find-friends/

Post business updates on your wall. Focus on business activities, such as Working with ABC Company on web site redesign.

Share survey or research data to gain credibility

Market products/services by posting FB exclusive discounts/deals

Add FB to your website:
http://www.facebook.com/badges/ http://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/web

Tips & Tricks

Complete the profile of your account include keywords important to your business as well as a link to your website

People like tips, links to interesting stories and blogposts (they dont have to be about your company), exclusive deals and a good sense of humor

People like the human touch and will appreciate posts with your thoughts and experiences more than you think

They also like it when you say hi, respond to their questions, comments, praise, complaints and jokes

Don't try to sell be helpful, post links about industry news, anwer questions, be entertaining, humourus. Once you have established a sense of community, then you can begin to sell through exclusive offers

LEAD GENERATION | COMMUNITY BUILDING

Easily created from a mobile device app
(iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android) or by going to:
http://touch.facebook.com/

You my claim ownership of a Place page and verify it
http://www.slideshare.net/jeffyette/claiming-verifying-merging-a-facebook-place-page

Once ownership is claimed, the Place page can be meged with an existing Business Page

Allows customers to check-in to your location/event

Create specials & coupons based on patronage. Think of the milk card get a hole punched 10 times for a free gallon of milk

Creating a Facebook Place Page with an iPhone, iPad

Launch FB app Click Check In Search for Location Tag Friends & Check In

See where others are

Select Places You can also click
Map for a visual representation

Break
Time

Great for maintaining business contacts/recomendations
Think of it as a rolodex of business cards

Arguable that a Linkedin account can increase your Google Page Rank and search engine results

LinkedIn has over 100 million members (up 40 million from last year) in over 200 countries.

Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.

Considered a form of micro-blogging similar to the status updates of MySpace & Facebook

Twitter lets you write and read messages of up to 140 characters, or the very length of this sentence, including all punctuation and spaces.

Everyday, millions of users create, share and discover ideas on Twitter
(19 million users reported as of October 2009 according to Neilson data as published by eMarketer)

A few Twitter success storiesTwitter users follow Dell Outlet for exclusive deals on electronics - and have driven more than $3M in sales through TwitterIce cream eaters in New York give local chain
Tasti-D-Lite marketing feedback via Twitter - and sometimes get surprise dessert deliveriesCoffee drinkers in Houston choose CoffeeGroundz for the personal relationships theyve built on Twitter - and the shops Twitter-based ordering

Before you dive inIf you want to spend time listening first, you dont need an account to search at http://search.twitter.comTry searching for your company and a few key topics in your fieldUse the advanced search http://search.twitter.com/advanced
or near and within to find tweets in your target market. Example: near:13676 within:25miListening can help you get a sense of how you want to engage on Twitter

78 million registered users

Over 150,000 videos uploaded daily

Great for product demo, product reviews, and how-to videos

Videos are showing up at the top of most common search engine queries

Blendtec, a small business based in Orem, Utah budgeted under $100 for a quirky video showing their blender pulverizing iPods, golf balls, etc. The funny viral videos were a big hit; driving millions of viewers to the Will It Blend website. Wall Street Journal reported how Blendtec sales jumped up 43%

More tips and tricks

Must be done with a fair amount of frequency suggest a minimum of 2-3 times a week make it a routine part of your daily/weekly schedule

Can be time consuming so set limits and expectations appropriately

Avoid distractions like Mafia Wars, Farmville, Quizzes, etc. - block these applications so you don't continue to be bothered by requests

Social Media is not a popularity contest. Accept friend invitations/followers only from people that fit your customer profile based on geographic location and other demographics 100 friends that fit your ideal customer profile are better than 1,000 faceless people

Create events (MySpace, Facebook) and fan pages (Facebook) to promote specific products and happenings

Categorize your friends (MySpace, Facebook) relevant to your products/service and send them invitations/messages that are relevant to them

Local Business Center

Allows you to Put your Business on the Map

Encourages customer reviews/comments

Provides links to your website, driving directions to your location & clickable phone numbers for smartphones

Often appears near the top of Google search results

Thank You!

Your feedback is appreciated

Please send comments & follow-up questions to:

potsdam@slic.com

Social Media/Networking for Business

5/3/2010

Presented by: Jeff Yette (info@44dn.com)