Darrah Courter owner of Rippling Effect will present "Leveraging Social Media". Darrah professionally trains and manages campaigns utilizing social media tactics and strategies. She has shared her expertise with various organizations like: American Marketing Association, National Association of Remodeling Industries and Small Business Development Center. Presentation January 19, 2011

1. Leveraging Social Media

2. Social Media in CPA Insider Recent Articles : Seven Essential LinkedIn Connections Do you have them on your list? December 6, 2010 by Barry MacQuarrie, CPA Facebook Strategies for CPAs How social media marketing strategies can level the playing field for small firms and career-minded professionals. But will it work for you? December 6, 2010 by Rick Telberg

3. What is Social Media Wikipedia says: “ Media for social interaction using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Web-based technologies to transfer and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues.”

4. Examples Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Plaxo YouTube MySpace Merchant Circle Web blogs Wiki Forum Podcasts Social bookmarking

5. Definition of Industrial Media Industrial media – traditional sources in which people gain information, news, etc. by electronic media and print Examples: Newspapers, Television, Radio, Magazines, Websites, Direct Mail, Postcards, Couponing, Postal Mail/Cards, Telephone

12. Goals Each Platform helps with different goals User Goals could include: Share Information/Knowledge Engage with others Create friendships Help others get to know you personally Strengthen a company's customer relations Strengthen a company’s Brand name Obtain market research/obtain feedback Obtain demographic information about your clients Help you gain market share over your competition

13. Impact of Social Media Social media is not a strategy or tactic, it’s merely a different channel for communication How you USE it is your strategy The Power to define and control a brand is shifting from corporations and institutions to individuals and communities

14. Advantages of Social Media Accessible to everyone – Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN – Race to 1 Million “I find it astonishing that one person can actually have as big of a voice online as what an entire media company can on Twitter." Ashton Kutcher, April 17, 2009

17. Downside to Social Media Just because it’s written doesn’t mean it’s true Time consuming Demand on talent – hard to be exciting and interesting Lose control of your marketing and message ROI is delayed and hard to measure

18. Social media is not new Just a new way to have a conversation Definition of communication Information has grown Everyone has their own circle of trust – social media helps break into that circle

19. The 4 Cs of Social Media Contentthat leads to Conversationthat creates Community that builds Commercethat is measurable, trackable and REAL

20. Contentthat Leads to Conversation Social Media Content Mission: Engagement Elements of Great Social Media Content Mixture of information and regular fresh content Multi-media (video, text, photos, polls) Keyword rich Encourages ACTION

21. Conversation Creates Community The Big 4 Networks are no longer ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. They are: LinkedIn – 90 million users (Jan 1, 2011) Facebook – 500 million users (July 2010) Twitter* – 190 million users (Oct 2010) YouTube – 6 Billion videos, 100,000 million views per day *fastest growing

22. ConversationCreates Community The point of Social Media is to Educate, Enhance, and Engage You have to learn about your audience, give them what they need or want, and respond to them. Industrial Media: Company talking to Customer. Social Media: The Customer now Talks BackAND Customers talk to each other.

23. How to Turn Community into Commerce Make Offers that fit the needs of your audience – Create Campaigns Capture Information Follow Up Provide excellent Customer Service Full circle – Direct users back to Your Content

24. How To Get Started Step One: Determine Your Goals Determine Your Target Market Determine why Should YOU Participate?

25. State Agencies Some reason State Agencies have used Social Media Include: Keep public informed Real-Time Show Transparency Build relationship with vendors and public

26. How to Get Started Step Two: Determine Your Individual Resources (video camera, knowledge, skills, interests) What can you contribute to your Community?

27. How to Get Started Step Three: Determine Your Time Commitment (know frequency – i.e. twitter more than blog) Different communities expect different levels of interaction How much time can you devote?

28. Track & Measure Google Analytics will tell you if visitors click through your social media links to your website or blog Facebook Insights track the interactions you have with the people who “Like” your page Applications to track Twitter results abound – look at Twitter Analyzer, Hootsuite, Twitter Grader Track Patterns

29. Action Items Do a Web search for your Company to see what sites appear Do a web search for keywords to see where your company ranks (to find these keyword you can go to Google adwords) Find your highest competitor and do the same searches to find out what they are doing

30. Simple Additions for Brick & Mortar Companies Google Maps ~ Go to Google Places Yahoo Maps ~ Go to Yahoo Local Merchant Circle

31. Helps Google Ranking

32. Helps Search Results on Yahoo!

33. Competitive & Personal Research and Monitoring Industry blogs Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) Social Mention (www.socialmention.com)

34. Top 3 Sites LinkedIn – Who you know Facebook – Who you know and what to know better Twitter – Who you don’t know, but want to know

36. Household Income: $109,703

37. Male: 64%

38. College Grad/Post Grad: 80.1%

39. Business Decision Maker: 49%

40. 24% Have a Portfolio Value of $250k+07. Apr, 2009 http://www.linkedstrategies.com/blog/tag/linkedin-statistics Latest LinkedIn Facts LinkedIn has over 90 million members in over 200 countries. A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and about half of our members are outside the U.S. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members. http://press.linkedin.com/about Jan 2011

41. Why Facebook? More than 500 million active users · 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day · More than 35 million users update their status each day · More than 60 million status updates posted each day · More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month · More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week · More than 3.5 million events created each month · More than 1.5 Million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook · Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans Average user: · Average user has 130 friends on the site · Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook · Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month · Average user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month · Average user is invited to 3 events per month · Average user is a member of 13 groups http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics July 2010

43. Grew 1382% from Feb 08 to 09.

44. Twitter Most Popular Among Working Adults

45. February 2009 the largest age group on Twitter was 35-49

46. Twitter On The Move

47. Takes advantage of the Text Message mentalityNielsenwire March 18, 2009

48. Advanced Use of LinkedIn Overview of Profile How to Prospect Set up a Follow-up System

49. LinkedIn Profile

50. Making YOUR Profile Attractive Have a professional picture LOGO

51. Contact View You can send them messages through LinkedIn Shows that they are a 1st Degree Connection to you How many Connections they have on LinkedIn

52. Your Contact’s Connections

53. A Group Contact Since we share a group, they are open to receiving a message from me Degree of separation Who could introduce us

54. Not Connected Nor in Group Can’t send a free message Tells you how you are connected

55. 3rd + Degree Contact How many Degrees Away How you are connected

56. How to Connect Through Websites Joining Groups they belong to Upgrade

57. Benefits of Groups You can view all of the members of a group

58. How Will People Contact YOU? Make sure you add up to 3 websites

59. Company Search

60. Utilize Your Status Update Appears on your Contact’s main page. It is tracked on your Profile History. Helps you stay front of mind with your contacts. Frequency – once a day no less than once a week

61. Risk vs. Reward Your Competitors are not waiting Conversation is occurring with or without YOU!

62. Manage Risk Do set up a Social Media Policy Create Social Media Training Identify Handful of Employees to be Brand’s Spoke’s person Start off small so that you can manage growth

63. Time = Money Set up Integration with Social Media Sites Schedule tasks before logging in Be careful not to Automate too much

64. Wrap Up Not Everybody is on Social Media. So traditional Marketing is still effective. Social Media is evolving QUICKLY Social Media is a Marketing Avenue that Works – if the right Goals/Strategies are in place Social media is a growing platform & cannot be ignored if a company is to be successful

65. Thank You! Darrah Courter www.ripplingeffect.com