business tourism networking group - using social media presentation 2

York & Scarborough Conferences

Business Tourism and Social Media

About Fox Communications

Established in 2001 as a PR and marketing consultancy.

Worked with numerous clients on the media relations side of PR.

Involved in the digital side of marketing since the beginning and therefore began to specialise in online PR and later social media.

Social media is all about conversations – usually instant! Hence the advantage of a background in PR - and solid experience in marketing.

Now work with many organisations in both the PR/Online PR sectors and in social media strategy and campaigns (including representing Visit York online since 2009)..

Social Media is…..

“Communicating over the web and using new technology to effectivelycommunicate with stakeholders” Source: CIPR website 2007

We believe that it enables us to:

LISTEN to our customers and potential customers in ways never previously possible

ENGAGE with multiple stakeholders (online customers/partners/influencers) in relevant and interesting ways

IDENTIFY those that influence others and the issues related to our organisation and sectors

MEASURE outputs and outcomes of our engagements


Forums and blogs


Podcasts


Social Networks

5 Reasons to Avoid Social Media

1.)

IT IS A FAD – IT WILL ALL BLOW OVER SOON ENOUGH

Why should I invest time and money into social media when something else will come along soon enough and nobody will remember Facebook, Twitter etc?


2.)

IT TAKES A GEEK TO ‘DO’ SOCIAL MEDIA

I still haven’t learnt to send a text message on my mobile, so how am I going to learn to ‘do’ social media?


3.)

IT IS A DIGITAL BLACKHOLE

I’ll spend a fortune paying my staff to spend hours on end wasting time on Facebook?


4.)

WE ARE ALREADY TOO BUSY.

Staring at a screen all day cannot be profitable. We should be meeting clients and speaking to customers...not writing 140 character messages to ‘followers’.


5.)

MY AUDIENCE ARE NOT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is for kids who want to share photos of their bums with their friends.

5 Reasons NOT to Avoid Social Media

IT IS A FAD – IT WILL ALL BLOW OVER SOON ENOUGH

A fad like never experienced before

Companies such as Sony, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Ford Motor Company making social media a core element of their marketing mix – spending £billions

Recent survey – 79% of Fortune 500 companies have social media as part of their marketing strategy

It’s a shift in communication.

It’s how brands are communicating with previously hard-to-reach audiences

It’s not going away


IT TAKES A GEEK TO ‘DO’ SOCIAL MEDIA

Rubbish. Remember getting your first mobile phone?

All you need to do is type

Plenty of social media tools to make it more ‘friendly’and easy –Hootsuite/Tweetdeck

Learn the basics and the rest will come with practice


IT’S A DIGITAL BLACKHOLE

Do your employees play solitaire all day?

There are possibilities to waste time but there are with everything

If you don’t trust a person, don’t allow them to represent you online

Create a social media strategy BEFORE you begin – stating who can represent you online and how


WE ARE ALREADY TOO BUSY

Everyone is busy but you are missing out on conversations involving you/your company/your venue/your service

People are asking for services you offer online right now and you are not able to take advantage of this

Use tools, hints and tips to make things easier, quicker and to filter out the rubbish

Outsourcing? Find a trusted and experienced agency who understand your overall objectives. ([email protected])

mailto:[email protected]�


OUR AUDIENCE/CUSTOMERS ARE NOT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Yes they are.

We can prove it.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 70 million members and growing rapidly.

LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn Groups allow you to:

•Quickly discover the most popular discussions in your professional groups.

•Have an active part in determining the top discussions by liking and commenting.

•Follow the most influential people in your groups by checking the Top Influencers board or clicking their profile image to see all their group activity.

•See both member-generated discussions and news in one setting.

•Easily browse previews of the last three comments in a discussion.

•Find interesting discussions by seeing who liked a discussion and how many people commented.

http://press.linkedin.com/�

LinkedIn

Business orientated

High earners

Decision makers

LinkedIn

Follow Groups of Interest.

Track conversations and join in.

LinkedIn containsan incredibleamount of regionalbusiness groups –such as The Yorkshire Mafia -as well as groupsfrom vertical sectors.

Lots to attack!

Promote Our Strengths

Take Advantage of the Area

It's not all about business. Remind potential organisers and delegates what a beautiful area they’re visiting. Bring a partner or even the family and stay longer? Remind them just what we’ve got and it may swing the decision.

The beauty of social media is that you can often get messages like this across in conversations. They may not care that the conference room has a 50” plasma, but they may like the sound of hitting Scarborough beach and then York’s restaurants.

How social media can influence

Listening and responding.

On the Visit York Twitter account we saw a post from an IT consultant who wished to organise a large international conference in York but was encountering resistance from foreign delegates who didn’t know much about York.

He tweeted us for help and this resulted in him meeting up with Visit York staff which in turn led to him booking the international conference.

The nature of social networks is that people are far more likely to interact. They don’t need to phone, find the correct email address or visit. A presence in social media means that we’re there and available in a way not previously possible.

Twitter example

benfox2212: Anyone know of a good conference venue in #Yorkshire? -capacity of about 100 people, disability access a must? Please RT... 1:19pm, Jun 24 from HootSuite

lorelei_: @benfox2212 If no one suggested it yet, the Harrogate International Centre might be worth a look – from memory it should cover your needs 1:55pm, Jun 24 from Web

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Twitter

Observe and listen

Search for relevant posts and people

Join in conversations

Avoid being too ‘salesy’

Show don’t tell (links, pics)

RT other posts, talk about lots of subjects

What’s New?

So, what’s around the corner in social media, the next big thing?

Well YouTube has been around for five years now but experts predict its phenomenal growth will not just continue, but explode!

“Video sharing website YouTube now gets more than two billion hits daily”.

“Every single minute, over 24 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube”.

Sources: BBC News, May 17, 2010. YouTube Fact Sheet, May 2010

YouTube – an under-exploited resource

Here’s a tip. If you want your videos to be found and viewed, play the game. Optimisation helps your video get discovered in YouTube search results

YouTube

A major part of getting your videos found and viewed is simply through the clever use of headlines, descriptions and tags.

Help your videos be discovered in search results and ‘Related Videos’

• Title: 120 characters– Think of your title as a headline– If you include brand name in title, it should go last

• Description: 5,000 characters– Be as detailed as possible (short of entire transcript)– Include URLs (with http://) to Playlist or website

• Tags: 120 characters– Be as detailed as possible– Include: Brand, city, topics

Source: YouTube Partner Help Centre

YouTube

Why so important?

We work with specialists in YouTube optimisation and here’s an example of the results they achieved with a client who run an online travel video channel.

On YouTube the travel client in question had received 1,510 total views in eight months.

In the next 100 days, they received 116,905 total views.

Getting the optimisation right really works!

Another benefit: In April, external links to the client site grew from under 1,000 to over 2,500.

Incredible for SEO purposes.

Foursquare

What is it?

It’s a location-based social network that combines your friends, location and status, meaning it allows you to tell your friends where you are and what you’re doing.

The interesting thing about Foursquare is that this happens in a pseudo-game format. When you check-in at places – such as your venue- you receive points. After multiple check-ins, you earn badges. And you can see how many points you have in comparison to your friends. You can also leave tips (comments) for other Foursquare folk.

It’s mainly based around mobile so it’s ideal for catching visitors on the move

Targeting Vertical Sectors

Every sector gets together. Exhibitions. Trade Fairs, Sales, Networking, Conferences, Training.

Follow a sector that’s of interest to you to give you a genuine interest and to offer an authentic voice if you are joining in conversations.

Love jewellery? Research trade body sites, blogs, forums, and the social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn) to discover groups. Choose the larger / influential groups - then follow conversations. Are they planning to meet up for networking? Have a trade fair? How about suggesting they have a public sale in North Yorkshire? They may consider your venue, so join in.

Why is social media so important?

Using social media properly has many advantages – here’s just four for starters:

PR – it’s a powerful and instant PR channel. It works both ways. E.g. Conduct a survey on Facebook and you’ve got an instant story.

User value – you’re providing great information and entertainment for your customers – what’s not to like?! Plus they feel valued as it’s way for them to provide feedback and get questions answered.

Market Research – You’ve got a ready made market research team at your disposal. Find out what customers like and dislike. Gauge demand, ask for ideas.

Search Engine Optimisation – keywords and links on social networks referring to your site will boost search engine rankings. This can be incredibly important.

Remember - Social Media isn’t…

The answer to all your marketing prayers

It takes a lot of work and a lot of time to become effective and for it to work for you.It can help all other forms of marketing but it does not work in isolation.

It should be:

IntegratedPR ledCommittedLong-termConsistent

Not to mention engaging, interesting, two-way, entertaining, different, amusing, viral, informative, playful, helpful…..you get the picture

How should we join in?

When promoting online, think in categories:

•Listen and Monitor

•Research

•Promote Yourself

•Keep the channels open at problem times

Always remember:TransparencyHonestyObjectivesTimely responses

Don’t forget to include references to your social networks on all your marketing communications. E.g. ‘Follow Us on Twitter’, ‘Join us on LinkedIn’. ‘See our YouTube channel’. To get people to engage with you on social networks, you need to get them there in the first place - and the offline method is often neglected.

It’s great but how do we Measure?

Clear objectives – what to measure and what will be useful?

Buzz and sentiment – not just numbers. This is where monitoring and listening come in. 30 new followers in one morning? So what? Big deal.

But what if 20 people that morning were complaining about your venue’s customer service? That’s a big deal.

That’s more useful for you to know than numbers. Stay alert as to what people are saying about you; it’s great for improving your offering and ironing out problems – and it can even avert a potential crisis.

Check out software such as Meltwater Buzz and Social Media Metrics

Measurement

Web analytics – when measuring, remember to use tools such as Google Analytics. You need to know the effect social media is having upon your main web site. You can also see exactly what has proved successful, and what hasn’t.

Other signs – don’t forget to count and consider conversations, downloads, video views and comments, competition entries, Re-Tweets, Likes, referring URL visits, page impressions, visit times, influential followers, Interactions, Organic SE positioning, in-bound links, Fan photos and videos, etc. etc.

It’s not just about number of Fans and Followers!

Join, search, ask, tell

Single most important thing to take away?

Integrate. Social media only works if it’s part of the bigger picture.

It’s part and parcel of PR today and will amplify your efforts. It’s powerful and immediate and can work well with your advertising, promotions, direct marketing and every single other aspect of your marketing.

It can even help with your recruitment!

Social media isn’t difficult, think of it as telling your story.

Treat each medium differently, but ensure it embodies your venue or service’s personality. Consider how to utilise it so that it will spread your stories, news and thoughts in the most effective way.

Have fun – it will show!

business tourism networking group - using social media presentation 2

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