Week 3:

Microblogs and Personal Branding

Social Media: What’s In It For Me? New Clients

– Your potential customer base is using social media - why not meet them there?

Easy Referrals– Make it easy for your current clients to send you business

Continued Engagement with Current Clients– A way to be in contact with them daily/weekly - stay top of

mind New Revenue Opportunities

– Current/new clients can learn about what else you offer - you don’t have to “sell” them or “create” a need

Customer Service– Find out about/quickly resolve issues

Name Recognition/Credibility as an Expert– Let everyone see that you know what you’re talking about!

Creation/Expansion of a Digital Footprint– An online archive of your organization’s work/contributions

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)– Help new clients find you through Google - not your

competitor

Making an Educated Decision About Social Media Social Media Requires a Strategy - BEFORE you

start– What content/areas of specialty?– Who will manage?– What is the tone of the dialogue with your audience?– How to promote your social media presence? – Are you going to encourage consumers to engage w/ your

profiles? What is your digital footprint going to look like?

– Which social media sites make the most sense?– When will you launch them? – How often will you update?

Are you aware of the challenges?– Give up some control - allow consumers to say what they

want on your page?– Mistakes made can be bad - there are no do-overs– Do you have the time to invest in maintaining healthy

profiles for the long-term

The Social Media Toolbox

Blogs Social Networks: Facebook MicroBlogs: Twitter Wikipedia Video-Sharing: YouTube Your Own Website

Social Media Ecosystem (Oversimplified)

For discussion

How do you use technology such as email, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or another digital tool?

The Social Media Toolbox: Blogs

Content Updates– Frequent updates needed – Can offer more info about

products & services than a static website

– Build a loyal readership– Become a trusted voice

Two-Way Interaction– Reader comments create a

conversation – Comments can be moderated

Conversational Tone– The ‘voice’ of the company

Syndication Technology– RSS allows information to move

quickly across blogs, like a a wire service

– Readers can subscribe to the “feed” to get real-time updates delivered to their desktop

Social networking community with 100+ million active users. Attractive demo: 17 million users age 18-25. The 30+ segment is the fastest growing on Facebook

Usage and engagement is phenomenally high; Brands eager to capitalize on that audience

Tends to be an “Opt In” community; compare this with MySpace, which tends more towards “Opt Out”

Opened platform to developers last year; this provides new ways for Brands to interact with customers in more meaningful ways than simply “more banner ads”

Simple and powerful mobile photo upload

The Social Media Toolbox: Social Networks

Facebook - a peer-to-peer social network

LinkedIn - A business social network

Gives your company a ‘human’ voice

Allows ‘fans’ to easily share your information with others

Allows you to educate your consumers where they spend time online

– Allows customers to engage with your organization on a “personal” level

– Serves as your online resume; demonstrates your company’s expertise and body of work

– Allows contacts to ‘recommend’ you– Offers Q&A area for you to demonstrate your knowledge & expertise

The Social Media Toolbox: MicroBlogs

Twitter - a ‘microblog’ limited to 140 characters per post Allows for two-way; real-time conversation; the exchange

of news & information (URLs); Q&As; updates of content on other social media profiles

The Social Media Toolbox: Wikipedia

A free online collaborative encyclopedia One of top 10 sites on Internet; often returns in top three

Google results

Frequently the next place consumers look for information after a Google search and visiting the company website

The Social Media Toolbox: Video-Sharing

YouTube is the #1 online video site– Allows you to broadcast relevant, useful information to

those who learn best visually– How-tos; Workshops; Presentations; Speaking Engagements– Makes your other profiles more interactive and entertaining

The Social Media Toolbox: Your Website

Offer links from your website to your social media pages Connect your blog, YouTube page, Twitterstream or

Facebook Fan page to your website Your website should promote your social media profiles -

announcing new blog posts, asking for visitors to follow you on Twitter, marking milestones

Your website is a crucial element of a social media strategy

– “We’ve reached our 1,000 fan on Facebook - Are you a Fan Yet?”

– “Did you miss our Webcast today? You can watch it here:”

– “Follow our tweetchat today at 7pm on Tax Benefits for First-time Homebuyers”

– “Did you see our blog interview with Mr. So-So From the IRS?”

Your Strategy: Is It Working?

Blog Blog traffic - Google

Analytics Blog Comments SubscribersFacebook Number of Fans Numbers of Interactions

– Comments, Likes, Shares

Use Facebook InsightsTwitter Number of Followers

(Twitterless - @tless) Number of Retweets of

your info Use bit.ly to track all of

your URLsYouTube Number of views,

comments

For discussion

What are the benefits for such communications? What are the risks? Are there any negative consequences?

For discussion

How do you use these tools for professional communication?

Social Media - Who Is Using It?

Social Media Campaigns - Who Is Using It?

Vanguard has a strategic social media campaign

Social Media Campaigns - Who Is Using It?

AICPA has a well-planned social media strategy for Financial Education

Additional Questions How should companies be thinking about Social

Media? How should you as an individual be thinking about

Social Media? Unit 4 Project: Targeting an Audience Demographic: Select one microblogging site (Twitter, FriendFeed,

etc.) based on your research and discussion from Unit 2.

In a 200 – 250 word essay, compare the various sites available for both social networking (Twitter, FriendFeed, etc.). Start a NEW microblogging account.

Make your first microblog post. Subscribe to the instructor’s microblog and those of

at least four other students. Attach a screenshot of your microblog to this project.