Improving Your Competitive Advantage

Using Social Media

Today’s Agenda• Reality Check• Competitive Advantages/Strategies

–Blogging–Facebook–Twitter

• Next Steps

The Future is HereIt’s just not evenly distributed yet

4 Ways Social Media is Changing Business

• From “Trying to Sell” to “Making Connections”

• From “Large Campaigns” to “Small Acts”• From “Controlling Our Image” to “Being

Ourselves”• From “Hard to Reach” to “Available

Everywhere”http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/social-media-business/

Only 14% of People TRUST ADVERTISEMENTS

78% TRUST the Recommendations of OTHER CONSUMERS

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How we communicate has changed.

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Traditional – You get it from us Social – You get it from your network

• Educate your Customers• Engage in Conversations• Product Service Innovation• Listen• Reputation Management• Direct Marketing to people interested

rather than mass market to all• Closer Relationships - make competition

invisible• Give people something to talk about

Social Media Competitive Advantages

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Resilient Leaders--Resilient Organizations 8

RSS & SocialBookmarking

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BLOGSCompetitive Advantage

How Blogs Help• Achieve Expert Status in your field• Promote Your Name, Brand,

Product/Service• Deliver Traffic to your Website• Increase Your SEO Rankings • Creating a real dialogue with those who

matter• Lead Generation• Education is the new marketing• Differentiating your business, products

and services • Develop marketing materials by

repurposing your posts

• Educate your Customers• Engage in Conversations• Product Service Innovation• Listen• Reputation Management• Direct Marketing to people

interested rather than mass market to all

• Closer Relationships - make competition invisible

• Give people something to talk about

Tells personal

stories to share

experience.

Encourages

photo sharing!

Stories from

owners of

puppies!

Video blogging

of ‘how tos’ to

show people

how it is

actually done.

Recommends

specific

products and

then

demonstrates!

More about

human interest

than selling…

really ‘sells’ his

community!

They blog

about products

related to the

season, the

uses, how to

be ready for

specific

situations and

service calls,

how to save

money using

their products,

etc.

Blogging Strategy

One Post Per WeekBrainstorm• What can you educate your clients on• What are new trends happening in

your industry• What are all of the things that make

your company unique• What are all of the things that you care

about outside of work; things that make you more than just work

Steve’s Plan• M – Inspirational posts for Small

Businesses; Encourage steps• T - Tools Tuesday• W - Case Study on business or tool• T - Publicly answer a question that

came up from a client, employee, or friend

• F - Best of the week – what I am reading, fascinated by

TWITTERCompetitive Advantage

How Twitter Helps

Customer service Reputation management Constant stream of new ideas

and links Instant access to what is being

said ‘right now’ Network with others in your

industry Extend your reach – become a

thought leader

Educate your Customers Engage in Conversations Product Service Innovation Listen Reputation Management Direct Marketing to people

interested rather than mass market to all

Closer Relationships - make competition invisible

Give people something to talk about

What is

fresh/hot out of

the oven from

breads and

cakes to

cookies and

treats. Share

photos in the

tweet.

Bakery treats

that come to

you. They

tweet where

they are going,

so customers

can meet the

truck.

- Customer

tweeted an

order –

gained

attention

- Host Tweet-

ups that is

still the

largest

“Tweet-up”

gathering in

Houston

- Doing more

‘tech’ parties

Submit your

packages to

the Direct

Message

feature of

twitter to be

able to track

any packages

using any

shipping

service, going

anywhere.

What business

could use this?

How could you

use this?

Twitter Strategy

• Decide: Who do you want to follow you?

• Find 10 people each day for 10 days whom you want to follow you, and follow them first- watch your followers grow!

Beth’s 30 day plan• Commit 15 minutes every day to Twitter.

– Day One: Listen– Day Two: RT – Day Three: Follow back.– Day Four: Check your DM and @ messages – Day Five: Choose one person you are following,

who has a large number of following/followers. Go through who they are following and follow people to build your own list.

– Day Six: Strike up a conversation, answer someone’s question or offer assistance

– Day Seven: In the search bar, type in some keywords with and without a #hashtag and see all the current twitter chatter on a topic you care about. You may find more people to follow and/or conversations to join.

FACEBOOKCompetitive Advantage

How Facebook Helps

• Educate your Customers• Engage in Conversations• Product Service Innovation• Listen• Reputation Management• Direct Marketing to people interested

rather than mass market to all• Closer Relationships - make

competition invisible• Give people something to talk about

• Target advertising• Inner-circle

Features customers

before/after shots

Frequent status

updates

Chronicle a Training

trip to New York this

year, sending

pictures, new fashion

tips and trends, and

other interesting

tidbits back to MN

Selling CD’s via

Facebook fans

Demo music

Networked blogs

Fan photos/events

related to CD release

Facebook Strategy

• #1 Competitive Advantage you can have in Facebook is “Presence”. 80% of Fan Pages are stagnant for months! Engage your fans daily with something; status updates, photos, links, and ongoing comments in threads.

Beth’s Strategy• 1 update every day• Integrate with other

tools (YouTube, etc)

• Add photos

Social Networking at its FinestNovember 2008

John McCain

• Facebook Fans: 620,359• Twitter Followers: 4,603• YouTube Views: 2,032,993• MySpace Friends: 217,811

Barack Obama

• Facebook Fans: 2,379,102• Twitter Followers: 112,474• YouTube Views: 18,413,110• MySpace Friends: 833,161

The System

• Assessment• Strategy• Small Steps• Measurement• Celebrate Successes

Measurement

NCP

Resources• Blogging - Give Me 15 Minutes and I Will

Give You The Formula To Blogging Success• Is There A Quick Way to Secure Your

Identity On Social Websites• Is Twitter For You?

4 Ways Social Media is Changing Business

• From “Trying to Sell” to “Making Connections”

• From “Large Campaigns” to “Small Acts”• From “Controlling Our Image” to “Being

Ourselves”• From “Hard to Reach” to “Available

Everywhere”http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/social-media-business/

• Educate your Customers• Engage in Conversations• Product Service Innovation• Listen• Reputation Management• Direct Marketing to people interested

rather than mass market to all• Closer Relationships - make competition

invisible• Give people something to talk about

Social Media Competitive Advantages

Blog: www.stevegasser.com

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