Using Social Media to Grow Your Business

Using Social media to grow your business Prepared for NAWBO Orange County by SmallWerks, Inc.

What We’ll Cover Together Social Media & You A General Overview Social Media Platforms Social Media ROI Business Application Trends of Growth Steps to Get Started

Social media & you What’s your starting point?

First, Let’s Commit Before we begin, we need to decide what role we see social media playing in our business, in our lives and in our future communications. Q: What do you perceive it to be? A fad? Something that young people are using? The new future of communication?

Social Media & You You’re already probably immersed. Applying it to your business will take strategy and consistency. Q: How often do you connect now? . . Share a blog review or article . . Connect with a colleague on LinkedIn . . Accept friend requests on Facebook . . Follow people and companies on Twitter

Social Media is Exciting It’s no longer new. And it is taking over how we interact with our customers and our purchases. Our businesses will grow quicker, more authentically and at exponential rates.

Are You Engrossed? Q: Calculate how many friends you have on Facebook. How long would that have taken you to get the same number of customers in your database? How are you adding value to your friends?

VIDEO:Meet Blank http://bit.ly/exTQAg

A Quick Overview What is social media?

What is Social Media? It’s about us connecting, interacting & sharing online. Social media for business is about reach & connection. Q: How has social media been described to you? How have you benefitted from it?

Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing: A way of doing business, not a campaign. DEFINED: Interactive media using online tools to connect people. Inbound Marketing: Two-way communication for attractional & authentic marketing.

Inbound Marketing Q: Review how your business has had one- directional marketing. Assess where getting feedback from clients can improve your current marketing efforts and product development.

What’s Being Said About You? Hmmm…wonder what murmurings are out there? (Don’t worry – it shouldn’t be scary.) Get email updates based on keywords. Monitor the latest relevant Google results. TIP: Sign up for your own Google Alerts! www.Google.com/Alerts

Inbound Interaction Best practice is to facilitate opportunities to have consumers interact with your brand. Corporation < --- > Consumer

Social Media Engagement Social Media is viral credibility, all about engagement. TIP: Listen to consumers. Watch your business name online. More people will get exposed to you, refer you business, and give you organic credibility to yet a larger mass of people.

Reach – How? Reach as many people as possible. Q: How did you get exposed before? Calculate those numbers. Connect/build relationships with your customers. Q: How long did it take to get introduced to someone previously? Engage your marketing to include real feedback. Q: How did you get feedback before?

VIDEO: Social Media Revolution 2 http://bit.ly/hYP9ec

Social media platforms A quick overview of the tools.

Twitter – A Brief Short 140-character messages known as “tweets”. Purpose: To connect actively over pertinent topics/trends. Develops a company personality online. Q: How many of you are on Twitter now? Who do you follow?

HOW TO: Twitter Free. 30 min initial setup. “Tweet” at least once a day. TIP: Make it simple. Link your posts from your blog & Facebook to your Twitter. 1 post = 3 places.

HOW TO: Twitter, cont’d. TIP: Don’t post sales pitches. Build relationships. Respond. TIP: Customize your background with your logo and contact info. Q: Are you on Twitter now? Have you seen the new Dashboard?

Facebook – A Brief Profile & fan page network of pictures, posts & videos. Purpose: To create an online community around the sharing of company events, reviews, notables and highlights. Q: Do you follow companies on Facebook? Who do you “Like”?

HOW TO: Facebook Free. 60 min setup. Post at least once a week. TIP: Have the admin use a personal profile page first. Only create a business fan page, not a profile. TIP: Claim your vanity URL after 25 fans. Use 75 characters to maximize your keyword use! To reserve your name: Facebook.com/pages/create.php

HOW TO: Facebook Event GOAL: Promote & inform. TIP: Invite. RSVP. Give info. Share photos & links. HOW: Click the “Events” tab on your Fan Page. COST: Free. Approx. 10 min.

LinkedIn – A Brief Social network for businesses and professionals. Purpose: To position and gain credibility as an expert. Build your network for referral sales/connections. Q: Have you reserved your custom Profile URL? What groups are you engaging with?

HOW TO: LinkedIn Free. 60+ min setup. Respond & connect weekly. TIP: Complete your bio and reserve your profile URL. Create a company profile. Get & give recommendations. TIP: Start a group. Answer expert questions.

Social Media Account Reviews Let’s pull up a few social media accounts and do a review. Q: Do you want us to look at your LinkedIn account? Q: Do you have a Fan Page we can review? ACTION: Let’s setup an example event listing.

Social Media roi Why should this matter for my business?

Corporate Gains GIVEN: People trust people. CHANGE: 78% of all consumers, now trust other people, even strangers, and their peer recommendations over traditional advertising. SHIFT: Your clients & their opinions have become your best marketing. Small efforts now have huge gains. Build buzz. Support sales.

VIDEO: SocialNomics ROI http://bit.ly/e36qnN

Business application How can this apply to my business?

Ways Social Media Can Be Used for Business Customer Support Market Research Brand Marketing Public Relations Promotions Consumer Education Sales New Product Development Customer Relationship Management

Trends of growth What’s happening now? Where are things going?

Why is Social Media Changing the Game? We can’t be bought like we used to be. We want more than a handout or a quick sell. We want to know who we know approves or likes it. We want to know that you’re listening to us. We want to be a part of the creation process. We want our voice to be heard for new products. We want a relationship We want to be appreciated, acknowledged and rewarded.

Have You Changed Your Game? Q: How have you seen this already? Do you have a loyalty program? Is your conversation outbound only or two way? How do you as a consumer see how social media has changed your buying patterns? How has it changed your client’s buying patterns?

VIDEO: The Advertising Breakup http://bit.ly/fqUjg2

Groundswell reference in Alex GrechSlideShare Presentation.

Social Media Growth How Small Businesses Use Social Media The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business looked at the relationship between social media and small businesses and found that the technology adoption rates in the U.S. have doubled in the past year from 12% to 24%. Small Business Success Index Report - December 2009 telephone survey of 500 small business owners versus December 2008. The study concludes that nearly one in five small business owners are integrating social media into their business processes — Facebook and LinkedIn were the most popular sites. In fact, 45% of surveyed respondents even believe their social media initiatives will pay off financially in 12 months or less.

Social Media Growth, cont’d. As the graphic below details, the small business owners who are using social media are primarily engaging in social media through company pages (75%) and status updates (69%) on Facebook or LinkedIn. What’s especially intriguing is that a much smaller percentage of respondents — just 16% — are using Twitter as a customer service channel. Another interesting notion is that small business owners now believe social media can help them on the lead generation front, and that is the primary motivating factor for engaging in these new customer service channels. So while half of surveyed respondents found the time it takes to use social media sites more daunting than expected, 61% are still putting in the hours and making active efforts to identify new customers.

Social Media Growth Conclusions Conclusion Clearly social media has become a valuable tool for small businesses, but we’re especially curious to see how Twitter adoption rates fluctuate over the time. While we expect more small businesses to use Twitter as a customer service channel in the year ahead, as it stands, Facebook and LinkedIn have become the predominant platforms for small business owners. “How Small Business is Using Social Media [STATS]”. April 2010 Source: http://mashable.com/2010/03/02/small-business-stats/

Facebook Statistics Facebook versus the United States [Small Business Going Global] Facebook’sofficial company statistics outline the breakdown of the sites over 400 million active users. While the site points out about 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States, it doesn’t dive deeper into the U.S. numbers. To find out more about the average American Facebook user and how he or she compares to the average American, we dug a little further. After crunching the numbers and comparing the data, this is what we found. “By the Numbers: Facebook vs. The United States [INFOGRAPHIC]” May 2010. Source: http://mashable.com/2010/04/05/facebook-us-infographic/

Steps to get started Where do I start? What do I do first?

4 Key Steps – Entering Social Media the Right Way Step 1: Listen. See what people are saying about your brand, your products and your industry before jumping in. Step 2:Interact. Join the conversation in a way that adds value. "You have to contribute to conversations people are already having to gain an audience," says Qualman. Step 3:React. "If 70 percent of people are saying they like something about your product, how quickly [are you] changing your product to deliver more of what they like?”. Conversely, if people are talking about what they don't like about your product or brand, how quickly are you working to fix it? This stage is where many companies drop the ball. Step 4:Sell. Now is the perfect time to seamlessly add in a little self-promotion. "If you're reacting to customer feedback to constantly improve your offering, selling will come naturally," Qualman states. Source: Interview with Erik Qualman of SocialNomics.com on Bazaarblog.com.

Strategic Ways to Get Started Plan Build Promote Measure Enhance

ACTION: Find Ways to Engage Take this first action step to engage with your clients today: Organize an event where consumers can engage with your brand and other consumers. Facilitate the discussion with “how to” product discussions, best practices, and open forums. Create an open two-way channel to discuss your brand as an online focus group.

TIPS: What TO Do Integrate your content on all your platforms but remember… ,[object Object]

Watch what your customers are saying online. Respond to all complaints and request feedback and interaction.

Do give proper credits online. It’s better to work with other companies than to only discuss your business.,[object Object]

TIPS: What NOT To Do Don’t… ,[object Object]

Leave your clients out of the mix or ignore them. Example: Toyota’s PR nightmare.

Forget that it’s about fostering positive relationships and not just about sales.,[object Object]

Example: Social Media Content Outline Mondays: Post galleries of events from the weekend, thank guests, tag people and give shout outs to vendors. Tuesdays: Post the weekly blog post and add a quote or announce mid-week events. Wednesdays: Post a quote or a picture of a random Fan of the Week. This might be taken from some of your great galleries you already have. Announce Friday events. Thursdays: Give a fun fact or DYK (Did You Know) tidbit about events, photos, etc. Post a poll for feedback. Appreciate people who’ve responded during the week by tagging them in a post. Fridays: Announce weekend events, congratulate couples who are maybe hitting milestones, post some more pictures or celebrate charity events going on over the weekend to support causes.

Using Social Media to Grow Your Business

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Using Social Media to Grow Your Business