Let’s “Talk” Social

Mike DuncanSage Island CEO

What is Social Media MarketingMany marketers think that doing a sponsorship on MySpace or posting a one-off campaign channel on YouTube is social media marketing

Not true.

Social Media is About Socializing!

It is about:Weaving your content and messages into the social webJoining the customer conversationMaking friendsCommunicating with those friendsListening to those friendsMeasuring impact

“There are now at least 1.6 billion of us connected via computer and 3 billion mobile devices that touch the Internet. The rise of "social" technologies - such as wikis, blogs, Twitter, SMS and social networks - means that the barriers to participation across the planet (in terms of the cost, access and skills required) are rapidly approaching zero”

Joshua-Michele Ross on O’Reilly Insights – March 2009

Blog

Blog Dos• Pay attention to headlines. Many people scan blog posts in a feed

reader like Google Reader. If the headline isn’t interesting, they won’t click through.

• Link to other blogs in your industry to get their attention and encourage them to link back to you.

• Keep blog posts under 500 words and break up large chunks of text with photos, headlines, and bullets for easier reading.

• Focus on quality content, but keep SEO in mind by favoring high traffic keywords over lower traffic phrases.

• Solicit feedback from your readers. Ask questions, include polls, and encourage community building through comments and participation.

Blog Don’ts• Never copy and paste content from other websites to fill your

blog posts. This creates duplicate content problems and violates copyright law.

• Avoid keyword stuffing. Your primary concern is quality content that interests readers. SEO should always be secondary. Use keywords only when appropriate and only if it doesn’t compromise good writing.

• Don’t expect feedback on every post. For every commenter there are nine “lurkers” who read without participating. Keep soliciting feedback and trying new ways to engage those readers, but don’t give up.

Social Tagging

Viral Marketing & Social Tagging

Add social bookmarking buttons for sites like Digg, Del.ici.us, and Stumble to blog posts and other content on your site to encourage users to “vote” for it.

Videos

YouTube Optimization

• Use keyword tags to tell readers and search engines what your video is about.

• Create a compelling headline to encourage viewers to watch your video.

• Keep videos as short and engaging as possible with the most important messaging in the beginning. If viewers get bored, they won’t watch the whole thing.

• Pay attention to your thumbnail image to entice viewers to click and watch. YouTube automatically selects a thumbnail by selecting an image from exactly halfway through your video. Be sure that something exciting and relevant is happening exactly halfway through your video to make your thumbnail image compelling.

Facebook / MySpace

Reaching your fans on FB

• Keep a constant stream of fresh content on your wall by uploading photos, videos, and links to your Facebook page.

• Create a community by building a group where members can upload their own photos and videos and discuss your brand.

• Link your Facebook page to an RSS feed for your blog.

Twitter

Why Twitter for Building Your Brand?

• Twitter is 3rd largest social network after FaceBook (1st) and MySpace (2nd) – Over 6 million active Twitter users – Over 55 million monthly visitors to Twitter

• Est. 5,000 new Twitter accounts every day• Most users access via mobile• Shouldn’t you be where your customers are?

Real Time Search

Serious Local Alerts

• Find Immediate Responses or Advice

• Niched Communal Information

• Natural Disasters

• Absolute Real Time Search

• Online Customer Service

Finding a Twitter Strategy that Works

• Everyone is listening. Who do you want your audience to be? – Consumers, businesses, strategic partners, industry experts (including bloggers), colleagues, etc.• Will your tone be corporate or casual? – Research has shown users prefer Twitter interactions to be on a more personal level• Who will Twitter? – Hiring a Community Manager whose job is to engage in social media – Should employees Twitter?• Twitter Usernames

– Claim your brand name (http://www.twitter.com/yourbrand)

Also popular: employee + brand names, CEO names

The Do’s

• Initiate discussion around your brand• Listen (really) to what people are saying about your brand; be proactive in responding• Keep it positive - this is reputation management• Respond timely to @ replies and DMs• Keep things interesting; vary tweet style and subject matter

The Don’ts

• Don’t toot your own horn too much • Don’t just bombard followers with links; introduce links with useful/meaningful discussion• Don’t disrespect the Twitter community• Don’t have a cavalier attitude about Twitter - it’s not a fad• Avoid auto-DMs and low quality @ replies – it’s annoying, makes followers think you’re a robot• Don’t sound like a broken record

Monitor Your Brand

• TweetScan | www.tweetscan.com Set up alerts for mentions of your brand and related keywords;

never miss @ replies

• TweetBeep Twilert | www.tweetbeep.com Like Google Alerts for Twitter

• Twollow | www.twollow.com Auto-follow people that mention your brand

• Twitterless | www.twittlerless.com Graphs your followers and tells you who stops following.

• ow.ly | cl.ig | tr.im | adjix.com | etc.

Shrink your URLs

Build Your Follower Base

• Twitter Search | search.twitter.com/advanced – Find your audience

• We Follow | wefollow.com – User powered Twitter directory

• Just Tweet It | www.justtweetit.com – Great Twitter directory; are you listed?

• Mr. Tweet | www.mrtweet.netDiscover new people, get relevant followers and usage stats.

Engage Your Followers

• TwtQpon | www.twtqpon.com Create coupons for Twitter. Give incentive to follow you.

• StrawPoll | www.strawpollnow.com Poll your followers. Ask questions about your brand, get instant

feedback

• TwitPic | www.twitpic.com Share interesting photos of new products, office antics, and other cool stuff

Make it an all Inclusive Process

1. Post video on YouTube or photos on Flickr

2. Post to all the other video sites

3. Post to profiles

4. Alert friends and fans on Social Sites

5. Twitter tweet

6. Alert bloggers with Blog Outreach

7. Email blast to house list

8. RSS feed release

9. Posting to blogs

10. Promote with paid media

11. Track, report and analyze

Search Engine Optimization – Kristopher Jones

Get to the top on Google – David Viney

Landing Page Optimization – Tim Ash

Building Findable Websites – Aarron Walter

M I K E D U N C A Nmduncan@sageisland.com

twitter.com/MikeADuncan

twitter.com/sageisland

www.sageisland.com

www.epenis.nl