Social Media

Vania Benavides, WebWorx Social Media Instructor

Social Media BasicsSocial media is not a one-way communication:● Connect with your customers● Find out more about your customers and their needs● Monitor networks for questions – don’t just automatically feed

status updates on networks● Build connections, then

○ Take the conversation further -- i.e.: Visit other’s blogs or invite them to your blog

○ Offer unique opportunities and content on social networks○ Don’t just focus on status updates, focus on delivering

value

Social media and MarketingThink of social media as an extension of your current marketing plan--It takes into account demographics, target market, message delivery, return on investment, etc.

Social Media is a time investment

● Time you’re active on social networks

● Time to set up blogs or action plans to drive traffic from social networks to your website

The returns are trackable via website statistics, i.e.: ● Visitor Loyalty: direct or bookmarked site visits (as opposed to

visits from search engines or ads)● Subscriptions Initiated: email, print, and mobile signups

● Content Shares: pages, stories, videos shared to social networks or emailed

Social Media StrategyWhat do you need to think about when coming up with a strategy● Think about your goals● Pick out your target market● Think about how you want to share your objectives-

images, blogs, video● Pick a few channels (social networks of delivery)● Engage with your audience

○ Ask questions○ Start discussions○ Encourage Feedback○ Get others to promote you - Please retweet, share with

your friend list, repin, etc.

Networks for your businessTwitter – for connecting directly to people that may be interested in your brand by “following” "mentioning" and joining in on #discussions with them Google Plus – allows you to share and view content; better search than facebook, ● Google can't bring up data from facebook, so it will use

data from its social network to bring up relevant results in search engines

Facebook: use Facebook Page as to connect to other pages

Set up a twitter profile

● Select a name● Add your picture● activate your account via email● set up a background● follow people of interest or similar to you● Start by adding a status update: Then press the Tweet button->

Twitter Basics continued

@mentions: when you choose a username, people can contact you by appending the "@" to your username, so the way to contact vabmedia in a tweet, is to create a status update with @vabmedia and add your 140 character message to me● "Mentioning someone in a status update, means all your followers will see

the message, but the person you mentioned may see it via email if they signed up for email notifications, or they'll get a text if they signed up for text notifications via twitter

● If you want to send a direct message to another twitter user, you would not use @twitterusername, you would leave out the "@"○ you can only send direct messages to people following you○ you can send a direct message by adding the following to your tweet:

"dm username rest of 140 character message"

Direct messages on twitter

● You can set up auto direct messages to anyone that follows you, so if @xyzuser follows you they will automatically get a direct message, this option is only available through third party applications like Socialoomph

● an example of a direct message, "hi thanks for following, visit our website for more info (website link)

● The other way to send a direct message is to click on a person's profile in the newsfeed, and click on the button with the head-shadow image, then click -send a direct messsage

Twitter Basics

● Share links● Follow industry leaders - spying & to get ideas

○ Klout● Follow your target market

○ Use searches to help you● Tweet often, the more you tweet the more you get:

○ Followers○ Clicks to your content○ Re-tweets of your content

Engage on TwitterWhen you see someone that has many followers and has similar interests

TALK TO THEMHOW?

● Use ‘@twitterusername’ when you want to get someone’s attention, i.e.:

● @tuser How are you?

● @tuser We share the same interests

● @tuser What’s your advice for…

● @tuser I like your blog…good content, great tips.....I think you’d like my blog….let’s connect

This will work better if you have someone mention you that has more followers than you

Twitter continued- ‘mentions’

One of the best ways of getting many followers at once is to get that person that you sent the “@tuser comment” to respond with your twitter username● Their followers will want to know who you are and if you’re of

interest, they will followThe second best way to get followers is to follow people● The more people you follow, the more followers you have● Similarly, the more tweets you send out, the more followers you

can gain● See who has mentioned you by clicking on the @connect tab

at the top of the twitter dashboard (middle link @connect)● Look at the descriptions on their profiles and see if their interests

match your target market

Twitter DiscussionsHashtags● ‘#discussion topic’● Search for a keyword to see what people are already

talking about “#discussing” - you can do this through twitter's own search area

● Use discussions as a way of using keywords

On your next tweet, use ‘#discussion topic’ in your tweet to make your tweet visible to those outside your follower list

Finally, Use Twitter for PR and Link Building● Connect with Bloggers that allow you to guest post

Facebook -Use Page As " fbpagename"

If you are a business to business or you are looking for a complementary business that you would like to form a collaborative relationship with: Use Facebook Page As: ● click on the arrown next to your profile image

at the top right of fb dashboard● Click the page you are an admin of, to use fb

as, see image below:

Google +

Joining is easy if you have a gmail account● Create a google + account● Fill in your profile -> about, add photos, add links● Search for people that may already be on google +

through your network○ Create circles, then drag your friend/acquaintance to

that circle (drag and drop their face to a Circle)● Add searches and see what others on the web are

blogging about - related to your business● Add a link to your website under job/work/occupation● If you're a solopreneur, here is a place for you to add

your profile● Add photos that are professional and representative of

your business and yourself

Google + Networking

Just as you would do on twitter, or any other social network, you must:

JOIN THE CONVERSATIONIn Google + "like" = "+1"So, hit that +1 button, share with your circles, and post up as many links as possible to drive traffic back to your website.

Twitter, Google +, Facebook Recap

JOIN THE CONVERSATION, ● SHARE, ADD LINKS, USE KEYWORDS, ● SEARCH FOR YOUR TARGET MARKET● USE THIRD PARTY TOOLS TO GET

STATS● ALWAYS THINK OF WAYS TO ENGAGE● DON'T BE STATIC● DON'T REPEAT YOUR TWEETS● FOLLOW● MENTION, RETWEET,+1, LIKE, Comment● CREATE YOUR OWN UNIQUE CONTENT