social networking 201
TRANSCRIPT
Social Networking 201:
Building Your Online PresenceFor Business
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Agenda
Introductions Objectives Top Five Reasons for Using Social Networks for
Business Using the Tools Business Success Stories Breakout Sessions:
Business to Business Business to Consumer Personal Branding
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Who are we?
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Marijean Jaggers
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A little about YOU
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YOUR Objections
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Objectives of this Workshop
Enhanced knowledge of how to use the tools of social networking as applied to your business
Learn more efficient ways to engage in social media
Learn where to focus your time and effort using social networking
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Top Five Reasons to Use Social Networks
Find a (new, better) job Learn more about your industry (be smarter and
more valuable at work) Let people get to know you (your capabilities,
your business, your passion) Give people a way to easily find and connect with
you (for your business, for opportunities, as a friend)
Connect with others with similar interests
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Find a New, (or Better) Job
It is who you know. Make your resume easily searchable. Ask for introductions. Request endorsements and offer them to
others. Keep your name top-of-mind with
connectors and people who may be hiring.
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Learn more about your industry
Be the first in your industry to know about industry news & updates
Connect with other experts and share relevant links and articles
Learn more about your industry through open dialogue with those inside your industry but also with those who are outside, looking in
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Let people get to know you
Build Rapport and Trust Remind people about what you do and who
might be a potential client Allow people to see the face behind the
business. People want to do business with other PEOPLE, not with companies
Allow people to see your personality, beyond the workplace
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Give people a way to easily find and connect with you
Register your name & identity before someone else does!
Give people several different ways to find and connect with you, so that they can do what is easiest and most convenient
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Many small businesses use social media as exposure mechanism
The predominant tools which are used are LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Blogs
The goal is to put a human face on relationships with your business and give people an impression of what working with you would be like
Most social marketers view social media as a validator of expertise and a risk reduction mechanism rather than a direct marketing tool
Can also lead to being viewed as a source of credibility by the media
Give Yourself a Platform for Others to Connect to You
Source: “Social Networking Tools Gain Ground with Business Leaders.” Available at http://caas.tmcnet.com/topics/web-2/articles/54720-social-networking-tools-gaining-ground-with- business-users.htm 17
Find people in companies who you want to target
LinkedIn Connection Example
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Find people you know in targeted companies
LinkedIn Connection Example
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Connect with others with similar interests
Connect to people who share your interests, not just professional, but personal
Give people an opportunity to see who you are, beyond just your job
Find many resources for your hobbies and passions
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Find like-minded people who are experts in your industry
Find those who might be interested in what you have to say
The predominant tools which are used are LinkedIn Twitter
With LinkedIn, combine the use of search and your own networks to find others and connect with them
With Twitter, search for common terms of interest and find people who write about similar activities
Connect With Others With Similar Interests
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Maintaining a recruiting and contracting channel to find needed talent (LinkedIn, Twitter)
Finding out what your customers think about your product/service/you (Twitter, Facebook fan pages)
Collaboration among geographically separated employees and customers (Yammer)
Knowledge management (Ning, Slinkset, del.icio.us)
Sharing presentations (SlideShare)
Sharing documents (Google Documents, Scribd)
Quick and easy collaboration (Dabbleboard)
What Business Problems Can Social Media Solve?
Source: “Social Networking Tools – Why Your Business Should be Using Them” Available at http://outthink.co.za
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People make purchasing decisions based on knowledge of a brand
Social networking is not your silver bullet to drive business development
Beginners tend to use social media 2 hours/week; experts tend to use it 20 hours/week
Social media can drive targeted brand exposure for significantly lower cost
Social Media
“Social media, is by its nature, bottom-up. For an organization to try and force a dialogue online via social media top-down is like trying to be cool. Nine times out of ten - you’re going to look like a [expletive].”
- Aaron Cruikshank23
Social Networking: Objections
I don’t have time. I don’t know where to draw the line between
personal and business connections. There are people out there with whom I do not
want to reconnect. I’m concerned about privacy. I want to be sure there’s a return on investment.
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Facebook -- Overview
Facebook has several different useful options; personal profiles, fan pages, group pages, target marketing, fliers, event pages, and more
Facebook is one of the best ways to connect your personality and individuality with your company and industry- bring a face to your professional presence
Great information resource and a useful way to generate dialogue
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Facebook’s demographics
200 million active users in April, 2009 Over 70% of current users return daily
Facebook projects that by 2010, 75% of worldwide users will be outside of college
In March 2009, there were over 91 million unique visitors
Mark Zuckerberg says they have over 25 million people accessing the site via their mobile devices on a monthly basis
Source: Facebook26
A drill down of Facebook’s US demographics
56.3% female 69.4% have some college education 24% are non-white 44% work as professionals, executives,
sales, education, or technical 12% are full time students
32% have children under 16
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
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Facebook: Personal Profile
You may set your privacy settings so that you have different groups of friends, each of which who see your profile differently- you may limit what a specific group sees, if you are uncomfortable with them seeing your full profile (Photos, Wall, Contact Information, Etc)
Settings > Privacy > Profile
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Facebook: Personal Profile
You may then test your groups to make sure people are only seeing what you intended
Settings > Privacy > Profile > “See How Your Friends See Your Profile”
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Facebook Advertising
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Facebook standard ad sales
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Targeting beyond demographics
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Facebook’s NewsFeed Ads insert targeted messages
4-26% return for sponsored News Feed stories
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Facebook Flyers give self-service control
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Recommendations
Facebook marketing is about communicating, not advertising – so act appropriately
Be a part of the Facebook experience More like content than advertising
Tap into the reasons why friends share Listen, learn, and be ready to make
mistakes
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A business-oriented social networking site An interconnected network of professionals
in more than 170 industries and 200 countries
The average age of the LinkedIn user is 41 Average salary is $110,000 Men and the 24-35 year-old demographic
are more likely to use LinkedIn
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Ning
Ning is an online platform for users to create their own social websites and social networks www.ning.com
Virtual Chamber of Commerce http://fcaacc.ning.com/
UVA Social Network http://hoohasit.ning.com/
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Setting Up Your Website
Make a decision on domain name: will you have your own (e.g. http://www.stlworkingmom.com) or will it be a subdomain of another’s (e.g. http://extempore.livejounal.com)• Subdomains are usually free• Independent domains require
more work but are usually easier to track and manage
If going with a subdomain, follow instructions on the websiteIf going with independent hosting, most providers will register name for you, if it’s available
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Setting Up Your WebsiteAdd good content!• No point in publicizing an empty website
Register yourself as the webmaster with Google Webmaster tools (http://google.com/webmasters)• Applicable if your own domain
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Setting Up Your WebsiteRegister your domain with search engines• Google
(http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl)
• Yahoo (http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit)
• MSN (http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx)
Submit blog feed to Feedburner (http://feedburner.google.com) When you update your blog, if it is not done automatically (some blog services such as Feedburner do this), use PingoMatic (http://pingomatic.com/)
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Setting Up Your WebsiteTrack your results with Google Analytics (http://google.com/analytics)
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Blogging
Today there are 112 million blogs worldwide. 60-75% of all Web users read blogs (whether they
are aware of it or not). A blog is a Web site with updated content,
delivered to subscribers via an RSS feed. The sequence of blog content appears with the most recent content at the top of the page.
There are an estimated 400 active blogs that originate in Charlottesville.
Blogs are used widely by businesses and nonprofits.
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How to Set Up a Blog
Before You Blog – some considerations Select blogging software: WordPress,
Blogger, TypePad, Moveable Type Create a look and feel consistent with your
organization’s branding Develop categories for content
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How to Read Blog Content
Use RSS feeds Read feeds in
Bloglines or Google Reader
Feeds allow you to know when there’s new content, instead of going to sites one by one or receiving new posts via e-mail.
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Twitter in Plain English
http://www.commoncraft.com/twitter
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Microblogging service where users submit text-based posts (“tweets”) of up to 140 characters in length sent via
The website (http://www.twitter.com)
Short Message Service (SMS, or “texting”)
External applications Senders can restrict delivery of tweets to
selected users or can allow anybody to access them
Users can choose to follow others, which are then delivered as tweets occur
It is the fastest-growing social networking site in the world
In February the largest age group on Twitter was 35-49; with nearly 3 million unique visitors, comprising almost 42 percent of the site’s audience.
It’s common to follow strangers in Twitter, in comparison to Facebook, where it is not.
What is Twitter?
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Find people who tweet about your interests and follow them Respond to their tweets to build up a relationship
Twitter Connection Example
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Tweetdeck: Desktop application that allows sorting of Twitter feeds (http://www.tweetdeck.com)
Several in my network prefer Nambu (http://www.nambu.com)
FriendFeed: Pulls in friends’ posts from multiple social networks into one website (http://www.friendfeed.com)
TwitterFeed: Automatically posts your blog entries to Twitter (http://www.twitterfeed.com)
Twitpic: Shares pictures via Twitter (http://www.twitpic.com)
Digsby: Desktop application which provides ongoing feed of e-mail, social networks, and instant messaging (http://www.digsby.com)
Twitterberry: Update Twitter from your Blackberry (http://www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry)
Twimailer: Find out more about new followers (http://www.twimailer.com)
Useful Twitter Applications
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Listen for your name, your competitors’ names, words that relate to your space (to include hashtags: #)
Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you Share links to neat things in your community (see @wholefoods for a
good example) Answer the question “What has your attention?” Don’t just dump links; provide context around them (and use link
shortening services like tinyurl.com) Find out who your followers follow and follow them Make discussions about your things interesting, useful, and value-
added Promote others as well as yourself (#followfriday is a good example of
this) Ask opinions and questions Look at what your critics are saying about you as well as what your
fans are saying Read the other 40 suggestions at http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-
using-twitter-for-business/
Using Twitter for Your Business
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Don’t be afraid to use the search box; Twitter is great for finding out real-time information
Don’t be afraid to follow people you don’t know. Following is common on Twitter, and usually an ego boost for the person whom you’re following
Give your Twitter followers something which they can’t get elsewhere (sale, specials, extra information)
Make sure that you capture the social media names you want to represent you (this is similar to the URL land grab of the late ’90s).
Retailers can use Twitter as a customer service channel (@comcastcares is a good example of this)
More on Using Twitter for Business
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Social Networking Platforms;Who is it acceptable to connect with?
Facebook: It is common practice to ONLY connect with people who you personally know, who you’ve met in person, and who would know your name if asked.
LinkedIn: Connect with those who you know or have met, and then utilize their connections to meet people who are just 1 “degree” away.
Twitter: Anyone and Everyone! Many people like to connect with others who are in their area or their industry. You do not need to know people personally to “follow” them, and people who you do not necessarily know may follow you!
Note: Your kids may choose not to connect with you! And that’s okay! 52
Case Study: Marijean Jaggers
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A Case Study: Marijean Jaggers
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A Case Study: Marijean Jaggers
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A Case Study: Marijean JaggersPR consultant with StandingPR, blogger of STLWorkingMom, and TV star on CBS 19 Blog of the WeekGot her current job based on her blogging activities for the St. Louis PostUses blogs to tell stories• About herself• About case studies• About interesting things she finds on the web
Believes that her online activity has driven business because it’s easy for people to find her (75% of her business is driven through social media vs. 25% for “traditional” marketing)“The more [writing] you do, the better you get. Your high school writing teacher probably told you that too. He was right.”
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A Case Study: Marijean JaggersThinks it’s necessary to have 5-6 good posts of content before advertising a blogBelieve frequency of posting to social media is a function of both goals and niche• Mainstream topic + want to drive traffic: 5x/week on a blog,
5x/day on Twitter/Facebook• Niche content + great writer: could be 1x/month – “it’s like
the followers of an author who wait years for the next book to come out”
“Twitter, microblogging, is the ultimate way to try, because anyone can write SOMETHING within 140 characters.”“Observing first is a good way to get a sense of what others are doing, what your profession is doing, and to see good and bad examples of how it’s done.”
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A Case Study: Marijean Jaggers: 5 Things to Generate Readership
Comment on similar blogs, and include a link to your blog in the comment or the signature lineTell people via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn about your effortsMake sure that you are registering your blog with search engines, blogging aggregators, and groups (CvilleBlogs, Technorati, BlogHer)Go to real life events too and tell your story—show the person behind the writingAdd your blog to your business cards and signature line
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Case Study: Thomas Jefferson United Way
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United Way Success;Blog Visits Increase 100+% in one month
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Case Study: Gibson Design Management
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Gibson Design Success:
Alexandra Gibson was interviewed by John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing, for his next book- Due to Twitter
Picked up a new $30,000 client from a connection on Facebook
Alexandra is now writing occasional pieces for Interior Design Magazine, a major industry-leading publication
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Gibson Design Success:
Gibson Design has also rolled out a social media starter package, where she now sets other interior designers up on social media platforms for business, and has gained 5 new clients this way since the program inception in February 2009
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Beer Run: 455 Fans
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@thecommute: Charlottesville Traffic
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Barbara Hutchinson; CHO
Barbara Hutchinson, executive director of Charlottesville Albemarle Airport
JetBlast Blog Twitter @BHutchinson Referrals to
www.gocho.com from Twitter and Facebook are equal to that of referrals from airport resource sites.
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Spring Creek Living
Spring Creek Living www.springcreekliving.com Blogs integrated into site
designed in WordPress Facebook group and page LinkedIn presence Referrals from social
networks = 15% of total referrals
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Case Study:Dana Adams
Frugal in Virginia Consumer to
Consumer Building a brand
http://www.frugalinvirginia.com/Twitter http://twitter.com/frugalinvaNetworking with other frugal bloggers
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Personal Successes
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Personal Successes
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Questions?
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