Leveraging  The  Orion  Resource  Group  Communications  Center  to  Achieve  Your  

Business  Objectives  

Best  Practices  May  8,  2013  

Topics  §  Members  Share  Business  Objectives  

§  Social  Media  /  Internet  Content  Sharing  is  King  

§  Best  Practices  for  the  Orion  Communications  Center  

§  Achieving  Your  Business  Objectives  Ê  Give  your  business  a  voice  Ê  Increase  visibility  for  your  business  Ê  Create  a  repository  of  curated  content  that  is  important  and  relevant  to  your  industry  Ê  Broaden  your  network  of  referral  sources  Ê  Establish  yourselves  as  a  thought  leader  in  your  industry  Ê  Other  ideas  

§  Orion  Communications  Center  Challenge  

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Social  Media  /  Internet  Content  Sharing  -­‐  The  Numbers  Rock!  

§  Facebook:  1,000,000,000  active  users    

§  Twitter:  175,000,000  active  users  

§  LinkedIn:    150,000,000  registered  users  

§  Pinterest:    8,000,000  active  users  

§  Blogs:  346,000,000  people  read  blogs  every  day  

§  YouTube:  800,000,000  unique  visitors  last  month  

§  Forums:  300,000,000  monthly  users  

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Demographics  -­‐  Facebook  

§  86%  of  Facebook  users  are  age  25  and  older  

§  81%  have  some  college  education  or  bachelors/graduate  degree  

§  58%  earn  $50,000  or  more  

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Demographics  -­‐  Twitter  

§  81%  of  people  on  Twitter  are  age  25  and  older  

§  83%  have  some  college  education  or  bachelors/graduate    degree  

§  47%  earn  $50,000  or  more  

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Communications  Center  Best  Practices    

§  Rick  Baue  –  How  to  use  the  Orion  Communications  Center  

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Communications  Center  Best  Practices  §  Write  interesting  and  relevant  posts,  this  will  encourage  readers  to  

engage  with  your  posts  

§  Start  With  An  Engaging  Opener  –  something  that’ll  ignite  the  reader’s  curiosity,  motivate  their  thought  process  and  get  them  engaged.  Make  your  opener  funny,  insightful,  witty  and  outrageous  if  need  be.  

§  Write  in  your  speaking  voice,  as  though  you’re  chatting  with  friends.    

§  Make  the  content  graphically  vivid  -­‐  Paint  a  picture  with  your  words,  and  draw  people  into  the  scene  you’re  painting.  

§  Provide  a  Conclusion  –  sum  up  the  essence  of  your  article  in  a  short  conclusion.  Your  conclusion  should  ideally  tie  up  your  points  together  and  provide  a  short  glimpse  of  what  the  article  is  all  about.  

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Communications  Center  Best  Practices  §  Typically  blog  posts  that  are  original  content  range  from  300  to  500  

words.      

§  Always  include  a  catchy,  relevant  image  with  your  post  

§  Images  should  be  obtained  from  “royalty-­‐free”  or  “creative  commons”    image  sites  

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Communications  Center  Best  Practices  

§  Pose  Engaging  Questions  -­‐  At  the  end  of  a  post,  pose  a  brain-­‐stimulating  question.    

§  Get  other  members  to  offer  tips  -­‐  It  could  be  a  problem  that  you’re  facing,  or  something  your  customer  is  facing.    

§  Provide  useful  information  that  people  won’t  get  elsewhere  (or  at  least  not  as  quickly)  

§  Post  best  practices  articles,  tips,  resources,  etc.  

§  Respond  to  comments  

§  Use  Communications  Center  as  a  platform  for  announcing  news  in  the  industry,  related  businesses,  promotions,  events,  etc.  

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Content  for  the  OCC  Home  Pages  

§  There  are  2  home  pages  –  one  that  the  public  sees  and  one  that  only  members  see  

§  Content  for  each  of  these  home  pages  will  be  selected  on  a  rotating  basis  from  posts  submitted  by  members.    At  first,  we  will  select  from  whatever  member  posts  have  been  submitted  and  promote  them  to  the  home  pages  

§  Once  we  have  a  higher  volume  of  content,  posts    for  the  home  page  will  be  selected  from  member  posts,  but  we’ll  also  look  to  have  varied  points  of  view/angles  on  the  posts  such  as:  Ê  Member  Spotlight  -­‐  highlight  one  member,  brief  bio  and  accomplishments  Ê  Member  Education  post  -­‐  e.g.,  resource  website,  book,  online  training  opportunities,  etc.  Ê  Industry  News  Ê  Member  Event  -­‐  promote  upcoming  event  or  images  from  prior  event  Ê  Video  Post  -­‐  curated  from  videos  posted  by  members  Ê  Editorial  Post    -­‐  e.g.,  member  commenting  on  relevant  industry  topic  Ê  Tips  and  Advice  -­‐  e.g.,  10  ways  to  evaluate  a  home  care  provider  Ê  Innovation  -­‐  e.g.,  interesting  iPad  app,  etc.  

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Achieving  Your  Business  Objectives  by  Using  the  Communications  Center  

§  Give  your  business  a  voice  

§  Increase  visibility  for  your  business  

§  Create  a  repository  of  curated  content  that  is  important  and  relevant  to  your  industry  

§  Broaden  your  network  of  referral  sources  

§  Establish  yourself  as  a  thought  leader  in  your  industry  

§  Other  ideas  

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Business  Objectives  for  Using  the  Communications  Center  Shared  by  Attendees  at  5/8/13  Session  

§  Grow  business  

§  Do  own  sourcing  of  member  connections  and  information  without  having  to  call  Henry  

§  Pilot  social  media  in  a  safe,  secure  and  friendly  environment  with  Orion  constituents  

§  Build  a  linkage  between  Orion’s  brand  and  member’s  brand.    Look  to  leverage  that  bond  once  the  OCC  opens  up  feeds  to  other  social  media  channels  

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Give  Your  Business  a  Voice  

§  Write  a  blog  post  –  humanize  your  business  and  show  its  personality  

§  Guest  post  on  other  relevant  blogs  -­‐  a  great  way  to  get  your  business  out  there  

§  Repost  your  blog  posts  in  the  Communications  Center  -­‐  a  perfect  way  to  distribute  your  content  more  widely  

§  Use  the  Communications  Center  as  your  blog  if  you  don’t  have  one  

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You  can  add  your  own  article  

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Increase  Visibility  for  your  Business  

§  Post  on  your  Facebook  business  page  to  spread  your  message  and  your  logo  across  people’s  newsfeed  

§  Post  on  other  blogs  and  forums-­‐    provides  you  an  opportunity  to  extend  the  reach/visibility  of  your  brand  

§  Post  important  updates  about  your  business  to  the  Communications  Center  that  you  think  may  be  of  interest  to  other  members  

§  Post  images  after  events  that  your  business  participated  in  

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Create  a  Repository  of  Good  Content  

§  Post  great  quality  articles  that:  Ê  Answer  industry  questions  

Ê  Contain  industry  news  

Ê  Provide  how-­‐to  based  content  

Ê  Encourage  readers  to  comment  

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Create  a  Repository  of  Good  Content  

§  Provide  information  that  helps  your  target  audience  in  a  quick,  easy-­‐to-­‐use  format  

§  Twitter  and  LinkedIn  are  great  channels  for  distributing  articles  written  by  others  

§  The  Communications  Center  is  a  perfect  place  for  sharing  relevant,  informative  articles  that  you  have  found  with  other  members  

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Broaden  Your  Referral  Network  

§  Connecting  with  others  through  LinkedIn  Groups,  participating  in  Forums,  etc.,  is  a  great  way  to  grow  your  connections  and  increase  the  likelihood  of  referrals  

§  Being  actively  involved  in  the  Communications  Center  by  sharing  content  and  information  is  a  great  way  to  build  trusted  relationships  with  other  members  

§  Post  a  business  event  to  the  Center’s  calendar  and  reach  out  to  invite  other  members,  if  appropriate  

§  Use  the  directory  to  find  members  to  collaborate  with  

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Establish  Yourself  as  a  Thought  Leader    

§  Carve  out  a  niche  for  yourself    

§  Write  content  that  takes  a  stand  –  be  clear,  direct  and  definitive  –  be  the  expert  on  your  topic  

§  Be  controversial  (but  not  too  controversial)  –  these  posts  spark  discussion  and  debate    

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Establish  Yourself  as  a  Thought  Leader    

§  Create  a  YouTube  video  -­‐  a  great  way  to  start  building  up  content  that’s  authoritative    

§  Compose  White  Papers  and  mini  eBooks  focused  on  your  area  of  expertise  

§  Post  these  articles  and  videos  to  the  Communications  Center  and  let  everyone  know  they’re  available  as  a  resource  

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White  Papers  and  eBooks  

§  Need  to  be  set-­‐up  on    your  website  or  blog  

§  Add  a  link  to  the  OCC  as  you  would  to  a  blog  post  or  any  other  article  

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Questions?  

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Communications  Center  Challenge  

§  We  encourage  all  members  to  enter  their  profile  information  on  the  OCC  by  May  10th.  

§  We  will  be  conducting  an  “incentive  challenge”  for  members  to  explore  and  become  familiar  with  all  the  features/functions  that  the  OCC  offers  

§  Will  likely  consist  of  scavenger  hunt,  which  requires  members  to  access  all  the  different  sections  of  the  OCC  and  take  some  sort  of  action  to  complete  the  hunt  

§  We  will  reward  those  who  participate  and  there  will  be  one  “winner”    

§  Further  details  will  be  forthcoming  soon!  

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Next  Steps  

-­‐  Presentation  will  be  made  available  to  all  Orion  members  after  today’s  meeting  

-­‐  Look  for  CC  Challenge  coming  soon  

-­‐ Direct  questions  after  today  to  the  team  -­‐  Henry  is  point  of  contact  for  questions/comments  on  functionality  

-­‐  Iris  is  point  of  contact  for  content  questions,  guidance,  etc.  

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Thank  You!  

Presentation  is  currently  available  here:  

Slideshare.net/gibbonsdigital  

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