Social Media Masterclass

This is a story about...

Content Audience behaviour Clever technology

What is social media?So…

How media is changing

Message Influencer

Audience

} Audience

Audience

Influencer

Influencer

Influencer

Message

Audience

Digital Media

Traditional Media

What do we mean by social media?

What is social media?

It’s not about blogs or Twitter

It’s about communicating with your audience through the channels they’re already using

How it became social media

TECHNOLOGY

RESPECT

Who do you trust?

11% 39%

32% 59%

Source: Edelman

Social media acceleration...

By the end of this presentation there will have been;• Over 30,000 blog posts published• Over 3,500 new blogs set up• 600 hours of video uploaded to YouTube• Over 3.5 million people signed into Facebook• Over 17 million photos uploaded to Flickr• Over 650,000 tweets published

Forrester ladder of engagement

10%

12%

5%

22%

29%

22%

Source: Forrester, 2009

Publish a blog

Publish your own web pages

Upload video you created

Upload audio you created

Writes articles or stories and post them

Post ratings or products or services

Comment on someone else’s blog

Contribute to online forums

Contribute to wiki’s

Use RSS feeds

‘Vote’ for websites online

Add tags to webpages

Maintain a profile on a social network

Visit social networking sites

Read blogs

Listen to podcasts

Watch videos

Read online forums

Read customer ratings

None of the above

How does this effects the tourism industry?

Would you trust a friend or an advert?Would you trust what everyone is saying or an

advert?People know where to look

What kind of people use social media?Online holiday sales will grow to over £39 billion in

2010, a 20% increase over 2009A record 126 million users will buy online this year, an

8% increase on 200970% of travellers book at least some of their personal

travel online52% of travellers purchase all or most of their personal

travel onlineOnline sales rose 29% in 2009 to over £146 billionOnline sales are expected to climb 19% to £174.5 billion

in 2010

Why blog?

First and foremost – CommunicationsSEO benefits – blogging is Google friendlyIt’s easy – the quickest way to get content

ranked on Google, bar none.It’s easy – very easy to create rich media

experience without technical know how

How to do it right

Tone of voice• Make it yours

Regular content• Make use of the “long tail”

Links • Be part of a community

Bridge the editorial and analytical• Use analytics to inform your editorial strategy

Go ape

Marriott hotels

What is Twitter?So…

Twitter

Massive growth and increasing mainstream interest (over 750% growth in 2008)

Highly flexible in terms of use• Broadcast• Monitoring• Engagement

“Facebook = old friends; Twitter = new friends. That’s why Twitter reigns” • Charles Arthur, The Guardian

Conversation

Ease of Entry

OpenDirect

Everyone’s heard of it

Real Time

Monito

r

• Track what people are saying about your brand• Gain insight into trends and opinions• Identify problems as early as possible

Participate

• Thank satisfied customers – convert them into advocates• Engage with dissatisfied customers to resolve problems and create

positive outcomes• Manage difficult situations with up to the minute crisis comms

Advocat

e

• Initiate conversations on key issues• Share insights and thought leadership• Talk about the things that matter to your customers

STRATEGY FOLLOW CREATE ENGAGE

Customer Relations Your customers and potential customers

Content relevant to your customers: tips, company info, etc

Answer questions, respond to comments about your brand

Crisis Management Your brand, products and relevant issues

Direct to additional resources, updated information, explanation

Answer questions, respond to comments, raise issues, provide info

Corporate Reputation Management

Industry leaders, similar interest groups, news/media

Insights, expertise, become a thought leader

Jump in the conversation. Be transparent and add value

Event Coverage Those interested or attending event, media

Event information, updates, behind the scenes coverage

Set up Tweet-ups, talk to attendees, ask and answer questions

Product Promotion & Sales

Current and potential customers, those interested in similar products

Links to online promos, insider info on upcoming sales, discount codes

Check replies and DMs, answer questions, provide info when needed

Issue Advocacy Those interested in your cause, industry leaders, news

Added value: health tips, disaster alerts, fundraising info

Know your followers, thank them for support, get them involved

Virgin Trains

Manchester Piccadilly

Tweet deck example

Tweet Reach

Tweet Reach measures how many people will have seen your Twitter message

A great tool for looking at ‘depth’ of messaging

What is Facebook?So…

Facebook

Over 350 million users• 70% outside US

Leading social network or ‘social utility’

Principally a social environment

Finding people with a passion

Political parties, pressure groups very active

Top five plug-ins

Static FBML• How to create an interactive left sidebar on a fan page

Promotions• A great way to run competitions through a Facebook fan page plug-in

Social RSS• This is the most effective way to pull in all of your other social media

content (blog, Twitter etc) Poll

• A plug-in that allows you to run interactive polls on your page YouTube for pages

• This plug-in makes it really easy to drop YouTube videos into Facebook fan pages

Facebook Connect

Facebook Connect allows people to use certain features of Facebook from your website

A plug-in is installed on your site which then allows you visitors to share information from your site on Facebook without having to leave your website

Go Ape

YouTube

Gold standard for video sharing

Video carries emotional appeal

Very shareableChallenges from Vimeo

and other video hosting sites

Jet Blue

Forums

Forums are communities that post to a message board

They are often made up of hardcore users, casual visitors and spectators (The 90:9:1 rule)

The TopTable forum has more than 940,000 reviews

Top Table

Monitor?What can we use to…

Resources Google Alerts : http://twitpic.com/ - Set up alerts to easily manage your

social mentions

Twitpic : http://twitpic.com/ - Tweet pictures that might be interesting to your followers – can also be the basis of competitions – or help with customer service issues / enquiries

URL shorteners: http://tinyurl.com/ - this is just one of many sites which allow you to create much shorter URLs for inclusion in your Tweets, helping you to make the most of your 140 characters.

Video hosting sites: http://www.vimeo.com/ - you don’t have to use YouTube to host video – Vimeo offers a very attractive interface with varying levels of access to any videos that you host

Resources Mr Tweet: http://mrtweet.com/ @mrtweet – a “personal

networking assistant” – will provide you with intelligent recommendations on people you should follow to increase your network based on an analysis of your tweets and existing network

Twitter Grader: http://twitter.grader.com/ - this tool allows you to measure your own influence, but also to assess the influence of others who you might want to follow to increase the reach of your network

Tweetstats: http://tweetstats.com/ - another useful site for assessing how long someone has been on Twitter and how active they are

Questions?Any…

All of today’s slides and information can be

found on;http://merseynewmedia.ning.com