1. Key to Successful Communication: Aligning Your Business with Your Social Media Sandy Blanquera CEO & Founder of Social Boomerang

2. Should you join the social media race?

3. Your customers think you should. 93% of Americans believe a company should have a social media presence. 85% believe a company should be active with customers in social media 56% feel a stronger connection with companies they interact with in social media Cone Research of 1000+ Americans, September 2008

4. What do you think?

5. What is Social Media? Social media is any type of media (video, photo or content) designed to be disseminated through social interaction, typically through internet and web-based technologies. It may result in socializing, collaboration, sharing, working and more.

6. Just get started Get them all - a twitter, linkedin, facebook, YouTube, pages, groups, lists, blogs…. Lots of people say….

7. Focus your energy on the results you want. Add other accounts later if it makes sense. End up with better results, less training, less cost, less effort. Do you need to engage everywhere?

8. Aligning Your Business to Your Social Media Plan

9. There are lots and lots and lots of reasons. But really most of them fall into to main buckets. Why Use Social Media? Hold conversation and engage the desired audience Create pages, links, content that increase presence, rank, SEO on the web

10. Marketing, building brand awareness & advocacy Building a network for sales and lead generation Recruiting hires Reputation management, monitoring the conversation around your brand Driving traffic to your site, blog or other social media sites 10 Ways to use social media for business

11. Public relations Monitoring customer experience and interacting to provide customer service Strengthen loyalty of existing customers Knowing the industry landscape and knowledge of competitive brands Branding yourself as expert to grow your business 10 Ways to use social media for business

12. Look at the 10 reasons and select those that you think make sense for your situation. Rank them, paying special attention to your top 2-3. Rank the 10 reasons

13. Definition Business Goal. Business Goal – primary objectives that benefit the operation or growth of the business, usually over a three year or less period. Examples: Sell 300 widgets online by driving traffic from pay per click ads Staff up operations jobs Expand to three new states.

14. Definition Marketing Goal. Marketing Goal – quantitative translations of the company’s financial objectives that support marketing in terms of sales dollars, units, market shares, distribution channels, awareness, and key accounts. Examples: Promote gifts selectively in traditional and on-line media. Create a well-designed Web site that is fast, easy to navigate, responsive, and gives visitors the information they need.

15. Definition Communication Goal. Communication Goal – defined objectives for delivering messaging, developing channels or targeting audiences intended for messaging. The focus is on the programs, products or services used to deliver the goals. Examples: Perform a communication audit. Develop social media networking accounts and profiles. Identify targeted list of CIO’s for e-newsletter distribution. .

16. List your business, marketing and communication goals. Do your goals align with your top 2-3 reasons for using social media? If not, should you change your focus? Is it important to have a connection between all these goals? What are your goals?

17. Does this exercise change your mind about how social media should be integrated into your communication and operational plan for your business? Are you spending time on social media activity that isn’t relevant to your goals? Are you even ready to stat social media? Now What?

18. What’s holding you back? Now that you know your direction…

19. Pick a channel Facebook B to C, some B to B 500 million users Median age = 26 LinkedIn B to B 80 million users Median age = 41 Twitter B to B, B to C 6 million users per month Median age = 31

20. Create A Plan. Why do I need a plan? Improve your current operational processes Better results Fewer mistakes Targeted market Save time and money Experts can also give you answers

21. Elements of a good plan Goals ROI and performance metrics Communication and buy-in from all stakeholders Approach to tackle obstacles Resources –finding $$$, people & time Hire, contract or train help Integrating marketing and branding plan How to build the network

22. Elements of a good plan (cont.) Implementation plan Creating content plan Social media policy Optimization strategy – keywords, linking, integration Online and offline integration Monitoring Reporting

23. Plan

24. Research and Understand Content Opportunities

25. Create a Content Posting Schedule

26. Have a custom graphics made for Twitter and Facebook Get professional photos Choose colors to use consistently Create videos Create a branded look

27. Hire an expert Use in-house resources Train users Establish process and protocols Select resources, train in-house resources

28. Create a Policy Social Media Guidelines Social media activities have a meaningful impact to Company We desire to build great content shared among robust networks and which is meaningful and engaging. Through the efforts of our employees we can increase the strength of our message and increase our reach. We encourage our employees and volunteers to be ambassadors of our message, which provides life-altering information and crisis help for youth and families. Employees should utilize social media in an appropriate and useful way in accordance with our mission, operation and communication goals. What is defined as Social Media? Social media is any type of media (video, photo, content) designed to be disseminated through social interaction, typically through internet and web-based technologies. The definition of social media is growing and expanding, and a partial list of social media types includes: blogs, wikis, social networks, virtual worlds, micro blogs, events, bookmarking, social news, video sharing, photo sharing, opinion sites and social media monitoring. Social Media is built on the foundation of individuals creating their own content and distributing it widely for consumption by others. Who do these guidelines apply to? These guidelines are applicable to employees, contractors and volunteers who create or contribute to social media using either their own personal electronic technology or using NRS electronic technology. We expect all who participate in social media on behalf of NRS to understand and to follow these guidelines. Failure to do so could put your future participation at risk. NRS reserves the right to take disciplinary action against any employee who does not comply with internal policies. Use of Technology Social media activity may occur on a variety of technology platforms such as mobile and web devices. Any such use of technology should be handled in accordance with internal policies. Specifically, employees should refer to the Use of Electronic Communications policy for details on electronic transmission, privacy issues and use of technology and related data. ………

29. Determine Metrics for Reporting

30. What are you going to do today?

31. Spend time understanding your direction Decide if it is even the right time to use social media Develop a clear plan Hire help or select internal resources Train Create branding, policy, protocols Determine metrics Summary

32. Sandy Blanquera Info@socialboomerang.com