Blueprint for the small business entrepreneur to build robust and engaged online communities. How to attract passionate advocates for your business by sharing the spotlight, telling your story, creating compelling content and humanizing your brand.

1. Social Media: Build a Community...

2. ...not a crowd

3. Crowd

4. Crowd
+ Passion

5. Crowd
+ Passion
+Platform

6. Crowd
+ Passion
+Platform
=Community

7. Remember that views differ

8. No pitching

9. Give others a voice

10. Share the spotlight

11. Content is king

12. Tell your story

13. What’s in it for me?

14. Don’t talk about X talk about Y
strollers parenting
cameras photography
cookware cooking

15. You won’t find community here

16. You don’t get to pick the channel

17. Join the community
(and not just your own)

18. Enable advocates

19. Humanize the brand

20. Connect and educate

21. Want engagement?
Just Ask

22. Case Studies
1 BIG BUSINESS
&
1 small business

23. Bloggers, retailers, consumers

24. Results
• online conversations doubled
• positive mentions up from 67% to 83%
• 100% of proactive outreach posts positive
• huge increase in positive product reviews
• over 1,000,000 impressions

25. multiple SM
channels
ArmentDietrich.com

26. shared content
across channels
guest bloggers, robust comment sections

27. Questions?
John Heaney
john@orange-envelopes.com
@johnheaney