using social networks to promote your business
DESCRIPTION
The slides for a presentation I gave to a bunch of real estate agents in Toronto about how to use social networks to promote their business.TRANSCRIPT
Using Social Networks to Promote your Business and
Attract Clients
John DupuisSteacie Science & Engineering Library
April 24, 2009http://tinyurl.com/problogjd
http://xkcd.com/386/
I'm very bad at coming up with titles
I got suggestions from Friendfeed, Twitter and
Some are silly, but all have a grain of truth
I started up a blog and all I got was five invites to give keynotes,
ten new collaborators, introduction to new funding
bodies, an interview in Nature, an invite to scifoo, three
papers...and a couple of t-shirts
• Thanks to Cameron Neylon for the suggestion
It's all about crowdsourcing
It's all about community
Attention and reputation
Promotion and networking
Attention is the first currency of the digital realm...Reputation is the second currency of the digital realm...To me this means that in the digital realm, you have to stop thinking that you're in the XYZ business...and start thinking that you're in the attention and reputation business.
-Richard Akermanhttp://scilib.typepad.com/science_library_pad/2008/01/the-currencies.html
Attention + Reputation = New clients
But it's a long term strategy
Attention needs to be won everyday
Reputation needs to be earned everyday
Converting them into real-world currency takes time,
energy, patience and persistence.
The digital realm is crowded with others vying for the
same attention.
The two tools we'll be looking at for getting attention and building
reputation are
Blogging and Twitter
http://xkcd.com/519/
What are blogs
A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
-Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
http://simonandemily.wordpress.com/
http://torontorealtyblog.com/
http://toreal.blogs.com/
http://xkcd.com/369/
What is Twitter
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them.
-Wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
http://twitter.com/Oprah
http://twitter.com/aplusk
http://twitter.com/REMAXCanada
http://twitter.com/GeorgeONeill
Rules of thumb for engaging in social networks
It's about creating a personal brand
And reflecting that brand online
Think of your online presence as combining
A CV, a portfolio, a business card, a dinner party
introduction
Be honest
Be genuine
Be yourself
Most of all
Be passionate
What's the best way to engage people on social
networks?
As a potential client?
Or as a fellow citizen?
Remember
It's about building a long term relationship
Online social networks are just like offline ones
If you spam your network...
Think hot potato
Creating your own blog
Best option is to set up your own domain name and
install blogging software
Or you can host with Blogger.com or Wordpress.com
A word about Search Engine Optimization
Some other tools
Search• Google Blog Search: http://blogsearch.google.com• Technorati: http://technorati.com/• Twitter Search: http://search.twitter.com/
Assessment• Google Analytics: http://www.google.com/analytics/• Qwitter: http://useqwitter.com
Other tools:• Twitter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Twitter_services_and_applications
Contact
John [email protected]://jdupuis.blogspot.comhttp://friendfeed.com/johndupuis http://twitter.com/dupuisj
This presentation: http://tinyurl.com/problogjd Suggested readings: http://delicious.com/jdupuis/problogging License: