Slides from our recent social media workshop up in Thurso as part of the Highland Social Road Trip...

1. Social Media Workshop
Caithness Horizons, Thurso
31st
May 2013
Delivered by:

2. This event is sponsored by:
http://northerneditorial.co.uk

3. Why use social media for business?
• Raise brand awareness
• Increase traffic to website
• SEO (search engine optimisation)
• Your customers are using it!
• To find new customers
• Widen your target market and potential reach
• Build strong relationships with customers
• Build strong relationships with local businesses
• Market research
• And much more…

4. Social Media Mishaps – What to avoid!
• Using social media channel purely for sales
• Lack of interaction and updating
• Not including it in your overall marketing plan
• Getting too personal
• Having no overall social media‘plan’in place
• Reacting badly to negative feedback
• Talking badly about other businesses
• Inconsistent content, bad spelling, etc
• Not letting customers know you are using it
• Doing too many updates not related your business/market
• Too many updates
• Expecting immediate results
• Using social media instead of other marketing techniques

5. What, when, and how should I
communicate on social media?
• Don’t just talk about your business - use it to
promote other local businesses and the area also
• Social media is all about interaction and conversation
• Share your experience and expertise
• Keep posts/updates short and concise
• Share photos and links – they will help to create
interaction
• Check all posts carefully before sending them out
• Be quirky, be different, be innovative
• Timing is everything

6. How to let customers know you
are using social media…
• Icons/links on website
• Icons/links within your blog
• Links from other social media accounts
• Icons on printed marketing materials
• Links within email newsletters
• Links on email signatures
• Tent cards within your business premises
• Window stickers within your business premises
• Mention it to customers in conversation

7. Google Alerts
What they are and how to
use them for social media and
your business…

8. Facebook
All you need to know…

9. Twitter
All you need to know…

10. FUN STUFF
Getting creative…

18. FACEBOOK AND TWITTER
Keeping it consistent…

19. What we’re looking for:
• Consistency across both platforms –
backgrounds, avatar and colours
• What makes a good Facebook cover
• Using the Twitter background
• Avatars – which ones stand out

36. Things to remember:
• Whatever you do online needs to be
consistent with what you already use in the
‘real world’
• Use the same avatar on both Twitter and
Facebook – adapt your logo if necessary
• Keep backgrounds the same or very similar
for instant recognition
• Twitter – use themes to change colours to be
consistent with your brand

37. Making yourself stand out…
• Get creative, make sure you have an
impressive visual impact!
• Consider doing a fun campaign, think
Coca Cola…
• Kick off conversations…that sometimes
means getting controversial!
• Think ‘outside the box’…

38. LinkedIn
All you need to know…

39. Hope you’ve enjoyed your…
http://highlandsocial.co.uk

40. www.snowmarketing.co.uk
Find us on…