Introduction to Social Media for the Consumer Electronics Industry

November 10, 2010

SOCIALMEDIA

Kate Hudkins is the marketing director for Gramophone.

As a former High School English Teacher, she brings a fresh perspective to marketing for the Consumer Electronics Industry.

My Two Cents

New Media Marketing Strategy for Retailers in the Consumer Electronics Industry •

Social Media Marketing acts as a “steroid” for all other marketing activities; so if you’re not doing anything else, it’s not going to work.

•

The goal of any marketing activity is...to create and maintain customers...if you’re not doing that, then what’s the point?

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Which social media platforms are going to work best for you? Who is your target customer and where do they “live” online?

•

What’s your ultimate goal? Are you trying to create awareness of your brand? Change perception of your brand? Increase the number of new customers walking through your door?

Something else?

Make sure you know what you’re looking for, otherwise how will you know if you find it?

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SOCIALMEDIA November 10, 2010

Introduction: Kate Hudkins Marketing Director | Gramophone

CONTACTINFORMATION

A lot of people probably would start off by talking about their credentials, but I’m going to start off with a story that sort of explains how I ended up where I am and what I’m doing today: I am the daughter of Brian Hudkins, who-- at the age of 24--opened a small audio/video store named “Gramophone”. So, for my entire life, I’ve had many experiences in the Consumer electronics Industry. From spending Saturdays at Gramophone to going on business trips with my family, to listening to businessmen in the industry talk about (what else but...) the industry. I was born & raised in the world of consumer electronics.

I never thought I’d actually have a career within the industry, though. My dream was to teach. I spent approximately 7 years in classrooms teaching.

Starting off with short & long-term substitute teaching positions in a K-8 school and my most recent couple of years were spent teaching 10th - 12th Grade English to students in at-risk environments.

Due to medical circumstances, I had to resign from teaching to enter what was always to be my fall-back position in Marketing & Design, and who knows the CE Industry than a gal who was born and raised within it?

Do I have any educational background for what I currently do? Absolutely not, unless Communications 101 counts. Since joining Gramophone, FullTime, as the In-house Marketing Director, I’ve accumulated a handful of credentials as related to Marketing in the 21st Century: I was asked and

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Phone office - 410.308.1650 x. 134 mobile - 443.980.9088 Email khudkins@gramophone.com LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/katehudkins Twitter @katehudkins Facebook facebook.com/khudkins

“I think up new, cool, innovative, and workable ideas. Implement them.

Follow-up on them. And, analyze their effectiveness.” [123 characters] wrote a blog post for the CEA’s blog, Digital Dialogue, regarding our participation in National 3D Demo Days. Baltimore Magazine interviewed us for an article that focuses on 4 of Baltimore’s Tweet Elite (a.k.a. The Twitterati) because we’ve been recognized as making the biggest splash on Twitter in the shortest amount of time. And I’ll be one of 3 presenters in November for CEA’s social media webinar.

Ok, credentials are now out of the way. I think it’s easy to forget what the real goal of any job is because of the ease in getting bogged down in the details. But if there’s one piece of general advice I can give to you, it’s to really think about what the core description is of what you do every day. It makes it ten times simpler to stay on track in the midst of a chaotic world if you can easily say, “Oh, What do I do as a marketing director? I think up new, cool, innovative, and workable ideas. Implement them. Follow-up on them. And, analyze their effectiveness.” Of course there’s more to it. But that’s what it’s about. And that’s where the world is: 140 characters or less. Oh, please do expand on your summary, but only if I find your summary intriguing or mysterious.

SOCIALMEDIA November 10, 2010

What is Social Media?

It’s what makes going online an experience.

“Innovation needs to be part of your company culture. Consumers are transforming faster than we are, and if we don’t catch up, we’re in trouble”

Social Media is any tool that lets you share information and interact with others on the internet.1 It’s about conversations. It’s about being interested and interesting. It’s about being engaged and being engaging. It’s a tool that allows you to choose how much you’d like to stay in front of your audience. It’s about creating your desired persona, sharing likes & dislikes. finding new people, and playing with others in a community. And most of all, it’s about being creative and discovering what your market and audience want and need.

Aliza Sherman spoke about the Internet back in 1995 by using “The 5 C’s of the Web” 1. Communications.

The Internet and the Web were tec nologies that were transforming the way we communicated.

2. Connection.

Being online connected us to people and to information more quickly and easily than ever before.

3. Community.

The Internet and Web was bringing together like-minded people for mu tual support and friendship.

4. Convenience.

Using the Internet could close dis tances, reduce time, and help us do

Ian Schafer

CEO of Deep Focus

things more efficiently and effectively.

5. Creativity.

The Web was helping to “level the playing field,” putting tools of creation in the hands of the individual.

Today, with the advent of social media — a vast and growing set of tools with greater interactive (“social”) functionality — we still have the same 5 C’s: 1. Communications: Check.

Although now we’re calling this “Conversations.”

2. Connection: Check.

Our connections to people are aug mented through social networking functions. Our connections to infor mation are augmented through feeds and sharing functions. We’re so con-

The Internet Has Become Engaging The Experience Factor

Twitter is one of many social media platforms that engage people in conversations and allow people to share news, thoughts and other information

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One of the best statements I’ve heard about Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn: “Facebook & LinkedIn are for staying connected with people you already know.

Twitter is for connecting with people you don’t know, but would like to know better.”

The Internet started out as a place to post information, which in a way is sharing; however it was more like a lecture

Courtesy of Amy Burke Friedman of Profiles, Inc.

nected now, our minds are boggled.

3. Community: Check.

Social networking functions enhance the ways we can start and grow communities.

4. Convenience: Check.

Never before have we had so much information and so many tools at our fingertips.

5. Creativity: Check.

From the ease of setting up a blog to building a presence on a social net work, anyone with access to the Internet and a computer can create and publish virtually anything online.

than a conversation. As time has passed, the technology has changed to allow the Internet to become a place where people have conversations about content. It’s become a place that is so filled with content that people have to have conversations in order to decide what’s important and what’s not.

Additionally, because the Internet has become such and integral part of how we consume information, it becomes simple to lose the human connection; therefore, we have to inject humanity into our daily routine.

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SOCIALMEDIA November 10, 2010

A Look at Traditional vs. New Media Marketing and the importance of using both Written By: Kate Hudkins

“The goal of any business,” Brian “Social Media is an Hudkins, Presiingredient, not an dent of Gramoentree.” phone, says, “is to create and mainJay Baer tain customers.”

Social Media Strategist Marketing has always been essential to achieving this goal, and until recently it was all about just raising your hands in the air and saying “Hey Look At Me! I’m Awesome Too!” Now, with the overwhelming amount of information, forms of media, and advertising it’s become increasingly difficult to get your brand’s message across to potential clients by using the more traditional forms of marketing (e.g. print ads, newspaper inserts, billboards, direct mail, and radio and television spots) One of the most successful forms of marketing has always been word-of-mouth or referrals.

People trust their friends, family, and people they admire and are more likely to make a purchase when someone they trust makes the recommendation or associates themselves with the product or service.

Traditional marketing does an outstanding job of developing the creative message, and New Media marketing does an outstanding job of spreading the message. The point is not to choose one over the other, but rather to use the two as complementary to each other. A strong marketing campaign is going to have elements pulled from both the traditional media side of the fence and the social/new media side.

Traditional Media consists primarily of two categories: Print & Non-Print.

When you compare the two models to the right, it’s quite simple to see how connected and engaged the conversation marketing model (bottom) is, while the more traditional marketing model (top) remains one-directional, with fewer connections. In the digital age, people want to feel connected -- family, friends, celebrities, co-workers, and (yes) even brands.

It’s crucial, though, to recognize that social media is just one component of New Media Marketing, and, even then, you’ll probably still want to maintain some presence in the Traditional Marketing arena, as

we are still in a transition stage, where appealing to two audiences is necessary in order to create and maintain your customers. As time passes, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the shift from print media and traditional non-print to 100% digital media & digital media consumption.

“The goal of any business is to create and maintain customers.” Brian Hudkins

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SOCIALMEDIA November 10, 2010

Why Social Media is Getting So Much Hype Pros & Cons, Likes & Dislikes Written by: Stacy Reed Social Media Marketing Intern at Gramophone Check out this video as a look into the hype that surrounds Social Media: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng&feature=related

Social media websites have taken the world, including the business world, by storm in a matter of a few years. Everyone is buzzing about social media in almost every industry.

Social Media is a revolution that is growing rapidly. Compare the spread of social media with other technological advances: • Radio got 50 million users in 38 years.

• Television took 13 years.

• The Internet took 4 years.

• The Ipod took 3 years.

• Facebook, alone, reached 200 million users in under a year!

• Additionally, iPod application downloads reached 1 billion in 9 months.

Facebook is ranked second, just under Google, as the most visited site on the web in the United States as well as world wide, according to Alexa.com. If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest in the world; under India and China. Other social media websites on the world wide list are YouTube at number 3, Blogger at number 8 and Twitter at number 9. Social media is a worldwide industry.

Social media is receiving so much hype simply because it allows people to communicate and network with people locally, nationally, and globally. People rely on other people for information. In a YouTube video called “Social Media Revolution 2,” the author says that 78% of consumers trust peer evaluations of products whereas only 14% trust advertisements. This video has received over 1 million views. Word of mouth is the quickest form of advertising.

As with any marketing strategy, there are some drawbacks with using social media in a business:

social media. Evaluate your customer base and figure out if social media is right for your company.

While there are cons to social media, there are a lot of pros to using social media: Opportunity to show your customers who you are: Presence in social media can help your customers relate to your business more. It shows that there are real people behind the business. It also builds relationships with new and existing clients and professionals in the industry.

Social Media is relatively cheap: Companies can start a Facebook,Twitter, Blog, etc for FREE. Most of the social media sites are free. You can pay for ad’s and things of that nature but for the most part, you can do it for a low cost.

Although it’s cheap, you do invest your time and effort.

They’re versatile: Many companies use social media to reach in and out. By this, it means that they can reach clients outside of the office, employees inside the office, and professionals inside and outside of the industry. Whatever a business wants to use their social media for, is up to them.

There are many specialized niche social media tools available.

Viral Marketing: What travels faster than word of mouth? Sound? The social networks are now more connected than ever and this promotes things going viral. You can share a blog or video on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, a company website, etc all with one click. Update statuses using HootSuite or TweetDeck and have them go to many of your social networking sites at the same time. RSS Feeds allow users to subscribe to content on web pages and be updated as the site puts up new content.

Social Media requires a lot of time: Constant updates, finding useful information, responding to tweets and posts, etc can be time consuming. It requires monitoring, analyzing, and a lot of attention. Solutions to this can be multitasking, hiring a social media coordinator, which is becoming very popular, and outsourcing for a fee.

Delay on ROI: You won’t see an immediate return on the investment you spend on social networking; after all it’s about building relationships and reaching out to clients.

You’ll be measuring page views, clicks, comments, etc but people will not buy into your social media overnight. Building brand loyalty takes time but will be worth the investment.

Social Media isn’t for everyone: If your clients don’t use social media, you might not see any return on investments. Does your target market get online frequently? Statistically the fastest growing segment for Facebook are females ages 55-65. Generations X & Y make up most of

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SOCIALMEDIA November 10, 2010

The Importance of Staying Relevant ...and what happens if you don’t Written By: Greg Cangialosi TheTrendJunkie.com

Some people get a little shocked when I tell them that I rarely prepare my presentations for a speaking engagement until just a couple of days before the event (Sorry, I know this frazzles some event organizers who request copies of decks before events). The reason for this is simple, although I have my core concepts and messages down, the world I live in is moving so fast that I feel like I almost HAVE to wait until the last minute in order for me to have the most relevant, up to date information, examples, etc in my presentation. I like the edge, and I find that the people who show up to listen like it as well. I do my best to stay relevant in a fast moving marketing & media landscape.

Are you in a fast moving market? Not all markets move fast, but almost every industry is evolving faster than it ever has before. Every industry has a voice, has its leaders, and has its events. Hopefully your organization has an active voice, is looked at as a leader in your space, and shows up at key industry events to build relationships. In this economic climate, you need to remain relevant and on the edge, now more than ever.

Here are three reasons why its critical to stay in the eyes and ears of your prospects, customers and the media: 1. People Like Working with Leaders.

It’s true. People like working with companies that help to define their market and their industry. It’s important to be on the edge in your industry, and ensure that you are perceived as a market leader to the rest of the world. Make yourself a leader, make yourself the expert. This takes time, dedication and a lot of effort, but now more than ever before, the landscape has shifted and opened up incredible opportunities for gaining exposure and maximizing thought leadership opportunities. I can’t stress this enough.

2. Stale Marketing Communications = Not Interested.

Think about it, if you are archaic in your marketing and communications approach, it SCREAMS to the rest of the world, “We are not interested in our business.” Harsh, but true. Even though you are interested, a lack of engagement, awareness, and steady communication coming from your organization puts you in the dark ages with how fast things are moving today.

If you still don’t have a blog that is actively being updated with good content, if you are not sending out a monthly email newsletter to your customers and prospects and keeping them in the loop on whats happening, if you are not participating, speaking, and engaging at key industry events, if you are still second guessing the power of how services like twitter, facebook, Linkedin, etc can help your business, and if it makes absolutely no sense to you why anyone would even spend time with these tools, you are at a GREAT deficit in your industry.

In fact, for people in slower moving industries, this is one of those rare moments in time when you have one of the greatest advantages EVER, right now, to “get it,” and LEAP ahead of your competition. Now is the time to use all of the tools available to you and communicate your organizations message, engage with your base, and get out there and get in front of people.

“A first impression is important, but in the end, it’s every impression after that really matters.”

Kate Hudkins

3. Brands Need Personality Now more than ever its more important to bring personality to your brand, no matter the industry. This is another key trend that smart marketers get. As we continue to move into a transparent world, your brand needs to have a voice, a personality, and the culture of your organization needs to be known to the outside world.

Think about it, at the end of the day, people don’t work with companies, people work with people. To me this is truly the ultimate gem in using the social web for business. It’s about building relationships. People connecting with other people and bridging the digital divide in person.

Every brand has a personality, and its the people that work for the organization that make up its personality. Aligning your entire team with your market vision and getting them engaged with your base only amplifies the signal of your organization.

There are many other reasons and ways to stay relevant in your space, and thats why we have comments! I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions below. Thanks for reading. *Thoughts From Kate

Getting co-workers involved is a great way to liven up your social media feeds, as well as spread the time management portion. As the CAD technician for Gramophone, I provide our Twitter followers with resources and information that they can use for different aspects of their day. Engaging our customers is just as important as telling them what to buy or who to follow. People on Twitter, generally, are people who aren’t currently customers, or don’t know who we are, so maintaining a consistent persona and providing varying points of view is crucial. It also prevents people at the other end from thinking: “Oh it’s just the marketing department trying to get me to buy something.” When you show that you have a variety of voices speaking from the same brand, people tend to start interacting with you more. Our CAD tech regularly shares links that he finds interesting, provides little bits of information about room layouts, color choices, and provides some banter with followers in our stream.

Great Info on How to Write Effectively for Social Media can be found at one of my personal favorite resources: The Interactive Insights Group.

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SOCIALMEDIA November 10, 2010

Twitter and Facebook may have some of the same features; however the people using them, and the way in which they’re used, are as different as apples & oranges.

Different Social Media Platforms and why one or two isn’t enough.

Written By Kate Hudkins

Some people enjoy clubbing, while other can’t stand it and would prefer an intimate dinner party. Some people enjoy stepping on stage and giving a performance, while others find themselves in the midst of an anxiety attack just thinking about it. If you think of each social media platform as a different social setting, each with their own set of unwritten rules for interaction, it will help you to understand why it’s important to engage with more than one or two.

When considering delving into a Social Media Marketing Campaign, consider your audience. Consider your mes-

sage. Consider how you want to deliver your message to your audience. Is your audience interested in looking at pictures and video, listening to stories, smiling at witty remarks, or reading about a new product, event, or service. More than likely they want a combination. While Facebook & Twitter can provide you with access to this combination, storing your content on popular sites will help you increase your credibility, and reach a wider audience, as linking your brand to a variety of social networks almost provides the same.

The best way to decide how many and which platforms are right for you is to try them out. If they’re easy enough to use, and can be incorporated into what you already do online: Go for it.

Perhaps you might also see what your competitors are doing with Social Media.

Make sure you find platforms that allow you to stay in front of your audience.

Remember: They aren’t looking for you; You’re looking for them.

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SOCIALMEDIA November 10, 2010

Which Platforms Make The Most Sense?

Thoughts & Recommendations

Number of Unique Visitors to Social Media Sites in One Month.

Written By: Kate Hudkins

If you were to say, Kate, There are too many platforms. I don’t even know where to start. I’d probably send you off on your merry way with approximately 6 must-us platforms: (1) Blog (2) Facebook (3) Twitter (4) LinkedIn (5) Flickr (6) YouTube (7)* Delicious The first thing you really should be doing is creating interesting and engaging content, which can be placed on a blog. The fact that this then is an RSS Feed allows you to use the content in a variety of ways. From using snippets for tweets, to sharing the entire post on

Marketing Budgets are being cut... but that doesn’t mean you have to stop moving forward with a marketing strategy. It just means you have to

Be More Creative with the money you have.

Facebook, to linking it into other websites, the content is where the sharing begins. Notice how I didn’t say: “The content must be: original, never before seen, and uniquely yours.” No. The idea for the content can come from something you’ve read, a new product

*Data gathered from Compete.com

you want to show off, a great restaurant in town that you think deserves accolades, another local business who you’ve worked with, or a simple review of your favorite new artist. These are all ways you can connect with others.

A Quick Note on Interactive Media

By Kate Hudkins

Social Media is a broad topic, and there’s no possible way for me to touch on all aspects. However, one of the important things to note is that Social Media is not something, but a fundamental shift in the way people communicate and interact in all aspects of life. Since the internet has become so much a part of our daily lives, it’s crucial to recognize how that has affected our preferred method of interaction.

How do people, in today’s world, prefer to interact with people they don’t know? (a) Face-to-Face (b) Phone Call (c) Email (d) Online Chat (e) C & D If you selected (e) as your answer, you’re correct. It’s easy.

It’s just impersonal enough that it’s not intimidating, but personal enough that there is a sense of trust. Email & Online Chat create less personal vulnerability for someone in what is an uncomfortable position: Initiating a conversation with someone you don’t know.

One way interactive media can be implemented is to increase engagement, and decrease intimidated prospects.

In general, Interactive media can be described as anything that provides a way for viewers to give immediate feedback.

Interactive media ranges from online/Live Chat features on websites to live-streaming of events where viewers can ask questions via online chat. Wikipedia is a form of interactive media, as it allows users to create & edit content.

Interactive media also includes how social media is used online and offline: Are tweets being used & displayed during a live event to monitor people’s thoughts and opinions?

Take note: You can’t implement interactive media effectively on a website without first having a relatively solid social media strategy in place. However, if you’ve committed to moving forward with a Social Media Marketing Strategy, then incorporating Interactive Media becomes the logical next step in using your Social Media and the connections you’re developing.

Samsung just redesigned their homepage, and has done a particularly great job of incorporating interactive media features. Other websites which use interactive media effectively includes: Engadget, TridentGum.com, Wired.com.

There are certainly plenty of others as well; however, these are a starting point for looking at different ways interactive media can be implemented.

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SOCIALMEDIA November 10, 2010 2

Considering A Social Media Strategy ... a few thoughts + advantages

By Kate Hudkins

Before beginning to create a social media strategy for your brand, it’s helpful to think about what NOT to do. Take a look at this excerpt from “Avoiding the 8 Deadly Sins of Social Media Campaigns” 2 compiled by Chris Aarons and Geoff Nelson. The following statements are the outcome of a study of failed social media campaigns.

1.

Good strategy results in viral, but viral is not a strategy.

2.

What someone says about you is more important than what you say about yourself.

3.

People are already motivated to do many different things. By identifying where their motivation intersects with yours, you can avoid creating a contrived campaign.

4.

Money isn’t the best social currency; relationships and knowledge are.

5.

PR is great for news and launches, but social media creates the ongoing and sustained interest between news and launches.

6.

Buying advertising space on social media sites doesn’t return a quarter of the value you could be getting. Further, the costs of the campaign drive up the ROI bar you need to justify it.

7.

Social media sites, people, and applications have vastly differing capabilities. Random, unplanned usage of these tactics will deliver poor results.

8.

Social media is a strategic amplifier for your campaign not the entire campaign.

Committing to developing a social media strategy “means embracing the idea that the world is composed of social networks, not individuals.”

- R. Craig Lefebvre

What’s your brand’s persona?

You’ll want to consider what type of characteristics your brand would have if the brand were a living human being.

Examples include: • • • • • • •

High-Quality Friendly Likeable Innovative Relevant Unique Appealing

Does your brand have any of the qualities listed above? If so, which ones?

Does your brand currently have any negative perceptions that you’d love to be able to change? Now is the time. Entering the world of social media is the time to work on changing consumer perceptions of your brand.

you with the perfect opportunity to show that’s just not the case.

Greg Cangialosi (The Trend Junkie) explains these characteristics as qualities that define a brand that operates under “a sense of urgency” For example, these companies...

1. Provide killer customer service.

2. Are continuously innovating their products and services 3. Take customer feedback seriously, act on it, and are better for it.

4. Are Transparent with their communications and actions.

5. Actively engage with customers, prospects, and the larger community.

6. Remain involved in philanthropic causes (the world does need to be saved, and sooner rather than later.)

If consumers perceive you to be snotty, pricey -- just for the sake of being pricey -- and stuck-up, social media provides

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/23906.asp##

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SOCIALMEDIA November 10, 2010

Taking On Your Social Media Strategy commit. prepare. start. maintain.

Written By: Jay Baer

The 7 Steps to Creating a Social Media Strategy August 20th, 2009

Before you begin, commit to worrying about social media tools last, not first. Why? Because tools will change. They always do. There was a time when Netscape seemed invincible. Yahoo, too. Myspace also.

If you fall in love with tools, you’ll constantly be changing directions, with no real plan to guide your way.

Note: This is not easy to figure out. You may need to engage in some brand anthropology, and have an agency help you find your one thing.

6. How Will You Be Human?

Social media is about people, not logos. How will you let down your guard? If you’re a small company, congratulations, this should be pretty easy. If you’re a big company, how can you act small again?

1. What’s Your Pitch?

The elevator pitch is dead. Can you describe what your company does in 120 characters or less?

7. How Will You Measure Success?

Lots of ways to measure social media success, so make sure you determine your key metrics BEFORE you get started. I recommend picking three solid metrics to track. Appropriate metrics differ based on what your objective is for the program.

2. What’s the Point?

What type of program is this?

A Few Tools to Begin With

Pick one of these:

Awareness | Sales | Loyalty

3. Your Relationship with Your Audience?

What does your audience know about you today?

• Nothing • Aware of you, but never acted • Acted once • Repeat actions/enthusiasts • Advocates Pick up to two of these segments to focus upon, but make sure they are adjacent on this scale. It’s too confusing to have a strategy that targets advocates AND people that have never heard of you. That would be two strategies, not one.

4. How Does Your Audience Use Social Media?

Using the Forrester Social Technographics Ladder, understand how your target audience (as defined by gender, age, and geography) uses social media. If your audience skews older, you may not want to engage in a lot of “make a video” contests, since that segment indexes low on the “Creator” scale.

5. What’s Your One Thing?

What’s the soul of your brand? What’s the one thing that defines you – and it’s not features and benefits.

Volvo = Safety.

for content creation

Now’s the time to consider tools, and outposts, and social media tactics. Decide how you’re going to create content & who will be the contact person.

Content Creation Should Begin With: creating blog posts.

SoundVision has an exceptionally strong blog that will provide many great ideas. The following list has some ideas taken from their Blog List. Those ideas have an * next to them.

Ideas for Topics: • •

Why we love...

Pandora Radio* | Rhapsody | Grooveshark

•

*6 Awesome Home Theater Upgrades

•

Interview someone on the team that consumers typically would never even know exists.

•

The 5 things you won’t find in your TV’s box.

•

Describe community outreach that your company is participating with.

Apple = Innovation.

Disney = Magic.

What’s on the other side of your = sign?

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SOCIALMEDIA November 10, 2010

Logistical Issues How To Maintain a Social Media Marketing Strategy

Just another thing to add to your intimidatingly long to-do list, right? There are plenty of ways to integrate Social Media into your daily schedule. Especially if you sit down with a select group of people in your company -- who you believe are excellent communicators, and knowledgeable not just about your products & services, but also about your brand. During that discussion, everyone should provide input on a social media calendar, which will help keep everyone on track

and on pace with each other. This might also be the perfect time to bring in one or two interns (Social Media Marketing Interns) to assist with managing the various platforms.

Some numbers to start off with...At least: 1 Blog Post Weekly or Bi-Weekly 2 Facebook Posts Weekly 3-4 Tweets Daily (more is better) 5 Delicious Bookmarks Weekly At least twice a month: Flickr photos YouTube upload, favorite, share

Think/Listen

Ways to Listen...

Written By: Kate Hudkins

Written By: Suzanne Vara

Listening is a crucial part of succeeding with a Social Media Marketing Strategy.

The amount of time dedicated to listening depends on how the time might be divided. This is a great place for Interns to get involved. It takes a lot of time though, so here are a few ideas and tools that will help you listen:

How to Start Listening How do you listen? You listen for opportunity to engage. In social media we are here to engage and build relationships with people. Hearing their conversation allows us to be able to jump in and engage in a non-intrusive way. The first step in learning how to listen is to set up a listening station where you monitor the conversations about your brand, competitor and industry as a whole.

before engaging.

• 25 ways to listen to customers via Social Media http://www.socialmediatoday.com/s oravjain/191408/25-ways-listencustomers-social-media • Set up RSS feeds • Subscribe to Podcasts • Follow some Social Media Rockstars (National, Regional, and Local -- both in the industry & outside the industry) first to see what they do. Take note of things you like and things you would do differently

Use Hootsuite as your primary tool for maintaining several different social media platforms. It also allows a team of people to participate & schedule posts in advance. And, it can be set up with your Google Analytics account to monitor a variety of metrics. There are other tools out there like Hootsuite; however, this is a great one to begin with.

and finding opportunity

Where to Listen Setting up a listening station by knowing where to listen is a tough one as there is not a clear cut answer. This varies for each client and industry and each has its own community. Everywhere is pretty much the overall answer but this is not always practical as a small business owner. There are some excellent monitoring companies that do capture the conversations online but for those that are just starting out or have budget constraints, a great place to start listening is where your customers are by cross checking on platforms. Jay Baer discusses the 4 Ways to Find out where your customers are in social media in his article on Social Media Examiner.

What Should You Listen For? Opportunity. We are listening for opportunity. Mentions of our brand whether positive or negative need to be heard; mentions of our competitors need to be heard as well as what is going on in the industry. Ignoring these is passing up opportunity.

Your Brand & Competitors • Inquiries • Praise • Complaints • Recommendations/referrals to others • Mentions of: company name, abbreviations, key players, product and specific services.

Listening in your industry is a bit different as it is on a broader scale. This should yield more results however analyzing the conversations and filtering them over time will bring the desired results. In the beginning, you would listen for: Industry • Broad keywords that are used to describe your industry • Targeted core keywords for your specific services and/or product • Non-industry used terms – if the general public calls it something different or abbreviates you listen for that as well.

• Industry leaders

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10 Ways Your Offline Business Can Use Social Media Written By: Suzanne Vara

Social media is all the rage for more than just online businesses: traditional “brick and mortar” businesses are using it too.

One of the most famous cases of this is the way Starbucks has leveraged social networking to become one of the highest valued brands in the world, so why can’t you do it too? Twitter, Facebook, Google Places, Google Buzz, Foursquare, and other social networking venues work to engage local customers, drive your popularity and increase your sales.

A quality presence counts: Don’t just throw up a Facebook profile or a Google Places page and let it sit: reply to comments, post interesting content, and pursue friends. Update your status regularly and give your business a positive online reputation.

Social gaming: Create a unique game that encourages people to build zany skills using your product (or tools that is related to your product). Use YouTube videos to promote your game and have people compete using their skills at your place of business.

Promote your social integration: Ask people to follow your business on Twitter or to “like” it on Facebook. Put it on your receipts, invoices, and signs to get your current customer base on board to build momentum. Ask people to check in to Foursquare when they arrive at your location.

Put your whole company to work: If your business employs people besides you, give them all time during the day to post social networking updates. This gets your whole team involved in the marketing effort while increasing the exposure of your business in the social world.

What are your competitors doing?

The amount of involvement your company has in social media may vary depending on the nature of your business. Don’t ever fall behind what others in your sector are doing, so keep tabs on them and then compete for online prominence.

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Follow the lifecycle: Don’t let your Facebook campaign get in a rut: social marketing has a lifecycle that you should follow. Listen to what customers are saying about your market and products, engage those customers with appealing content and promotions, and then analyze your results. Focus on your most successful efforts. Identify the promotions and content that are most successful and build on them. When you can prove that an initiative isn’t working, stop it and try something else.

The Point: Go Offline

Build a sense of community: Both online and offline you can work to make your customers feel like a special family or a close network of friends. Do this by hosting community events at your physical store and online. Help promote your city or community together with your business to help people feel like they belong at your store.

One of the most distinctive features of New Media is the preconception of those using it, that they will be provided with an opportunity to take online conversation and interaction to offline events.

How will you provide these events?

Don’t spread yourself too thin: If you have limited resources, you may have trouble maintaining an exciting presence on every single social media platform. Choose the number and types of sites you can manage well rather than risk leaving stale or poor quality content everywhere.

Manage your reputation: Do you know what customers or potential customers are saying about your business, your products, your brand, and your employees online? Pay attention to the comments you receive on Facebook, keep a Twitter search running for key names, products, and service that relate to your business. Set up Google Alerts, and handle problems and complaints head on. What a great opportunity to show the world your willingness to engage people to resolve their problems and address their concerns!

Be patient: As social media starts to mature, instant success will become rarer. Don’t let that bother you. Keep up a fresh, dynamic, and engaging social presence and you will reap rewards.

Written By: Kate Hudkins

The ultimate reason to use New Media to strengthen your marketing is to increase the number of people you have to interact with on a daily basis. It’s to create new opportunities to put yourself in front of people who you might never have had the chance to meet.

Vendors love participating in this type of event because they, too, get to place themselves in front of a relatively new group of people.

Example of an event built around a New Media Strategy: Happy Hour or Private Cocktail event (fully sponsored by 1 or 2 non-competing vendors) Since Social Media is a relatively casual atmosphere with a conversational tone, you’ll want to be sure your event mirrors that.

Most likely, you’ll find the following assessment of social media platforms to be relatively accurate: • • •

Twitter - Casual & Laid-Back Facebook - Hybrid LinkedIn - A big more Formal

If you’re not providing the event, then you should be attending events. LinkedIn will probably have a number of networking events for various groups that you can become a member of. The people you follow on Twitter may be having a TweetUp - which is basically a meetand-greet of followers on Twitter. Facebook is typically just a hub to announce a variety of events.

Get offline and go meet folks. Now you have something in common to start with, (e.g. “Hey, you’re so-and-so from twitter....)

SOCIALMEDIA November 10, 2010

Resource List The best part about living in the Information Era? Google. The worst part about living in the Information Era? Google. Because of Information Overload, it can become increasingly difficult to sift through hall the information out there. I use a number of cloud-based resources to keep track of the websites I find useful.

A comprehensive list of resources online by viewing my shared list of bookmarks on my Delicious Account: delicious.com/kate.hudkins *Perhaps you’re looking for ways to be productive while still engaging with Social Media?

Top 6 Social Media Platforms To Start With:

Other Platforms To Consider Using:

Company Blog: Blogs 101

Delicious: Guide to Delicious

Facebook: Mashable’s Facebook Guide Book

Foursquare: Use Foursquare for Business

Twitter: Mashable’s Twitter Guide Book

StumbleUpon: A Comprehensive Guide

Flickr: CNET’s: How To Use Flickr

Digg: Using Digg for Business Marketing

YouTube: How to Use YouTube Like a Pro

♪ iLike/Last.fm/Grooveshark

LinkedIn: The LinkedIn SuperGuide

Google Buzz: Opportunities for Small Business

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