Ali Sabkar
Founder & President of Social Media Club
Bahrain, Kingdom of Bahrain
Social Media Toolkit for
Entrepreneurs

Founded in 2006 by Chris Heuer & Kristie
Wells.
Social Media Club has morphed into the
largest non-profit trade organization for
social media professionals.
Social Media Club Missions include:
• Promoting media literacy
• Sharing best practices
• Adoption of industry standards
• Promoting ethical behavior

SMC Bahrain founded in July 2011
part of the Social Media Club.
SMC Bahrain connects media
makers from around the world to
promote media literacy, industry
standards, ethical behaviour and to
share the lessons they have
learned.

What is Social Media?
Social Media refers to the use of web-based
and mobile technologies to turn
communication into an interactive dialogue.
It takes on many different forms including
magazines, Internet forums, weblogs, social
blogs, micro blogging, wikis, podcasts,
photographs or pictures, video, rating
and social bookmarking.

+1600 Social Media Networks

BIG THREE Social Media Networks Statistics
October 2012
+1 billion global users
+390,000 Bahrain users
+48 Million Arab Users
+500 million global users
+80,000 Bahrain users
+4 Million Arab Users
+200 million global users
+110,000 Bahrain users
+4 Million Arab Users

Why Social Media ?
The rules of promoting your business have changed.
Facebook Marketing and Twitter Marketing are here to stay.
With the advent of Social Media everything has changed. An
online community of Twitter or Facebook users can make or
break your business with their Smartphones. Your company or
service may be getting hundreds or thousands of good or bad
reviews on the new mobile sites, either building up your
reputation or tearing it down without you even knowing it.
Are you taking advantage of the new Social Media, which is in
many ways free or much less expensive than traditional
advertising methods?

‣ 66% of businesses plan to increase expenditures for social
media.
MediaPost Online Media Daily
‣ 65% of journalists turn to social media sites such as
Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% use Twitter as an
information source.
Cision and George Washington University’s MBA for
Strategic PR
‣ 80% of companies use LinkedIn as their primary means of
finding new employees
Socialnomics09

Social Media
Does Not Work For Business…
Without The Practical Knowledge,
Technology, Tools
And Know-How.
“David Bullock, Co-Author - Barack2.0”

Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing must be approached very
different than traditional marketing.
You are not selling your business; you are creating
relationships through communities. If people feel you
are part of their community, they will support you and
recommend you to their friends.
It is truly word-of-mouth marketing at its best.

Who Owns Social Media?
‣ PR?
‣ Corporate Communications? It belongs to
‣ Marketing?
‣ Developers? everyone.
‣ IT?
‣ Your Customers? It has to.

What doesn’t work?
It’s not about numbers;
it’s about engagement and relationships
3 Requirements for Social Media
‣ Time ‣ Bodies ‣ A champion
Where’s the money?
‣ No one has a new pot of money to use for social media
‣ 10% of media budgets are now for social media in Fortune
500 companies
‣ Start by replacing your weakest media with social media for
six months.

What can I do for my business?
Less of this
1. Align your efforts with your current
business strategy.
2. Ensure your entire company is on
LinkedIn. Consistently.
3. The Age of Free. What can you give
away? More of this!
4. Don’t try to be everywhere. It’s
impossible.
5. Stop viewing this as a tool or channel.
It’s relationship.

Social Media Trends 2013
• Social media marketing disappears
• Integrating social media to corporate websites
• More support through social media
• Social CRM makes inroads in larger organizations
• Social media influences more sales
• Social commerce on mobile devices
• Social media budgets will grow
• Social media advertising will grow
• Social media ROI is a must
• Rise of the branded content

Social Media Trends 2013
• Content curation and discovery
• Tabletizing and mobilizing websites
• Social gaming will grow and spill over to real world
• Location, Location, Location!
• Most social media usage will be on mobile devices
• Group buying sites will add location based services
• Interacting with live TV in social media
• News will be social
• Mobile apps will get more social
• Your social media footprint will grow
• Facebook will break the 1 Billion people mark!

Think Content & Online Relationships
Facebook
Twitter
• You need more than just an
interesting subject. • Tell a story through your
• It’s good to be brief, but it’s tweets.
better to be good. • Make use of hashtags.
• Use smarter targeting. • Use it as a testing ground.
• Measure fan engagement. • Cover industry events.

Think Content & Online Relationships
Google+
YouTube and Vimeo
• Offer a healthy mix of content
• Enable video embedding. media.
• Mix professional and • Symbols like # and + are your
homegrown videos. friends.
• Show, don’t tell. • Share individual content from
• Keep it short. your staff.
• Think compilations, not long • Get more mileage from
shots. archived content.
• Use longer-form content for
commentary.

Think Content & Online Relationships
LinkedIn Pinterest
• Spruce up your company page. • Decide if the platform fits your
• Encourage staff members to audience before jumping in.
stay plugged in. • It’s more than just images.
• Think quality, not quantity. • Show your customers some
• Participate in groups. love.
• Leverage user-generated • Share your reading list.
content with • Show your company
recommendations. personality.

Think Content & Online Relationships
Foursquare Instagram and Flickr
• Encourage your staff to check • Post images that accompany
in at the office and company your content with a link to the
events. piece.
• Do research on your market to • Share unique behind-the-
fuel content. scenes and personal content.
• Check in at client and partner • Tie promotions to images.
meetings. • Turn followers into sources of
• Create a badge. content.
• Share tips that are relevant to • Offer high-quality peripheral
your audience. content.

Think Content & Online Relationships
Tumblr SlideShare
• Use your tags. • Share your eBooks.
• Post snippets of content. • Recycle old content. Embed
• Reblog, comment, and like your slides on other sites.
often. • Spend time on your title slides.
• Link back to your page. • Create lengthy, data-driven
• Focus your content. presentations.

Social Media is tearing down the walls that keep us
apart and changing the rules that have kept us from
being human inside our companies.
Success in this next era, the network age, the social
age, the knowledge age requires you to change your
everything: Attitude, Perspective, Philosophy,
Understanding, & Skillset.
Chris Heuer,
Chairman & Co-Founder – Social Media Club