SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS Creating your online identity
What is Social Media? Social media are the various forms of user generated content and the collection of websites and applications that enable people to interact and share information online
Social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace)
Blogs (Wordpress)
Video sharing sites (YouTube)
Photo sharing sites (Flickr)
Crowdsourcing (Wikipedia)
User reviews (Amazon, Yelp)
Streaming sites (Ustream)
Social bookmarking (Digg, del.icio.us)
Why is social media so important for businesses?
It finds you customers and builds clientele It gives businesses the ability to find out what people are saying about them (and others) in their industries It introduces your brand It gives you feedback about your brand It provides a test audience (vs. focus groups) Solidifies your reputation as a valuable and knowledgeable resource
EXERCISE 1 Keywords related to your organization
Why Facebook?
According to a recent report by Merchant Circle, 70% of businesses use Facebook. This is a 20% increase over the last year. For the first time ever, Facebook is being used more than Google for online marketing Facebook updates are three more times effective than Tweets to propel online business Facebook dominates the check-in space with 32% of businesses using this feature (vs. Foursquare)
YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE: Create the page using name, logo, and branding •
Use as an outlet to display and share information in a fun, informal way (in conjunction with your homepage) •
Form relationships with people in your industry (and your clients’ clients) •
Showcase the “real” side of your business •
What do you talk about?
EVERYTHING
Content Ideas
News – Is there anything going on internally worth sharing? Upcoming events? New hires? Announcements? Industry trends/news –What are the current trends? News posts can be funny, shocking, serious, entertaining. It makes you look like an expert. Client news – Great way to promote upcoming client events and campaigns. It lets people know who you’re working with and for whom. Past achievements – what were some of your greatest accomplishments? Brag about yourself.
Facebook: Vanity URL
Vanity URL: - www.facebook.com/tiffanysmansfield - www.facebook.com/RehobothFamilyLife Share your business on Facebook easily with friends, family, co-workers, and other Facebook users Increases your SEO when people enter your business and/or name on Google, Yahoo, or similar search engine sites
Facebook 550M people are on Facebook— make a 1st impression •
A snapshot of your business and what it’s all about •
With a Welcome Page, 47% of users will “follow” our page (vs. 23%) •
Show people who you are in 5-10 seconds with a Landing Page
CUSTOMIZING YOUR FACEBOOK
Custom Tabs (Events, What’s New, Our Work, Join the Mailing List) Add photos and videos of your staff at work and around the community (events, conferences, etc) Upload and reach potential contacts using your email lists
“Tagging” clients you work with, organizations you’re part of, and businesses you’re interested in Provide links to your homepage, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. Update daily!
THE FACEBOOK VOICE
Establishing yourself as an expert in the field is crucial, especially when promoting your business via social media.
Build trust and credibility among followers and online users - in the future they will come to rely on you when issues arise or they need help with a project. Provide valuable content to online audiences - and often. Think industry news, upcoming events, and IGS day-to-day occurrences. Be enthusiastic and conversational - Promote your culture!
FACEBOOK: In the News 
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Barcelona midfield star Lionel Messi racked up 6.8 million fans seven hours after setting up a Facebook page
The most popular person on Facebook in 2010?
Why should you use Twitter?
Promote your mission and culture Twitter is the place to connect with niche audiences pertinent to our business Have conversations and build relationships with individuals in your industry—and clients’ too! Monitor the competition – who are they following? Who’s following them? What are they up to?
What do you tweet about?
Industry news—it can range from shocking and funny to serious and hard hitting Upcoming events Upcoming client events—great way to promote what our clients are doing. It promotes their images, makes your business look good, and lets people know who we’re working with Day-to-day—Great outlet to showcase company culture. Did something funny happen at the office? Is someone winning an award? Tweeting is all about being conversational
TWEETS FROM CEOS
"At the RNC now—different vibe here. Palin is totally flirting with me." (Kevin Rose, Digg) "Poll: Is the 'Naked People' banner on our home page at http://www.zappos.com offensive? (A customer complained)" (Tony Hsieh, Zappos.com) "Has anyone bought an external battery for the Macbook Air? Looking at http://is.gd/1UqJ and http://is.gd/1UqK right now. Recommendations?“ (David Sifry, Technorati) "Our Q3: We announced the results of our third fiscal quarter (Q3) on Thursday last week, and the rest… http://tinyurl.com/3qyer9“ (Jonathan Schwartz, Sun Microsystems)
LISTORIOUS Become an expert in the industry & build your reputation
Listorious is a web service which makes it easy for you to find the best Twitter lists on any given topic. It aggregates the Twitter lists into categories – media, finance, marketing, food, humor etc. Listorious allows you to search for a list, person, or tags in general. The most popular lists, ranked by how many people follow them and the top tags are showcased on the right-hand side of the page.
Become an Expert Add your handle to Twitter directories and lists specific to your industry or specialized area •
Why do you need LinkedIn?
Information & Contacts—Do we need a more effective solution on a business project or need? Who can get the job done effectively? LinkedIn is a professional network that can introduce you to new resources and professionals Competitive Edge—LinkedIn is a great place to bounce new ideas and get the reaction of professionals from the same industry. Get an honest opinion of your business and also on the competition. Trusted Contacts—When you are introduced to a contact by one of your trusted connections, you start the working relationship at a far better point than when you hire someone off the street. On LinkedIn you can quickly check references and interact with people who may have provided a prospective employee a recommendation.
LinkedIn Groups 
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Groups allow members the opportunity to create and manage groups focused on a wide-range of business-related subjects - Topics: Education, Healthcare, Event Planning, Medicine, Blogging Groups offer valuable networking opportunities, linking professionals to resources and information that can be beneficial to their missions
LinkedIn Discussions 
Discussions, newsfeeds, subgroups (for promotion purposes)
PROFESSIONAL BLOGGING
Professional Blogging
What is a blog? A corporate tool for communicating with customers or employees to share knowledge & expertise, drive additional web traffic and connect with potential clients and customers. Great for small businesses. Provides opportunity to share their knowledge with a larger audience. Works well for consultants and knowledge workers. Other blogging software options: Blogger, Typepad, and Movable Type
Professional Blogging CONTENT IDEAS: Best practices and tips (applying for college, using an RSS feed) •
Involvement of successful professionals and executives •
Articles and reactions on current trends and news •
How-to guides
•
What blogs do you follow?
Youtube
Youtube
Market your organization to millions of people, no big budget required. Required? A video camera and a little creativity! Inform — Your company mission and values; what do you do? Educate — ”How-to” or a service demo (How-to Study More Effectively; How to Wear the Right Makeup) Entertain — Show off our past events and work! (i.e. Behind the Scenes of Conference Planning)
Youtube
Link channel to main homepage, Facebook, LinkedIn and your professional blog. Tweet and update about your videos!
Focus on SEO: Optimize video text and descriptions with keywords and links back to your homepage.
Youtube – Deloitte Great use of social media Deloitte Film Festival 2,000 filmmakers
370+ videos “Even though Deloitte is a large organization, your voice can be heard. We value collaboration, creativity, fun and participation.”
Online viewers: Please watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainJ2VKJ_wU
EXERCISE 2 Brainstorming photo and video content
Evaluating Your Success Measuring the ROI of Your Social Media Efforts
A new sort of analysis: "The number of eyeballs, shakes and finger swipes. The number of blogs, articles, tweets and diggs. The number of acquisitions, conversions, calls, responses or purchases. Total basket size, consumer recall, loyalty and recommendations. Check-ins on foursquare and check-outs on Amazon.� – Mobile Marketing Association
Measuring ROI
Increased traffic — more people reading your blog, more hits on your website, more Facebook likes and Twitter followers Google Analytics (tracks keywords, incoming links, sites, etc) Wordpress dashboard TweetMeme (retweets)
More relationships – meeting and doing business with new professionals Overall better brand awareness (having fans, followers, re-tweets, readers, viewers builds your brand)
Google Analytics: Traffic booms
#1 source: Facebook
FACEBOOK INSIGHTS Measures: Total page Likes, or a number of fans, daily active users, new Likes/Unlikes, Like sources, demographics, page views and unique page views, tab views, external referrers, and media consumption
Integrating Your Website • Add Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn buttons to your homepage (and to all social media sites) • Add Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn buttons to your marketing collateral and email signatures • Add email subscription applications to your Facebook, homepage, and blog
Integrating Your Website • Add link to professional blog to homepage and all social media sites • Integrate updates to all social media sites (Did we write a post a blog entry today? Facebook it, tweet it, and do a LinkedIn update!
TWEETDECK • TweetDeck is a real-time application that allows users to monitor updates in a single concise view (Desktop, iPhone, iTouch, iPod, iPad, Android) • TweetDeck currently integrates services from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, FourSquare, and Google Buzz. • Enables users to split their main Twitter feed (All Friends) into columns allowing a broader overview of tweets • Gives users ability to group people together and search across the “twittersphere.” - Work colleagues or friends - Monitor any subject within Twitter (medicine, education, social media, makeup, non-profit) - Columns automatically update to provide the user with a very dashboard of real-time information.
effective
TWEETDECK
Exercise 3 Crafting your strategy
Exercise 4 – Take home Monitoring your online presence